Woman who ill-treated child at kindergarten gets jail

A former student care officer was sentenced to 26 weeks’ jail on Aug 23 for ill-treating a five-year-old boy at a kindergarten after she spotted him playing with water at a sink.

CCTV cameras captured the 54-year-old Singaporean woman committing the offence on Feb 15, 2022, and she resigned two days later.

On July 2, she pleaded guilty to one count of ill-treating a child. Details about her and the kindergarten cannot be disclosed due to a gag order to protect the victim’s identity.

At the time of the offence, the boy was enrolled in the kindergarten’s childcare programme and would go there every weekday from noon to around 6.30pm.

The offender was tasked to take care of the children.

On the day of the offence, she saw the boy and another child playing at a sink in the classroom.

She became frustrated that they were not listening to her instructions to sit down and eat their snacks.

Instead, they were filling up bottles with water and pouring the content on some bookshelves nearby.

The offender was also angry that they had been disruptive earlier during the nap session.

Shortly before 3.10pm, she grabbed the victim by both arms and dragged him away from the sink.

He fell and tried to resist her, but she continued dragging him and pulled him up to his feet.

She then grabbed his right arm and walked him back to the sink area.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Natalie Chu said that the woman grew increasingly stressed as the boy seemingly remained uncooperative, and she saw that the floor near the sink was wet.

The offender forcefully grabbed the boy’s arms and swung him repeatedly for around six seconds, causing the lower half of his body to hit the wet floor multiple times.

After that, she sat on top of a cabinet and held the victim by his shoulders in front of her.

She continued to abuse him by grabbing his hair and pushing the back of his head towards the floor, causing him to curl up in pain.

The woman then pulled him up but maintained a strong grip on his right arm.

At around 3.11pm, she shoved him through a small group of children and started to gather his belongings.

The boy reached for his belongings, but she grabbed them away from him.

“The victim fell to his knees, refusing to move. The accused then dragged the victim along the classroom floor for about 40 seconds,” the DPP said.

At home, the boy’s father spotted scratch marks on the child’s face and neck.

The next day, his parents alerted the kindergarten’s centre head, who made a police report on Feb 23, 2022.

Defence lawyer Muhammad Hasif Abdul Aziz had earlier pleaded for his client to be given a fine not exceeding $8,000.

He told the court that the woman had not received formal training from the kindergarten on children care.

The woman, who was offered $5,000 bail, is expected to begin serving her jail sentence on Sept 6.