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ozens of teachers and middle school and high school students attended a sexual abuse prevention workshop held by the Jakarta Police at their headquarters in South Jakarta on Thursday.

The workshop was conducted in response to recent cases of sexual abuse occurring at school, allegedly perpetrated by school employees.

During the seven-hour workshop, the teachers and students were divided into groups and engaged in discussions with police officials, Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) commissioners and officials from the government-run Community Service Center for the Protection of Women and Children (P2TP2A).

Each group discussed various scenarios and solutions in a sexual abuse case. The purpose of the discussion was to help students understand how to protect themselves from sexual abuse and for teachers to help prevent abuse and handle such cases at school.

The participants underlined the importance of sex education and the role of a child'€™s environment, which included family, friends, teachers, neighbors and even the media, in their development.

One student who participated in the discussion, 10th-grader Yosephine, said she felt enlightened by the workshop.

'€œIt'€™s important for all students to understand sexual abuse and to always be aware, even of those closest to them,'€ she said.

Yosephine, a student at public school SMAN 1 in Central Jakarta, said she would pass on what she learned in the workshop to her friends at school.

Meanwhile, another participant, 10th-grader Ahmad Dzaky Arrosyah, said the country'€™s curriculum system was still missing one important subject: Sex education.

'€œThe only subject close to sex education is biology and that doesn'€™t really teach us everything we need to know about sex,'€ he said.

Dzaky, a student at public school SMAN 39 in East Jakarta, said sex education was an important subject that students his age should understand. '€œThere'€™s only so much a teacher can teach students about sex. Students should be taught by experts so they receive the right information,'€ he said.

Dzaky'€™s teacher, Sutanto, said students must receive proper sex education.

'€œIt'€™s not only learning about the organs but also learning about what'€™s wrong and what'€™s right, learning about what they should and shouldn'€™t do, about what should and shouldn'€™t be done to them,'€ he said.

Sutanto, a history teacher, said most sexual abuse cases were completely ignored because victims did not understand they were being abused. Children and teenagers still had limited knowledge on sex, he said, therefore, it was part of the school'€™s job to teach them.

'€œThey can'€™t defend themselves if they don'€™t know they'€™re being abused. I think one of the most basic solutions is to raise students'€™ awareness of sex to help them defend themselves,'€ said the 51-year-old.

Sutanto added the police should tour schools across Jakarta to conduct the workshop. '€œThe workshop is very useful. All teachers and students must participate in it.'€

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said the police had no plans yet to tour schools but would conduct several more similar workshops at their headquarters.

To curb child sex abuse and violence among students in Jakarta, the police plan to conduct workshops for teachers and students to raise awareness on sexual abuse and juvenile violence, and to revive their program, Polisi Sahabat Anak, roughly translated as Police are Children'€™s Friends. (dwa)