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Woes mount at JIS with 20 teachers due to be deported

As the police investigation into the child-abuse case at Jakarta International School (JIS) continues, 20 teachers at the school will be deported from Indonesia next month due to immigration violations

Yuliasri Perdani (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, June 5, 2014

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Woes mount at JIS with 20 teachers due to be deported

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s the police investigation into the child-abuse case at Jakarta International School (JIS) continues, 20 teachers at the school will be deported from Indonesia next month due to immigration violations.

Bambang Permadi, the supervision and enforcement division head of the South Jakarta immigration office, explained that 20 staff members had temporary stay permits (Kitas) as middle-school teachers, but they were instead teaching at kindergarten and elementary-school levels.

He said the teachers had violated immigration rules because they had falsified their job descriptions on their Kitas documents.

'€œThe deportations will be carried out at the end of the semester, which falls on June 6,'€ he said on Wednesday in Jakarta.

The teachers hail from the US, Canada, Australia, Singapore and Taiwan.

The immigration office had initially intended to conduct the deportations two weeks ago but decided to delay them so that JIS students could complete their studies this semester without disruption.

The office began investigating the violations after 26 JIS teachers filed requests to extend their stay permits.

Of the remaining six teachers, the office is still studying the immigration data of five and has declared one teacher to be free from immigration problems.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said that for now the deportations would not hamper their investigation into the rape case involving a JIS kindergarten student and five janitors.

'€œHowever, it would have an impact on the investigation if one of those deported was later named as a suspect. The police, with the help of Interpol, would then need time to seek the suspect,'€ he said in a text message on Wednesday.

Aside from the rape case, the police are investigating two other child-abuse cases at JIS.

The families of the two victims initially reported the cases to the National Police, which later decided to hand over the cases to the Jakarta Police.

According to Tempo, the third victim, a foreign national, identified the molesters as two members of the teaching staff. The police did not confirm this report.

JIS, which provides education services from early-childhood to high-school level, currently has 2,600 students from 63 different countries.

Following the revelation of the first child-abuse case, the Education and Culture Ministry found that the JIS kindergarten did not have a license, thus its operation must cease by the end of this academic year.

On April, the school was shaken by a report from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) naming former JIS teacher William James Vahey as a pedophile suspect.

Vahey, who has since committed suicide, worked as a teacher at various private schools in a number of countries for four decades, including at JIS from 1992 to 2002.

The National Police and the FBI are cooperating to identity possible victims of Vahey in Indonesia. No developments in the investigation have been reported.

Last month, the education ministry replaced the director general of non-formal and informal early childhood education (PAUDNI), Lydia Freyani Hawadi.

The reason for her removal is believed to be connected to her recent allegations that a senior member of the JIS teaching staff, whom she named, was a pedophile.

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