Blockade distress Sang Timur's disabled students

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Classes ran according to schedule at private Sang Timur Catholic School in Ciledug, Tangerang, on Monday, but a wall still blocked its main gate, forcing students to enter the compound using the back entrance.

While most children could scale the wall, some autistic and handicapped students walked more than 500 meters through winding alleys and dirt roads to reach the back gate.

Teachers said the experience had been so traumatic and stressful for some of the children that they had given up, and refused to return to school. The school has a total of 2,417 students from kindergarten to junior high school level, including 137 autistic or disabled children.

Sang Timur was chosen as a model for 37 similar schools in Banten to follow.

Sister Sylvia, a staff member at Sang Timur, said on Friday that teachers gladly received students who had been escorted by their parents on foot, or reached the school's back entrance by becak (pedicab) or ojek (motorcycle taxi).

"Many of the disabled students were hysterical. They cried, screamed and stomped their feet all the way," she said.

Sylvia, who teaches the autistic and disabled students, said the students were the ones most affected by the closure, as any change in their routine upset them.

"They may not understand what is going on, but they notice that they have to take a different route to class, and that makes them stressed," she said.

Sylvia said some students -- who had been forced to stay home for a week while the school was closed -- had become depressed.

"Many parents told me that their children nagged them. They desperately wanted to go to school, and they became hysterical when they were told that it was not an option," she said. "Teachers also had to make up for lost time when classes resumed as some of the students' studies had slipped," she said.

Hillon Goa, chairman of the school's parents forum, said other students were affected as well.

"They are back at school, but the atmosphere is hardly conducive to study," he argued, adding that students were no longer convinced by the Pancasila (state ideology) teacher, as lessons on tolerance and religious freedom seemed far removed from reality.

The school has been targeted by youths -- claiming to be members of the Karang Tengah Islamic Communication Forum -- for holding services of another faith. The group erected a two-meter- high wall, blocking the school's main access via the nearby finance ministry housing complex.

The school recently made a back entrance in its eastern side wall and formed a 300-meter dirt road that leads to nearby Jl. Raden Saleh, for the students' convenience.

But, at the back entrance, a large banner has been hung stating that "local residents refuse to give Sang Timur school any access."

The school was closed on Friday to honor the start of Ramadhan. Classes will resume on Monday, but the authorities have given no indication of when the wall will be removed.