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Bogor scrambles to curb student brawls
In response to student brawls plaguing Bogor in West Java, Mayor Bima Arya summoned various officials to a meeting on Monday to figure out ways to prevent future student brawls
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span>In response to student brawls plaguing Bogor in West Java, Mayor Bima Arya summoned various officials to a meeting on Monday to figure out ways to prevent future student brawls.
Bima said the Bogor administration would intensify the 24-hour patrols within the city to anticipate and prevent student brawls.
“We are talking about a big agenda. We don’t want our children to become criminals, but to become leaders. We will make sure that there are no children loitering around, we will disperse crowds of students, and I have tasked the [city’s] senior officials with assisting the police,” Bima said on Monday.
In January 2020 alone three student brawls occurred in Bogor. The first one was at 1 a.m. on Jan. 21 in Cimahpar subdistrict, North Bogor district, in which a student identified only as WA, 18, received slash wounds to his wrists.
Another brawl occurred at 10:30 p.m. on Jan. 24, on Jl. Baru, North Bogor district, in which one person received stab wounds to his back and waist. Then another brawl occurred early on Saturday on Jl. RE Martadinata, North Bogor district, in which a student identified as DA, 17, was found dead.
Bima said the brawls occurred late at night, not immediately after school hours, and that some school alumni were also involved in them.
“School alumni involvement [in brawls] has become a tradition. We must stop this,” Bima said.
Bogor City Police chief. Sr. Comr. Hendri Fiuser said the police had arrested nine suspects involved in the brawl in Cimahpar and seven suspects involved in the brawl on Jl. RE Martadinata.
“This is no longer about the arrests, but [to figure out] the background on how these kids can become so violent. We will do patrols to anticipate brawls,” Hendri said.
Hendri also suggested that schools keep a close eye on students that were known to participate in brawls, such as by supervising their social media, as the brawlers used social media to organize their activities.
Hendri said the brawls were usually brief, no longer than 15 minutes, ending after someone gets injured.
Bogor Education Board head Deddy Karyadi said all schools whose students were involved in brawls should be reprimanded by preventing them from receiving new students, and instead should divert their focus on their existing students.
Bogor City Vocational High School Headmaster Working Discussion (MKKS) head Mulya Mulpri said that with 102 vocational schools in Bogor, there were only 30 members of the working group that supervised brawl hot spots. However, the working group was overwhelmed as the brawls usually occurred at night.
“We are tired of this state of affairs,” the MKKS head said.
Mulya suggests that the schools be more strict when receiving student transfers and should investigate whether the transferred students had been involved in brawls. If they did have track record of being involved in a brawl, Mulya suggested schools do not accept them.
He said student brawls were no longer based on school pride, but rather pride in their hangout place such as Cimahpar.
