Parents claim teachers at S’pore preschool hit children & lock them in dark room, investigations ongoing

Preschool teachers allegedly hit students in toilet, lock them in dark room

More shocking allegations of the mistreatment of preschool students have surfaced just six months after the Kinderland abuse saga first broke.

On Tuesday (27 Feb), Instagram user @annalimsm aka Anna Lim posted a series of Instagram Stories documenting the mistreatment she claimed her son had been experiencing at school.

She also shared the first of a multi-part “exposé” on TikTok going into detail about the incidents.

According to her son, teachers would hit and pinch students or lock them in a “dark room” when they misbehaved.

A police report has been filed and the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) is conducting investigations.

Mother noticed ‘troubling changes’ in son’s behaviour

In a TikTok video about the effects of the alleged abuse on her son, Ms Lim described how she came to realise the issue.

Over the past one to two months, she had been noticing “troubling changes” in her son’s behaviour.

For instance, the boy was having “frequent nightmares”, which would get very intense with lots of screaming and crying.

He would also hit people and talk about topics like death and violence.

The boy sometimes came home with bruises as well, although he initially claimed that he got them when he fell.

At first, Ms Lim thought that it was just a “phase” and confiscated her son’s iPad, believing that he had been watching scary YouTube videos that affected him.

Things finally came to light after she received a letter from her son’s preschool about a “child mismanagement incident”.

Although the letter did not go into detail, it stated that three teachers had been suspended and that it was cooperating with ECDA investigations.

This prompted Ms Lim to sit down with her son and ask him what was really going on at school.

Preschool teachers would confine boy in dark room as punishment

Her son then said that he didn’t want to go to school because several teachers, whom he named, were “very harsh” to him.

He claimed that they would hit him and pinch him in the toilet. Ms Lim assumed they did this because of the absence of CCTV cameras there.

The young boy also told his mum that the teachers would threaten to “chop off his hand” if he did not behave and “hit him even harder” if he told anyone about what they did.

Another mother’s Instagram Story that Ms Lim shared alleged that the teachers would pull her son’s hair when he played with water.

They would also use kid-friendly scissors to cut him, which couldn’t actually cut the skin but still hurt.

There were repeated mentions of a “dark room”, both from Ms Lim and the other mother whose Instagram Stories she reposted.

Ms Lim’s son said that he would be confined to this dark room for a long time when he was naughty.

There, he would occasionally be joined by his classmates, such as his “girlfriend”, whom Ms Lim described as “a sweet little girl”.

An anonymous parent told The Straits Times (ST) that her three-year-old son was locked in a dark room on 21 Feb as punishment for playing with water in the bathroom.

She also claimed that a teacher pinched him on the same day.

CCTV footage that the mother saw showed teachers opening the door to shout at her son as he stood there crying.

Police report made, investigations ongoing

Ms Lim stated that she has called her lawyer and is collecting evidence against the preschool.

She wrote in an Instagram Story: “Justice for my kid and the rest of the children affected”.

The other mother told ST that she filed a police report. She also reported the incident to the school on 26 Feb.

The school then escalated the matter to ECDA . In addition, the school’s director said that they are fully cooperating with the investigations.

ST reported that at least two children, including the three-year-old boy, no longer attend the preschool.

Police confirmed to ST that they received a report involving the preschool and that investigations are ongoing.

MS News has reached out to Ms Lim and the preschool for comments.

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Featured image adapted from @annalimsm on Instagram.