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asro Marbun, head of the Jakarta Education Agency, said the principal and deputy principal for student affairs of SMA 3 public high school had been demoted for neglect that led to the death of two junior-year students.

'€œI have signed the decree today. As of now, their new positions are as teachers at SMA 87 public high school,'€ Lasro told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

According to Lasro, the ranking of principal or deputy principal were only additional ranks for teachers, and they had to be prepared to relinquish those titles if asked to do so.

He added that the recent case, in which the two students died following a school-arranged mountaineering trip, proved that former SMA 3 principal Ni Ketut Diah Chaerani and deputy principal for student affairs La Ode Makbudu had failed to provide adequate supervision.

'€œI consider that they failed in their supervisory duties and, instead, trusted incompetent people to monitor the outdoor activity. Overall, the school'€™s management was lacking,'€ he said.

Lasro said he would also distribute a circular to all school principals in Jakarta instructing them to cancel all physical activities that could endanger the safety of students, including mountaineering clubs.

The agency head said he was also instructing schools to not recklessly allow outsiders, including alumni, to participate in school activities. '€œIf we find any school principal who allows outsiders to participate in any activities endangering student safety, we will dismiss them,'€ he said.

He said the agency would also be collaborating with the city'€™s chapter of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) and the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) to conduct lessons on humanitarianism and human rights in schools.

Arfiand Caesar Al Irhami, a 10th-grade student, died on June 21 at the Metropolitan Medical Center (MMC) in South Jakarta, following an eight-day outing to the Tangkuban Perahu area of West Java, which was organized by the school'€™s mountaineering club.

Doctors at the hospital reportedly found bruises on Arfiand'€™s body and urged his family to inform the police.

Two weeks later, another of the school'€™s 10th-grade students, Padian Prawiro Dirya, who had also been on the mountaineering trip, died after being treated at the Hasan Sadikin Hospital in Bandung, West Java.

Meanwhile, Makbudu said he had yet to receive a demotion letter from the Education Agency, adding that he was ready to fight any arbitrary decision.

'€œOn the day the students departed for Tangkuban Perahu, I was off on official duty. I did not know about the trip,'€ he said.

He also said that Lasro could not just demote him from his position because after the incident occurred, the school had cooperated with the authorities and suspended all the school'€™s mountaineering activities.

'€œWhat does he want from me? I have devoted myself to education for 29 years. Even though he is my supervisor, he shouldn'€™t treat me like this,'€ he said.

Five 11th graders have been named suspects in the students'€™ deaths and are being detained at Salemba prison in Central Jakarta and Pondok Bambu prison in East Jakarta. Three of the five suspects had previously been reported to the police several months before for abusing fellow students.

Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said recently that the suspects had claimed that such rough behavior was a school tradition aimed at '€œtoughening up'€ new members of the mountaineering club. They maintained they did not realize that what they were doing to their juniors was abuse. (idb)