5 more charges for ex-Kinderland teacher accused of forcefully pouring water into girl's mouth

Shaffiq Alkhatib
The Straits Times
Feb 28, 2024

A former Kinderland pre-school teacher accused of ill-treating a 23-month-old girl was on Feb 28 handed five additional charges involving three more children.

Lin Min, 34, was charged with three counts each of ill-treating a child and two counts of using criminal force on another person.

The Singaporean now faces six charges involving four children in total. She allegedly committed the offences against all of them at her then-workplace.

Details about the children and the location of the pre-school cannot be disclosed because of a gag order.

She was first hauled to court in August 2023 and charged with ill-treating the 23-month-old girl.

Lin had allegedly poured water into the child’s mouth after forcing her to lie down shortly before 4pm on June 30, 2023.

According to the latest charges, she allegedly targeted a three-year-old boy three times.

She is accused of forcing the toddler to lie down in a rough manner on June 27, 2023.

The next day, Lin allegedly used criminal force on him by tipping a milk bottle into his mouth while he was lying on the floor.

On June 30, 2023, she allegedly ill-treated him by handling him in a rough manner, details of which were not disclosed in court documents.

Separately, Lin had allegedly restrained a three-year-old girl to a chair and poured water into her mouth on one occasion between May 2 and July 29, 2023.

On June 28, 2023, Lin allegedly used a book to hit a two-year-old boy’s buttocks five times.

Her pre-trial conference will be held on March 1.

Following a spate of child mismanagement incidents in 2023, Kinderland was fined a total of $10,000 over cases of child mismanagement found in two pre-schools.

It was fined $5,000 for each of the two pre-school centres at Woodlands Mart and Sunshine Place.

In a statement on Feb 20, the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) said it will continue to limit the licences of both centres to six months after they expire in March 2024.

The agency said it had found that Kinderland’s headquarters did not effectively supervise the training and oversight of its centres’ employees, following a report by an independent review committee set up by Kinderland to look into the incidents in 2023.

ECDA said it will closely monitor all other Kinderland centres.

Kinderland must also share the lessons learnt from the incidents with the rest of the early childhood sector.

For each count of ill-treating a child, an offender can be jailed for up to eight years and fined up to $8,000.