T

he allegations of sexual assault at the Jakarta International School (JIS) have entered a new chapter with another parent of a kindergarten pupil filing a police report, this time against a teacher at the prestigious South Jakarta school.

'€œWe have received a new report from [the parent of] a kindergarten student at JIS. The boy has alleged that a teacher molested him,'€ Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said on Friday.

Rikwanto added that due to the emergence of the new case which had implicated a teacher, the Jakarta Police had asked the immigration office to postpone the deportation of 20 JIS teachers to assist the investigation process.

'€œIn response to the police report, we sent a letter to the immigration office and asked them to delay the deportations. We hope the teachers can provide pertinent information on the case before they go home,'€ Rikwanto said.

The Law and Human Rights Ministry'€™s immigration directorate general confirmed that it had postponed the deportations of two JIS teachers in relation to an investigation conducted by the Jakarta Police.

'€œThe Jakarta Police sent a letter requesting us to delay their deportations because the police need them in relation to a case investigation,'€ immigration spokesman, Yan Wely Wiguna, said over the phone on Friday, while declining to reveal the teachers'€™ identities.

The two individuals are among the 20 JIS teachers who are due to be deported due to immigration violations.

An investigation by the South Jakarta immigration office found that the JIS teaching staff had falsified data on their temporary stay permit documents, by stating that they worked as middle-school teachers. They were, in fact, teaching at kindergarten and elementary-school levels.

'€œWe plan to deport the remaining 18 teachers gradually from today until June 20. They are from the US, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Taiwan, South Africa, Singapore, England and India,'€ Wely said.

He added that the 20 teachers might be allowed to re-enter the country in the future given the fact that they had committed only minor immigration transgressions.

Aside from the 20 teachers due to be deported, the South Jakarta immigration office is still investigating five other JIS staff members with regard to alleged immigration violations.

With the new police report, filed in the early hours of Wednesday, the Jakarta Police have now received a total of three reports of alleged sexual assault at the international school'€™s kindergarten.

The first case came to light after the mother of a 6-year-old kindergarten pupil filed a report about an alleged rape at JIS in March.

On May 24 the National Police received a second report of a sexual assault on another kindergarten pupil, at the same school. The case was delegated to the Jakarta Police four days later.

The police have so far named six suspects, all employees of a cleaning firm at the school, in relation to the first report. One of the suspects subsequently committed suicide while in police custody.

According to the police, the suspects have admitted to sexually assaulting the child five times in groups of three or four.

Erlinda, secretary for the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI), said that her commission hoped that the teachers would be able to provide information to help the police resolve the case.

She added that with the report from the new victim, the police needed to investigate further into the alleged abuse at the school, as the purported perpetrator in the new case was not a member of the janitorial staff.

'€œThe [alleged] molester is not a cleaner and the latest victim attended a different class from that of the previous two victims. The case is now wider than ever,'€ Erlinda said. (idb)