Ex JIS teacher is an international child predator: WILLIAM JAMES VAHEY

Source: http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/seeking-info/willliam-james-vahey

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is seeking the public’s assistance to identify alleged victims of a suspected international child predator. William James Vahey, a 64-year-old U.S. citizen, was a suspect in an international sex crimes investigation who committed suicide on March 21, 2014. His alleged victims were American and international students enrolled in private schools abroad where Vahey taught, beginning in 1972.

A USB thumb drive belonging to Vahey and provided to the FBI revealed pornographic images of minor males, approximately 12 to 14 years old, who appeared to be asleep or unconscious. The images were captioned with locations and dates that referenced places Vahey had previously traveled with students. When Vahey was confronted about the images, he reportedly admitted molesting boys throughout his entire life and said he gave the minors sleeping pills prior to the molestation.

FBI agents have reviewed photographs dating back to 2008 that depict at least 90 alleged victims. The FBI is seeking to notify individuals of the ongoing investigation and encourage additional alleged victims to come forward.

Vahey, who maintained residences in London and Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, traveled extensively and internationally during the past four decades, working as a middle school and high school teacher at several American international schools in at least nine different countries. He taught history, geography, and social studies, and also coached junior varsity and basketball teams for boys. He regularly accompanied students on overnight field trips.

Between 1972 and 2014, Vahey was employed at the following schools:
American Nicaraguan School, Managua, Nicaragua: 2013 until March 2014;
Southbank International School, London, United Kingdom: 2009-2013;
Escuela Campo Alegre, Caracas, Venezuela: 2002-2009;
Jakarta International School, Jakarta, Indonesia: 1992-2002;
Saudi Aramco Schools, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia: 1980-1992;
American Community School, Athens, Greece: 1978-1980;
Passargad School, Ahwaz, Iran: 1976-1978;
American School of Madrid, Madrid, Spain: 1975-1976;
American Community School of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon: 1973-1975;
Tehran American School, Tehran, Iran: 1972-1973.

If you have information about the ongoing investigation regarding William James Vahey, or believe you may have been victimized by him, please complete our confidential questionnaire or submit a confidential email to:HOvictimassistance@ic.fbi.gov. You can also contact your local FBI office or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate.

JIS Jakarta International School: Parents Urged by Police to Check on Their Children

Copy + paste from: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/jakarta/jakarta-international-school-parents-urged-police-check-children/

Jakarta. Jakarta Police called on parents of students at Jakarta International School to check the physical and psychological condition of their children in the wake of a sexual assault against one of the students allegedly committed by a number of the school’s janitors.

“We are calling on the students’ parents to check the condition of their children who study in that school. Have they been acting strangely, or are they still the same?” said Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto on Wednesday.

Rikwanto urged parents to report anything strange with their children to the police immediately, adding that they didn’t have to come to the police office if they didn’t want to, because the police were ready to come to them.

Every large police station has specially trained officers staffing Women and Children’s Units, where they aim to handle sexual assault cases with sensitivity.

Rikwanto said that investigators were looking into the possibility that there could be more victims at Jakarta International School (JIS).

Investigators have questioned nine witnesses, including teachers, security officers, nannies and outsourced employees.

“The questions were related to who were working there and whether they were screened for diseases or if they underwent any psychological tests, and more. Schools should not be hesitant to check on the backgrounds and the psychological condition of their employees,” he said.

Aside from school employees, investigators have also questioned people from ISS, an outsourcing company that provides cleaning service staff for the school.

“Dewi from the outsourcing company ISS, which works with the school to send cleaning service staffers, has been questioned. She’s been cooperative so far. They also submitted photos of the workers and they are being examined. The outsourcing employees are all registered,” he said.

Responding to a question on whether such an incident has ever happened at the school before, Rikwanto said that this was the first incident.

Rikwanto said that the number of sexual assault cases against children has remained relatively the same in terms of quantity, but has taken on an alarming degree of severity.

Rikwanto said that only two people have been named as suspects in the case but investigators suspected three more people.

“Two have been named as suspects. One woman has not been proven [to be involved], and we still suspect two others,” he said.

Previously Rikwanto said that three people, including a woman, had been named as suspects in the case, but it turned out the police did not have sufficient evidence to name the woman as a suspect.

Rikwanto said that the two suspects had been questioned and had undertaken forensic lab tests.

“The lab test has been conducted, but there is no criminal indication yet,” said Rikwanto, without elaborating on the nature of tests in use.

Rikwanto said that while the victim had identified both men, investigators still needed to prove they committed the alleged assault.

“The victim knows them, but we still need to ensure that these two people really touched the victim,” he said.

Investigators have also coordinated with the Indonesian Commission for Protection of Children (KPAI) to give the boy counseling and help him recover both physically and psychologically.

Statement from JIS

Tim Carr, principal of the kindergarten at the Jakarta International School, told reporters that he was saddened by the incident and that the school would cooperate with authorities.

“We will continue to cooperate closely with the National Education Ministry, the police and other government institutions to find the best solution. Our main focus has been and will be to prioritize the welfare of the students and their families, and the security and safety of our school community,” said Carr, who held a brief press conference after meeting with National Education Ministry officials.

Carr refused to take questions during the press conference.

Lydia Freyani Hawadi, the National Education Ministry’s director at the Directorate-General for Early Age and Non-Formal Education (PAUDNI), said that the ministry supported the police investigation and that her office will also review the school’s condition to prevent similar attacks from happening in the future.

“It’s too early to say whether or not JIS will be closed down because a team that I just formed will check on JIS,” said Lydia.

Permits to open an international school are issued by the National Education Ministry, not the Jakarta Education Office, and therefore any sanctions for the school will be issued by the ministry.

Lydia said that her office has coordinated with the Jakarta Education Office to send an oversight team to the school.

Lydia said that the case is a form of violence against children and therefore the oversight team will see what kind of regulations the school has enforced to protect its students from any form of violence.

“Schools should have clear regulations that must be obeyed by all elements in the school to protect children’s rights. For that, schools need to get a warning from the government so that they pay attention to children’s rights and provide optimum protection,” she said.

“The government can issue a harsh sanction if there is no improvement,” Lydia said.

JIS Jakarta International School Sex Abuse: Online Petition to Revise Child Protection Law in Indonesia

PLEASE, help support us through this online petition: 

http://www.change.org/id/petisi/komisi-viii-dpr-hukum-peleceh-seksual-pemerkosa-predator-seksual-anak2-seberat2nya-revisi-uu-no-23-tahun-2002-5-15thn-tidaklah-cukup

You can COPY and PASTE that link on Google chrome, and then hit TRANSLATE to whatever language you need to. Thank you sooooo very much!

Copy + paste from: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/jakarta/online-petition-revise-child-protection-law-approaches-60000-supporters/

Jakarta. In the wake of the recent sexual assault of a kindergarten student at Jakarta International School, an online petition seeking for the revision of the country’s Child Protection Law has garnered nearly 60,000 supporters in three days.

The petition at change.org, which was created on Tuesday by a woman named Fellma Panjaitan, asked for a revision of the 2002 Law on Child Protection, which hands convicted sexual assailants a prison sentence of three to 15 years.

Through the petition, Fellma is calling on the House of Representatives to revise the law and hand out harsher punishments for perpetrators of sexual assault, saying the current sentence is far too short to even begin to compensate for the life-long trauma these criminals inflict on their victims.

“Help me [change the law] to so perpetrators will be severely punished. There should be no compromise for sexual predators. We need to participate in building a safe environment for our children,” Fellma wrote on the website.

The appeal has collected more than 59,000 supporters as of 2:30 p.m. local time, and is near the 75,000 needed for the petition to be sent to the House’s Commission VIII, which oversees social affairs and women’s empowerment.

Arief Aziz, founder of Change.org Indonesia, said none of the site’s petitions have garnered this many votes in such a short time.

The case of the alleged sexual assault on a 6-year-old boy by two janitorial staff members at one of the city’s top international schools has gripped the entire country since reports surfaced earlier this week.

Jakarta Police have named two suspects in the case: Agun Iskandar and Virgiawan Amin.

Jakarta Police Spokesman Sr. Cmr. Rikwanto said investigators are still looking into the possible involvement of three other bathroom attendants, including Afrischa Styani, Aswar and Zainal Abidin. Laboratory tests on Aswar and Zainal are currently being processed.

Meanwhile, Lydia Freyani Hawadi, directorate general of early- and non-formal education at the Education and Culture Ministry, said the ministry has formed an investigative team to audit JIS’s kindergarten and its learning process.

Lydia further explained that the school’s early childhood education campus is actually illegal as JIS has only been issued a permit for its elementary and high school levels.

“JIS thought the license to run a kindergarten is equivalent to that of the elementary-school level issued by the Elementary and Secondary Education Directorate. However, these permits are different,“ Lydia said.

JIS Jakarta International School: Child rape claim shocks expat community

Copy + paste from: http://www.smh.com.au/world/jakarta-international-school-child-rape-claim-shocks-expat-community-20140418-zqwf0.html#ixzz2zOerJk1W

Jakarta: The rape of a five-year old boy in the toilets of the prestigious Jakarta International School  has shocked the expatriate community and prompted a discussion in Indonesia about the prevalence of child sex abuse.

The boy, who turned six last week, has contracted herpes and a bacterial infection allegedly as a result of two anal rapes by members of the school’s outsourced cleaning staff in February and March.

Two men — employees of the international contract cleaners ISS — are in police custody. They are alleged to have attacked the boy during school hours when he went to the toilet near his classroom. Jakarta police say two more men and one woman are also under investigation. 

The boy is the son of a Dutch father and an Indonesian mother. He attended the school's early childhood program.  After initially requesting privacy, his mother went public with graphic details on Monday, motivated, according to lawyer Andi Asrun, by disappointment that the school had not acted more quickly to address problems. They say his teachers should have been aware of the boy’s long absences and should have noticed that he was upset when he returned to class.

Mr Andi said during one of the attacks, the boy had been locked inside one of a number of janitors’ closets inside the toilet, so that he “couldn’t be heard screaming”.

“If the kindergarten student goes to the toilet, the teacher should accompany the student, or at least observe from outside,” Mr Andi said.

Since his client had gone public, he said, another mother had come forward to say her young son had told of being attacked in the toilet by men in blue uniforms but that the boy had fought them off.

Head of School Tim Carr has said the school was cooperating fully with authorities and had made changes to security, including the placement of closed circuit TV cameras, after it was informed of the attacks. It has also offered support and advice to parents.

Police have urged parents of other students at the school to check the behaviour of their children and report anything suspicious.

Mr Andi said that, apart from providing information to the police for a criminal case, the family would issue civil proceedings against the school and the Indonesian education minister on Monday. They will seek a court order to close the early childhood program for “failing to protect the children”, and also for not having a proper licence to run a kindergarten. The department has given the school one week to apply for the correct licence. 

The school, which teaches the children of many of Jakarta's expatriate community as well as some Indonesians seeking a English-language education for their children, was set up in 1951 with the involvement of foreign missions including the Australian embassy. The embassy still has a representative on the board.

The attack has made the front pages in a number Indonesian newspapers. Indonesian officials including the Commission for Protection of Children have been called in, and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his wife Ani were quoted on Thursday offering their support to the family.

The issue of child sex assault is rarely aired in Indonesia, but coverage since the attack has prompted suggestions that it’s a growing problem. A headline “Safe Nowhere” in the English-language Jakarta Globe newspaper summed up the sentiment that, if it can happen at this privileged and security conscious school, it's likely to be a much more widespread problem.'

The boy's father told Fairfax Media that, as a result of the publicity, he had been contacted by people from all over Indonesia telling them about their own children’s abuse. “They’re talking about it because of this, and that’s the positive thing we have taken from it,” he said.

The Jakarta Education Agency has sent a circular to all local schools advising them to improve security and alert teachers to be aware of suspicious behaviour by both staff and students.

In a letter to parents, the school said it had reduced access to the campus for outsourced staff and had enhanced security and enforcement. The ISS cleaning staff working at the time no longer work at the school.

The letter, signed by Mr Carr, said outsourced staff would also be required to comply with the same medical tests as employed staff. The school has implemented a child protection program across the school and would set up an independent review of the incident, the letter said.

Ex-student about JIS Sex Abuse