Students In Surakarta Are Still Obliged To Wear Masks During PTM

Illustration of school children. (Between)

SURAKARTA - All students in Surakarta City are still required to wear masks when face-to-face learning (PTM) is limited. This provision is applied by the local city government (pemkot) even though the national COVID-19 case is sloping.

"Especially in schools, children are required to wear masks," said Deputy Mayor of Surakarta Teguh Prakosa in Solo, Monday, May 23.

He said that this obligation must not only be followed by students but also teachers and education staff from coming to school until the end of the lesson.

According to him, the regulation is contained in the latest circular letter (SE) on the handling of COVID-19, which will take effect this week, from 24 May to 6 June 2022.

However, he said, these rules do not apply to the general public.

Previously, President Joko Widodo recommended that people take off their masks if they are in an open space with not too many people.

However, Surakarta Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka asked the public to continue wearing masks while waiting for directions from the Governor of Central Java Ganjar Pranowo.

"Mr. Wali (Gibran) will wait for the Governor. Even though there are people in the community who have removed masks, 75 percent are still wearing masks," he said, as reported by Antara.

"It happened around May 11 or 12. I received a report from his family that his son (SV) was raped, and his house was burglarized," said Sujito when met at the location, Monday, May 23.

Based on SV's statement, Sujito said that at that time three unknown men entered the victim's house.

The three men then went up to the 2nd floor and immediately assaulted SV which ended in rape. "I asked the victim, he said people entered his house, then his house was burglarized," said Sujito.

Sujito also had time to check SV's house and ask local residents. However, neighbors around SV's house claimed that they did not hear any noise at the time or date of the incident.

Sujito, as the head of the RT, had time to directly confirm the condition of SV. He saw that there were bruises on SV's face which were thought to be the result of beatings.

"He gave me a look, he was injured in the eye and the right lower cheek, bruises. There seemed to be beatings, there were marks of being abused," said Sujito.

Previously, this alleged rape case went viral by a man claiming to be the victim's girlfriend via Twitter.

Through the @amindrapindo account on Saturday, May 21, the man had uploaded a tweet that his lover, none other than SV, was robbed and raped by three people. Currently, the tweet has been deleted by the account owner.