Deadly Student Fightings in Jakarta

On Monday 24 September, two groups of students from two neighboring high schools in South Jakarta, i.e. SMA 6 and SMA 70, fought against each other using knives and other sharp weapons, causing the death of a student of SMA 6, Alawy Yusianto Putra.

Two days later on Wednesday 26 September, two other groups of high school students i.e. SMA Yayasan Karya 66 and SMK Kartika Zeni in Manggarai, South Jakarta, causing the death of Deni Yanuar of SMA YK 66.

On the same day, Susilo, a student of SMK Mahardika, East Jakarta, was stabbed by two students of another high school, luckily he was able to be brought to the hospital on time so his life has been saved.

The above three fighting were parts of many decades of fighting among students of high schools in Jakarta that seemingly cannot be prevented by the schools' management, students' parents and the Police.

In this connection I would like to quote an interesting opinion of blogger Unspun as follows :

School violence has been around in Jakarta for the better part of at least the past 25 years. Each time there is an intensifying of violence, the Government and others make the appropriate concerned voices and vow to put it to an end.
Then the problem ebbs from the headlines and everyone forgets about it…until the next spate of violence. This is a big pity because the ways of combating the violence have been discovered and even applied to at least one school. The solution is there but it’s all forgotten.

Considering that the student fighting is getting more deadly and regular every day, I hope that the government, the school management and parents of students would be more serious in finding ways to end such fighting.

Bullying of Students in Jakarta

One of the hottest topics in the Indonesian mass media today is the story about the alleged bullying of four new students of the Don Bosco Senior High School in South Jakarta, by 18 of their senior students.

According to The Jakarta Globe, the Jakarta Police have questioned nine of the senior students, seven of which have been named as Suspects.

The Spokesman of the Jakarta Police Sr Comm Rikwanto was quoted as saying that the Police will determine whether to place those students in a detention center or let them stay free but must report regularly to the Police.

He further stated that the bullying was done outside the school compound and after the school's new students orientation program i.e on 24 July 2012.

Meanwhile, the Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said that the school would not be sanctioned if the bullying was not done at the school.

I hope that this alleged bullying case would be processed very soon, in this case the students' young ages and the fact that this is the first time they bullied should be taken into consideration.
I also hope that all schools would adopt a strict anti-bullying policy which punish any students who bullied fellow students by ousting them from the school.

Nevertheless, I am very surprised at the very high profile reporting of this alleged bullying case, considering that high school students in Jakarta have been fighting among themselves in the streets quite often for so many years, and until now the authority still can't prevent them, and news reporters do not seem to be interested to write about them.

School Students Vs Reporters

Last Friday, some students of State High School No.6 in Kebayoran, South Jakarta, attacked a cameraman of TranTV i.e. Oktaviardi, and took his video cassette, when he was taking pictures of a fighting between students of said High School and neighboring State High School No. 70.

Tempointeraktif reported that on Monday angry reporters from various news media came to High School No.6 to look for the students who attacked Oktaviardi. After they found the student, they beat him badly.

After they know about the reporters' attack, hundreds of other students came to rescue their badly beaten friend, and fought back the reporters.

The Police tried to stop the fight by shooting their guns three times to the air but failed, because their they were outnumbered.

So the reporters ran away to nearby headquarters of the National Police.

According to Kompas six reporters were injured, i.e. Panca Syaukani from Media Indonesia, Yudistiro Pranoto from Seputar Indonesia, Aldi Gultom from Rakyat Merdeka, Wahyu from Elshinta Radio, Anton from MetroTV and Ardhi from Kompas.

This is a very shameful incident which would not have happened if the High School management and the students' parents could control those students, and the Police could prevent the reporters from hanging around the school.