Jakarta. Jakarta police released 156 high school students detained during Monday’s unrest outside the House of Representatives (DPR) complex in Senayan, while another 155 people remain under questioning

Deputy Director of the General Criminal Investigation Division of the Jakarta Metropolitan Police, Putu Kholis Aryana, said the students were under the age of 18.

“A total of 156 students have been released. None of them has been named suspects,” Putu said on Tuesday.

However, the remaining 155 are adult demonstrators. The investigation is being carried out to uncover their respective roles in the incident, which led to the destruction of public facilities.

“The in-depth investigation of the 155 adults is still ongoing. We want to determine the extent of their involvement,” Putu said.

According to police report, the crowd acted anarchically during the demonstration near the DPR, including damaging the building gate, dismantling the busway lane separator, and throwing stones at motorists on the toll road. Additionally, several security personnel were also targeted with hard objects thrown by the crowd.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) has urged schools and local education offices not to expel the hundreds of students temporarily detained by the police during the protest. According to KPAI’s records, 196 students were taken into custody.

KPAI Commissioner Sylvana Maria said the commission has coordinated with education offices and several schools attended by the students who joined the protest in Jakarta. 

“We will coordinate with the relevant offices and schools to ensure they are not expelled. Parents’ concerns are understandable, as they fear their children’s futures may be disrupted,” Sylvana said on Tuesday.

KPAI plans to visit schools with a significant number of students involved in the protest. The goal is to explore the reasons behind student involvement and find preventive measures to ensure similar incidents do not happen again.

“I have already noted some schools, where more than five to over 10 students joined the protest. We want to understand the school’s role in preventing their students from joining activities they do not fully comprehend,” she explained.

KPAI also stressed that the involvement of children in mass protests is an alarming signal for the education sector, parents, and the government to strengthen supervision and character education both at school and within families.

Previously, Jakarta Metropolitan Police spokesperson Ade Ary Syam Indradi explained that the hundreds of students were not part of the main demonstrator group voicing opinions in front of the DPR, but rather came after being influenced by social media calls.

According to him, the students came from various cities around Jakarta, including Tangerang, Bekasi, Depok, Bogor, and Sukabumi. Some of them joined the protest during school hours.

To handle this case, the police deployed the Sub-Directorate for Youth, Children, and Women, and involved institutions such as KPAI, the Jakarta Office for Women’s Empowerment, Child Protection, and Population Control, as well as the Jakarta Social Service.

This approach aims to provide an educational rather than repressive response, ensuring that the students involved do not fall into similar incidents again.

The police believe this phenomenon reflects the vulnerability of students in responding to online information. Authorities plan to increase preventive measures through cooperation with schools and parents to avoid a recurrence.

“Our principle is clear: anyone who commits a crime will be prosecuted. But for students, we prioritize guidance,” he concluded.

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