Sang Timur parents demand solution, again

Parents of children attending the Sang Timur Catholic School in Karang Tengah district, Tangerang, on Monday urged Mayor Wahidin Halim to take immediate measures to ensure that their students can study in peace.

Parents' forum chairman Hillon Goa said that all existing access into the school compound have been blocked by local residents.

"We want a guarantee that there'll be no more disturbances ... the administration must find a solution by Dec. 20 or violence might break out," he said.

Wahidin said the administration would assist the school's management in procuring land to build a new road access to the school compound.

"The school has no financial difficulty in buying; what is difficult is persuading locals to sell part of their land," he told reporters after meeting the parents' forum.

Arguing that the school had violated its permit by holding religious services for the local Saint Bernadette parish, local groups built a concrete wall blocking the school's main gate on Oct. 3.

The administration demolished the wall on Oct. 25, but locals continued to ban cars from passing the neighborhood to reach the school, forcing 2,417 students -- including 137 autistic and mentally retarded children -- to walk about 500 meters to reach the school's back door.

Recently, local residents built walls on two alternative access routes into the school.

"Such actions by local residents not only make it difficult for us to go to the school, but it also disrupts learning and teaching activities," Hillon said.

Although the case was being handled by the National Commission on Human Rights and the National Commission for Child Protection, tension was still high in the neighborhood.

Wahidin said that the basic problem between the school and locals was easy to address, and was related to the use of neighborhood streets, "but since it has been mixed up with religious issues, the residents have been provoked and the problem has became more difficult to solve". --JP