SINGAPORE: A childcare centre principal who abused her four-year-old pupil multiple times on a single occasion was sentenced to 10 months’ jail on Thursday (April 23).
The 40-year-old woman, who cannot be identified due a court-imposed gag order, pleaded guilty to one charge of ill-treatment of a child.
The name of the childcare centre was also redacted from court documents.
On Nov 21, 2024, the victim’s father took the boy to the childcare centre. The pupils were preparing that day for their graduation ceremony.
During the session, the boy and some of the other pupils were asked to sit and play with the toys at the table.
The boy was seated nearest to the shelves where the toys were kept, and at some point tried to pull down a toy box without standing up.
A teacher told him to stand up to retrieve the box, but the four-year-old refused.
The centre principal, who witnessed this, walked up to the boy and hit him in the head. She then grabbed him by the left arm and tried to pull him up, but the boy refused to budge.
When she noticed that the boy had peed himself, she got even more frustrated, grabbed him by the arm again and pulled several more times.
Once the boy stood up, she hit him on the head once more. The principal then took the toy box’s plastic lid and used it to hit the boy’s head one last time, before giving the boy’s head a final push.
The acts of abuse lasted for over four minutes and were captured on the centre’s close-circuit television (CCTV), the court heard.
One of the teachers later told the woman that the boy had scratches on his left arm. After examining the boy, she told the teacher that she would speak to the boy’s father when he came to pick him up.
The boy’s father came to the centre at about 12.30pm and noticed that his son had changed his uniform.
The principal told the boy’s father about the scratches on his left arm, claiming he sustained the injuries when she tried to pull him away to prevent a box from falling onto him.
She also said she could not give the father CCTV footage of the incident due to the centre’s policy.
When they returned home, the man noticed that his son’s injuries were quite serious and took him to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
Doctors there determined that the child had sustained a non-accidental injury.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Joel Fun sought a jail term of six to eight months for the woman.
He said: “The accused, as principal (of the childcare centre), held a position of great responsibility and trust towards the children placed in her care.
“Her actions on 21 November 2024 constitute a shocking departure from the standards expected of a childcare professional, involving multiple acts of violence against a defenceless child who was dependent upon her care.”
For ill-treatment of a child, an offender can be fined up to S$8,000, jailed for up to eight years, or both. - The Straits Times/ANN
