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Sexual, physical violence against students leaves much to be done
A string of recent events has focused public attention on sexual and physical violence against students in school, supposedly safe havens for children, with observers noting that there is still much left to be done to address the issue
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span>A string of recent events has focused public attention on sexual and physical violence against students in school, supposedly safe havens for children, with observers noting that there is still much left to be done to address the issue.
The Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) said it had received in the first half of this year nine reports of alleged sexual violence involving elementary school teachers against 32 female and 14 male students across the country.
It also received four reports of similar cases involving junior high school teachers, with the victims being 20 male and four female students. Among them is a case that recently caused public outcry, in which three teachers in Serang regency, Banten, allegedly sexually abused three students in the school area, although they claimed to have been dating the victims, one of whom is now 25 weeks pregnant.
“There have been inadequate efforts to address the issue because the number of cases are not deemed as high as other kinds of violence, but the reported cases can only be the tip of the iceberg. However, it should be noted that there can be many victims in each case. The impacts on the victims are long-lasting,” KPAI commissioner Retno Listyarti said on the sidelines of a discussion on child protection in Jakarta over the weekend.
Retno elaborated during the discussion that the instances of abuse had taken place in classrooms, health units, libraries, computer laboratories, prayer rooms and schoolyards and urged that surveillance be increased at schools through the installation of CCTV cameras.
The offenders varied, Retno said, and included school principals and homeroom and religious teachers, who students and parents were likely to respect and trust. The modus operandi commonly involved threatening students with bad grades, tempting them with money or good grades and offering them additional lessons.
“We shouldn’t stop at arresting the offenders and letting the authorities handle the case. [The Education Agency] should also scrutinize and evaluate the school principals and the schools as to whether there has been [enough] supervision or negligence,” she said.
Retno said children should be encouraged to report any violence they experience through the establishment of reporting mechanisms, such as hotline services. Teachers and parents should also pay attention to changes in students’ behavior, especially when they have failing grades and suddenly become quiet, she pointed out.
The Education and Cultural Ministry’s director for family education development, Sukiman, agreed that parents and the local community around the school should be involved in addressing the issue.
He said families should introduce sex education to children as early as possible to teach them the parts of their bodies that should not be touched by other people, as the subject could be considered off limits for teachers.
“Schools should closely communicate with parents regarding a student’s condition at school. They also shouldn’t be reserved with the community surrounding them, so that residents in the area can help report any irregularities to the schools,” Sukiman said during the discussion.
A 2015 study by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and Plan International surveying about 1,500 students aged between 12 and 17 in Indonesia revealed that 84 percent of them had experienced violence at school. The forms of violence included physical, emotional and sexual violence. Thirty-three percent of them reported that teaching or nonteaching staff had been the perpetrators of the violence against them.
Sixty-six percent of those who experienced violence did not report it to their teachers or parents because of a lack of trust and confidence in the reporting mechanism. They also cited as reasons a fear of being blamed for what happened to them. The lack of action taken by parents could have stemmed from their limited interaction with the school and apprehension about taking on the power of teachers and the school.
