Teachers try to keep paint

Teachers try to keep paint
out of blackboard jungle

JAKARTA (JP): For the second time in less than a week, school
uniforms covered with ink and paint were visible on the streets
of Jakarta when junior high schools (SMP) throughout the city
announced the results of final exams yesterday.

The announcement was greeted with euphoria by the young
teenage graduates who proceeded to perform the customary
scrawling on school uniforms.

The number of junior high school graduates in the city reached
over 135,000, the bulk of whom will continue on to various high
schools (SMA).

Though, in general, the graduation atmosphere went smoothly,
an act of vandalism marred the day at one junior high school.

Students at state junior high school (SMPN) 19 in Kebayoran
Baru, South Jakarta, exhibited their joy in a more destructive
manner by painting buses with graffiti.

This type of incident had actually been anticipated by the
teachers at SMPN 19 who, prior to the announcement, gathered all
the students inside the school and confiscated marking pens and
spray paints.

Much to the chagrin of their teachers, the criminally
industrious students had prepared a contingency plan to obtain
paint and used it to randomly spray passing public
transportation.

Fortunately there were no similar reports from other schools.

Other schools avoided the "graffiti incidents" by taking
alternative measures to the graduation announcement.

As reported by Antara, SMPN 216 in Central Jakarta sent the
graduation announcements by post to each student's home thus
avoiding any outburst of joy that might lead to vandalism.

SMP "17 Augustus 1945," a private school in South Jakarta,
deterred an unpleasant scene by instructing their students to
wear traditional ethnic costumes on graduation day.

"The costumes not only dodges the usual scrawling of uniforms
but more importantly it installs a sense of nationalism,"
headmaster Dyani Pitoyo said. (mds)