A 30-year-old Singaporean woman was sentenced to 19 months’ jail on 5 May 2025 for abusing two toddlers under her care at a pre-school where she worked as a teacher.
The woman cannot be named due to a gag order protecting the identities of the victims.
She pleaded guilty to three charges of ill-treating a child, with another three similar charges taken into consideration for sentencing.
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Pre-school Teacher’s Shocking Abuse Caught on CCTV
The abuse occurred on two separate days in June 2022. On 22 Jun 2022, at around 10 am, the woman pulled a table until it struck the back of the boy’s head, then shoved his head underneath the table, trapping him there for about 13 minutes.
When the boy started crying after being dragged out, the woman became irritated and pushed him several times before dragging him into an unlit storeroom containing unsafe items such as a ladder, bleach, cleaning fluids and insecticides.
While the boy was alone in the storeroom, the woman dragged a chair to the entrance, stood on it, and dropped foam blocks into the room through an opening above the door.
According to Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Ariel Tan, she was “grinning away” as she did this.
Shortly after the boy was released from the storeroom, the woman targeted the girl. She smacked the child’s face, pushed her chair and hit her arm because the toddler had called out for a teacher from another class despite being told not to.
Over the next 15 minutes, the woman slapped the girl’s face and pushed her, causing her to fall four times.
She also repeatedly hit the toddler’s face and head with foam blocks, forcefully rubbed tissue paper onto her crying face, and pinched her cheeks.
Five days later, on 27 Jun 2022, the woman abused both children again.
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When the boy lost his balance and slid off a chair, she hoisted him back up and then shoved the chair, causing his midriff to strike a table.
She then pulled the table back, wedging him firmly between the table and the chair backrest.
The woman also slapped his face, pinched his cheeks and hit his hand multiple times with a pen.
That same day, she trapped the girl against a wall with a table and chairs, lowered the classroom blinds to block public view, and placed a plastic divider on the child’s head to prevent her from looking out.
When the girl tried to crawl out, the woman pushed her back under the table, causing her to suffer a blow when the table was shoved back toward the wall.
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The woman then hit the girl’s face and head multiple times with the plastic divider.
Psychological Impact on Young Victims and Arrest
The abuse came to light when the girl’s mother found bruises on her daughter’s face on 27 Jun 2022.
When questioned through the school’s online messaging system, the teacher denied any incident had occurred, writing that the girl “did not (have) any incident in school yesterday and she was fine just for as usual she cried a little asking for the both of you.”
Despite this denial, the pre-school principal launched an investigation, and the matter was escalated to headquarters, which filed a police report against the woman a month later.
The woman’s former colleague, a 29-year-old Chinese national, was sentenced to 14 days’ jail in April for passively watching while the woman abused one of the children.
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DPP Tan told the court that the abuse had left both victims psychologically affected.
Since 27 Jun 2022, the girl would cry and whine in her sleep, saying “don’t want” or “no.” Her relationship with her father was also negatively impacted for a few months because the accused had told the girl that her father had allowed the teacher to beat her.
The boy developed a tendency to hide under tables or enter dark rooms to sit in corners whenever he was disciplined at home.
During the trial, the defence lawyer, Vinit Chhabra, claimed that it was common practice at the school to punish pupils by placing them in a storeroom or under a table, and that the foam blocks used were soft.
However, the prosecution responded that there was no evidence of such a practice, and noted that while the blocks might appear soft to adults, they might not be so to young children.
District Judge Eddy Tham, who viewed the CCTV footage of the abuse in a closed courtroom, remarked that “the statement of facts made for painful reading, but the video footage made it much worse.”
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The offender was fired by the preschool on 29 Jun 2022, two days after the last incident of abuse.
She is currently a mother of two young children, aged five months and 17 months, and has been offered bail of $20,000.
She is expected to begin serving her sentence on 9 May 2025.
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