Jail for former pre-school teacher who ill-treated 2 toddlers under her care
One of the toddlers was dragged into this storeroom (left) where unsafe items such as bleach were kept.
PHOTO: Court Documents
PUBLISHED ONMay 06, 2025 2:23 AMByShaffiq Alkhatib
SINGAPORE — A pre-school teacher abused two toddlers under her care, including by slapping them, and a CCTV camera captured her grinning as she dropped foam blocks into an unlit storeroom where she had dragged one of the victims.
The 30-year-old Singaporean woman cannot be named owing to a gag order to protect the identities of the victims — a one-year-old girl, identified in court documents as V1, and a two-year-old boy, identified as V2.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Ariel Tan told the court that the woman's acts of abuse had left both victims psychologically affected.
The DPP added: "Since June 27, 2022... V1 would start crying and whining in her sleep, stating 'don't want' or 'no' as she cried. These experiences varied in frequency, from every night of the week to two or three days a week.
"V1's relationship with her father was also impacted in a negative way for a few months... because the accused had told V1 that V1's father had allowed the accused to beat V1... V2 developed a tendency to hide under a table or enter a dark room to sit in a corner whenever he was disciplined at home."
Their abuser, who is no longer a pre-school teacher, is a mother of two young children, aged five months and 17 months.
She was sentenced to a year and seven months' jail on May 5.
The woman had pleaded guilty to three counts of ill-treating a child.
Her former colleague, a 29-year-old Chinese national, identified as A1, was sentenced to 14 days' jail in April.
DPP Tan said that the older woman started working at the pre-school in July 2020.
From January 2022, she and A1 taught a "play group" class, made up of children between 1½ and three years old.
The two victims were at the pre-school at around 10am on June 22 that year and V2 was sitting near the older woman when she pulled him towards her.
She then deliberately pulled a table until it struck the back of his head. After that, she used her hand to shove the boy's head under the table, causing him to be trapped under it for around 13 minutes.
He emerged only when she forcefully dragged him out by gripping his arm.
V2 started bawling at around 10.20am. The abuser, who got irritated by his cries, got up from her seat and repeatedly shoved him to make him walk forward.
After that, she grabbed some tissue paper, roughly wiped his tears away, and dragged him into an unlit store room as she wanted the boy to stop crying.
DPP Tan said that the room contained items that were unsafe for children, placed on shelves some height from the ground. They included a ladder, bleach, cleaning fluids and insecticides.
The DPP said: "Later on, (the older woman) dragged a chair to the entrance of the storeroom, stood on top of it, and began dropping some foam blocks into the storeroom from an opening above the door... The accused was grinning away as she dropped the foam blocks into the storeroom."
The boy was let out of the storeroom shortly before 10.30am that day, and the woman targeted V1 soon after.
The abuser was sitting next to the little girl at around 10.45am when she suddenly lifted her hand and smacked the child's face. The woman then pushed V1's chair and hit the girl's arm.
The abuser did this because V1 would call out for a teacher of another class, even when the abuser told the toddler not to do so.
Court documents stated that from around 10.45am to 10.59am, the offender slapped V1's face and pushed the toddler, causing her to fall down four times.
The abuser also used foam blocks to repeatedly hit V1's face and head, forcefully rubbed tissue paper onto the crying child's face and pinched her cheeks.
The woman was at work five days later on June 27, 2022, when V2, who was then sitting on a chair, lost his balance and slid to the floor.
When the boy got back to his feet, she pulled him towards her and hoisted him onto a nearby chair while he cried.
After that, she shoved the chair, causing the boy's midriff to strike a table. Ignoring his cries, she pulled the table back, wedging V2 firmly between the table and the backrest of his chair.
The woman later slapped V2's face and pinched his cheeks, the court heard. She also abused V1 that day by trapping her against a wall with a table and using a piece of plastic to repeatedly hit the girl's face and head.
The woman's offences came to light when the girl's mother found bruises on her daughter and went to the pre-school with her husband on June 28, 2022. The police were alerted following an investigation.
On May 5, defence lawyer Vinit Chhabra told the court that the foam blocks his client had used were soft and that it was common practice at the school to punish its pupils by placing them in a storeroom or under a table.
DPP Tan replied that there was no evidence of such a practice. She also said that while the blocks could appear soft to adults, they might not be so to young children.
The court also heard that the abuser had committed the offences as she was "stressed". She has been offered bail of $20,000 and is expected to begin serving her sentence on May 9.
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.
