T

he mother of a 6-year-old boy who was allegedly raped at Jakarta International School (JIS) went with a lawyer on Tuesday to the Witness and Victims Protection Agency (LPSK) in Menteng, Central Jakarta, to request witness protection.

Lawyer Andi M. Asrun said the victim'€™s father had recently received an '€œuncomfortable'€ text message sent by an anonymous number to his personal cell phone, allegedly warning the family not to speak out about JIS.

'€œThis text message was received around one week ago. It has made the family very concerned,'€ Andi told The Jakarta Post.

He said the message disturbed the family enough to drive them to seek LPSK protection.

He added that the family was required to submit the victim'€™s medical records as well as a description of the victim'€™s psychological condition to the LPSK.

LPSK deputy head Edwin Partogi Pasaribu said that while he had accepted the family'€™s request, his office could only put in place protection measures after consulting with the police and the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI), which could take up to a week.

'€œWitness protection is given according to the severity of the perceived threats. If we see that their case for protection is not strong enough, we may not fulfill their request,'€ Edwin said.

He added that a statement from JIS would also be required to approve the witness protection request.

Meanwhile, the Education and Culture Ministry through its informal, non-formal and early childhood education (Paudni) directorate general will scrutinize other international schools that offer early childhood education to see whether they fulfilled licensing requirements.

'€œWe will track, watch and monitor other existing international kindergartens. We believe there are many others that do not have licenses. We will have to close schools with no licenses and investigate them,'€ Paudni director general Lydia Freyani Hawadi said at the ministry on Tuesday.

Earlier on Monday, the directorate general sent an official letter to JIS, ordering the closure of the school'€™s kindergarten because it had been running without a license since 1993. The violation was found during an investigation of the school following the emergence of the rape allegations.

Lydia said kindergarten students for the 2013-2014 academic year were allowed to finish out the school year, but that the kindergarten was prohibited from receiving transferred new or transfer students.

The family, through lawyer OC Kaligis, has filed a lawsuit against JIS and the ministry, suing the former for US$12 million for negligence and the latter for letting the school'€™s kindergarten operate without a license.

Meanwhile, Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo has alerted his subordinates to improve monitoring related to school permits in the capital.

'€œI have called on the Education Agency head to intensify monitoring of educational institutions as well as of students. The case in JIS could also occur in other places,'€ he said.

Lydia said the ministry would continue its investigation at JIS to see whether it complied with the requirements to hold early childhood education programs, including hiring teachers with bachelor'€™s degrees or early childhood education training.

'€œWe are afraid that [teachers] are sometimes only foreign tourists with English proficiency. We are protecting Indonesian children who study in the school. We want them to not only to master foreign languages, but also to have Indonesian [civic education],'€ she said.

JIS head of school Timothy Carr confirmed in a press conference on Tuesday that the Education and Culture Ministry had decided to shut down the school'€™s early childhood program.

'€œThe ministry told us that our current students might finish this school year, so they could continue going to school until June,'€ he said.

Carr said that JIS respected the ministry'€™s decision and would strive to cooperate fully and comply with the requirements needed to reopen the school.

'€œWe hoped that we would be able to keep this school open, but that would be the decision of the ministry,'€ he said. (dyl/ask)