Principals 'responsible' for student brawls

Principals 'responsible' for student brawls

JAKARTA (JP): A city councilor has underlined the importance
of sacking a school principal if any student of the school he
supervises dies in a street brawl. This is in a bid to reduce the
number of such fatalities.

"The school principal is the one entrusted by the community
with their children's safety. If he or she is unable to ensure
that safety, what's the use of that principal then?" Nitra
Arsyad, a member of Commission E for social affairs, said on
Tuesday.

Nitra told The Jakarta Post that a principal was in charge of
student security for up to a one-kilometer radius from the school
complex.

"If a particular number of students dies in brawls occurring
in that area in a given time, then he should be removed."

"There should be no exceptions. It's better to see children's
faces in the police stations than in the morgues."

Nitra made the remarks in response to the fact that at least
five students have been killed and 30 others have suffered
injuries in 25 student brawls recorded in this year's first two
months.

According to Raya Siahaan of the city's Social Disturbance
Control Center, this was an alarming figure considering that only
14 were killed in the whole of last year.

"Five killed in two months is just too much. Stern measures
must be taken and fast to prevent such deaths," Raya said.

Bahar Laut, head of the public order subdivision of the city's
social and political affairs directorate, said on Wednesday that
Nitra's idea was good, but it would be too complex to implement.

"Sacking a school principal is not only humiliating, but also
takes away the one thing the principal is considered good at
... caring for the school," Bahar said.

Bahar said that a better proposal would be to expel a student
found provoking his or her colleagues to fight on the streets or
on buses.

"If a student is caught three times initiating brawls, expel
him or her, even if the student has a brilliant academic record.
But the principal should also get a strict reprimand from the
school's board members," Bahar said.

Bahar explained that once a principal received a reprimand, he
or she would be on their guard.

"After the third reprimand, the principal should be demoted
to, for instance, the level of a teacher or a teacher's
assistant, depending on the seriousness of the last brawl that
occurred."

Bahar added that every principal of a private or state-run
school should order their teachers to make monthly "behavioral
report cards," recording, among other things, recalcitrant
students, their behavior and the way teachers are handling them.

"This system should apply from elementary school to university
level," said Bahar, head of a communication forum for Jakarta
students under the umbrella of the directorate.

"Each student should have a report card from the school about
his or her attitudes towards studying, friends, cutting class and
other matters," Bahar said.

Bahar said that with this system, a junior high school, for
instance, would have a clear idea of the kind of student they
would be taking in and how to deal with them.

"A student could be naughty but highly intelligent. Those
behavioral report cards would serve as guide-books for teachers
handling students," he said.

When asked about the participation of parents' in controlling
their children's behavior, Bahar said that it was the job of
teachers to make parents aware that if they were unable to
control their children, then the latter would face expulsion.

"That will keep parents on their toes. They know that they pay
big money to get their children schooled... parents will
themselves take some assertive action," Bahar said. (ylt)