T

he parents of the three kindergarten students who were allegedly sexually assaulted at the Jakarta International School (JIS) have accused the school of covering up systematic child sexual abuse on its premises.

'€œWe are grateful that two of the teachers have been arrested as suspects, but there are so many facts that point toward the involvement of more staff. Have you seen JIS'€™ security? It would have been impossible for our sons to be abused without anyone knowing about it,'€ DR, the mother of one of the victims, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

The cases first came to light when the mother of the first victim, TP, filed a police report on April 14 after finding bruises on her child'€™s stomach and anus in March.

Six suspects, Agun Iskandar, Virgiawan Amin, Zainal Abidin, Syahrial, Afrischa Setyani and Azwar, who were ISS outsourced cleaners at the school, were detained. However, Azwar died in police custody in April while being held at the Women and Children'€™s Unit. The first hearings in the trials of the remaining five suspects took place last week, when they were indicted for gang rape.

Meanwhile, two JIS teachers, Canadian Neil Bantleman and Indonesian Ferdinant Tjiong, were also named suspects and detained by the Jakarta Police in July for allegedly sexually abusing three kindergarten pupils.

'€œIf you don'€™t believe us [that many of the school'€™s employees were part of a sexual-abuse syndicate] then believe our sons. Children don'€™t lie. My son told me that a number of other students were also sexually abused as punishment by the teachers, not just Neil and Ferdinant,'€ DR said.

Samuel Partogi, the lawyer for the parents of the third victim, told reporters that the parents believed that JIS was covering up for more employees, as their child had told them that he was also abused by several security guards and other teachers.

The parents said it was not their intention to have JIS closed down or to defame it, but they wanted the school to remain neutral. Furthermore, they emphasized that they were not after money.

'€œYes, I filed a lawsuit for US$124 million to cover the physical and psychological pain my son went through. But the school has also filed a countersuit for defamation, amounting to Rp 1.4 trillion [US$119 million], if it turns out that the ISS cleaners are innocent,'€ TP said.

DR added that JIS staffers had also filed a lawsuit against her in Singapore for defamation. '€œI don'€™t understand why they had to file the lawsuit in Singapore. Is it to stop me from testifying [in Bantleman and Ferdinant'€™s trial]? I am asking this because if the lawsuit against me is successful, the Singaporean authorities can confiscate my passport and I won'€™t be able to travel to Indonesia to testify.'€

TP also responded to claims that the students could not have been abused in the teachers'€™ lounge due to the room being enclosed by floor to ceiling glass windows, by arguing that the windows had only recently been installed after the allegations of sexual abuse were first reported. (fss)