Frightening student brawls

Frightening student brawls

From Neraca

Last Friday I witnessed two (high school) student brawls. One
was in the afternoon on Jl. Kramat Raya and another in the early
evening on Jl. Pasar Minggu.

The brawls caused huge traffic jams. City buses were even
afraid to continue their journeys out of fear of having their
windows smashed.

Bus crews are naturally cautious in such situations because
students on buses often taunt their foes on the street, who
resort to stone-throwing in response. More often than not the
stones injure passengers.

I would ask education institutes to look into the matter.
Reliance on the police to handle student brawls is not
sufficient. The police sometimes shave the heads of the culprits
but this makes the students even prouder of their feats (although
in fact they are cowards because they only dare to fight in
gangs).

I would like to suggest to the schools that they dismiss
students who have participated in brawls. A probe into the brawls
would show that only a few students are the prime movers.

Enmity between certain secondary schools has been going on for
years. If the likely culprits are known, brawls could be
anticipated. A friendly meeting could be organized between the
contenders. Once they know each other more closely, brawls would
hopefully not erupt again.

ROFI'L

Jakarta