Updated: 07/19/2013 20:30 | By Channel NewsAsia
Ex-kindergarten teacher gets 21-month probation for ill-treating student
SINGAPORE: A former kindergarten teacher who ill-treated a five-year-old student in 2011 has been given 21 months' probation.
The 26-year-old woman has also been ordered to compensate the victim's parents S$1,000.
She cannot be named to protect the child's identity.
In August 2011, the woman punished the girl by making her strip in front of her classmates while they laughed at her.
She also swung the child against a whiteboard to punish her after her classmates claimed she had hit them.
The girl's classmates also complained she had copied their homework.
Two other charges of using criminal force on the girl were taken into consideration.
In his judgement, the district judge described this as "no ordinary case".
He said ordinarily, the court would impose a substantial custodial sentence, but the woman had been a victim of "unspeakable abuse for a prolonged period" when she was young.
She was diagnosed as suffering from untreated depression.
Before she committed the offences, the woman had undergone stress at home and work.
The judge noted the woman's remorse for her actions.
He also noted the child's injuries were not serious. - CNA/xq