Coitus common among students: Study
JAKARTA (JP): A study of 558 high-school students reveals that sex among classmates after watching pornographic videos has become common practice among some Jakarta students.
Speaking in a one-day seminar on juvenile delinquency here yesterday, Heru Prasadja, from the Catholic-based Atmajaya University, quoted the data from the study as saying that the consumption of drugs and alcoholic beverages has also been quite popular among students at both junior and senior high schools in the city.
The study was conducted over four months by undercover agents of the National Police Headquarters and the university. The study surveyed those 558 high school students that have recorded the highest number of student delinquency cases over the past few months.
"We just learned of this during the in-depth interviews with the students in the study," Heru told The Jakarta Post during a break at the seminar.
According to the students, they normally have sexual intercourse with their schoolmates just after watching porn videos, said Heru, who is also head of the study project.
"Some of them admitted that they did it after reaching a mutual agreement," he told the seminar held at the university.
Without giving detailed figures, Heru believed that the study showed that the number of occurrences has reached critical levels in many junior and senior high schools in the city.
The Indonesian government strictly bans the distribution of porn videos and laser discs although some video rental outlets are still offering them to their customers.
City Police, for example, have confiscated hundreds of porn videos and LDs along with high-grade alcohol and drugs in a series of raids over the past few years.
Complicated
When asked to comment on the unexpected findings of the study, former chief of the Central Jakarta police precinct Lt. Col. Dadang Garnida, who has been handling juvenile delinquents for years, replied: "The problems of the students are very complicated."
"Everyone in their surroundings has to help resolve the problems that have led the students down the wrong path," said Dadang, who is now head of the Palembang city police in South Sumatra.
Dadang was one of 300 participants, including high school students, attending yesterday's seminar, which was opened by rector of the Atmajaya University Mrs. Mariana Setiadarma. Other speakers included Col. I Wayan Sutayana from the Police High School (PTIK) and psychologist Irwanto from Atmajaya University.
Most speakers blamed the parents and the students' surroundings and the bad attitudes of their friends as the main factors stimulating teenagers to do such things.
The study also revealed that out of the 558 student respondents, 44.7 percent admitted to having been involved in student brawls, 18 percent have carried sharp weapons and 22 percent have wounded other people.
Most of them also confessed to having scrawled graffiti over many location in the city.
According to data available in the seminar, eight students have dead, seven have been injured and 111 have been arrested in the 59 brawls recorded last year. The clashes damaged at least 390 city buses.
The data also showed that student brawls took place mostly between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. and during the first and second months of the school year.
More than 85 percent of the schools whose students were involved in the brawls were those from the privately-owned senior high schools, especially vocational schools.
On each raid, police usually confiscated a wide range of contraceptive devices, porn magazines and videos, bottles of spirits, cigarettes and large numbers of weapons and tools from the students' schoolbags. They also seized other weapons like screwdrivers, stones, knives and sizable nails. (bsr)