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oncerns over students’ safety and their exposure to drugs were raised after narcotics were found in a West Jakarta school classroom.

Comprising several buildings, the campus caters to elementary and junior high school students under the Pondok Pesantren Al-Kamal Foundation, as well as kindergarten and high school students under the Amalan Al-Kamal Foundation.

The exact building in which the drugs were found had been used by the latter since 2013.

“We are still looking into whether the drugs have been distributed around the school [among students],” Kembangan Police chief Comr. Joko Handoko told reporters on Friday.

The Kembangan Police found 355.56 grams of sabu-sabu (crystal methamphetamine) and 7,910 pills of grade-four psychotropic drugs on the private, Islam-based school compound of Al-Kamal in Kembangan district, West Jakarta, on Jan. 10.

Three people have been arrested in the case and are believed to be drug dealers who are part of a drug network. Two of the suspects, DL and CP, were school staffers who had been living in the building along with their parents, who also worked at the school.

Jakarta Council Speaker Prasetyo Edi Marsudi expressed his concerns over the case, saying that he would meet with the Jakarta Education Agency to discuss the matter and its repercussions.

“We will discuss with the Education Agency whether there will be sanctions imposed on the school. If drugs have entered schools, what will become of this country?” said the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician.

Separately, the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) called the unprecedented case a “threat to the Indonesian youth” if stern action was not taken by the police, as drug dealers might start considering school buildings as a safe haven to store their narcotics.

As drug deals may have have taken place around the school, the KPAI also urged the Jakarta Education Agency to work alongside the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) to run drug tests on students, teachers, staff and foundation members.

A 2016 study conducted by the BNN in coordination with the University of Indonesia’s Health Research Center found that 27.32 percent of drug users in the country were students and university students. Jakarta also placed first in the prevalence of students who have consumed drugs in the past year.

“Stern action is needed to protect our children from the dangers of drugs. Schools should be a place where there are no cigarettes, drugs and alcoholic drinks,” KPAI commissioner Retno Listyanti said in a written statement.

To better protect the students, the KPAI urged the Education Agency to impose sanctions on the school and its foundation, starting from administrative sanctions to the revocation of their operational permit.

Jakarta Education Agency acting head Bowo Irianto previously said the agency had yet to find any regulations that delivered punishments in such cases, although the school might have to deal with social and administrative sanctions.

“We are still reviewing [the regulations],” Bowo said at the Al-Akmal school compound on Friday.

The agency has worked alongside the BNN to run drug tests in at least 30 schools in the city, he added.

“The National Narcotics Agency has conducted drug tests and we have received the report. The results are relatively good; one or two people tested positive […] We will continue to work with the BNN,” Bowo said, adding that no such tests had been conducted at Al-Kamal schools.

According to Burhanuddin, head of the Pondok Pesantren Al-Kamal Foundation that operates the school, several parents of elementary and junior high school students had wanted to withdraw their children following the news.

The parents were concerned because the building in which the drugs were found is located within a short walking distance from their children’s classrooms, he said.

However, he brushed off any criticism, saying that the authorities should have been more aware of drug cases and dealers, not the school. (ars)