Chinese police detain kindergarten staff after ‘children pricked with needles as punishment’
Investigation launched as two teachers and a nurse at the same Beijing kindergarten held after parents find needle marks on their children's bodies
Two teachers and a nurse all working at the same Chinese kindergarten have been detained by Beijing police after a number of parents alleged that staff had stuck needles into their children as a punishment, mainland media reports.
One parent, whose daughter attends the unnamed kindergarten in the city’s Fangshan district, told The Beijing News she had found what appeared to be a needle mark in her daughter’s foot while dressing her on June 4.
Her daughter then admitted that a teacher had pricked her with a needle as a punishment after she had used the word “urinate” instead of “going to the bathroom”, it reported.
The mother immediately telephoned other parents, who also examined their children. The parents allegedly discovered similar needle marks on their children’s shoulders, bottoms, feet and thighs. One child had six needle marks in his body, the newspaper reported.
Another mother told the newspaper: “My child told me that a teacher had said, ‘Don’t tell your Mum and Dad’.”
Many other pupils at the kindergarten claimed they had been warned by teachers not to tell their parents about the needle punishment, the newspaper reported.
The local education authorities in Fangshan have now launched an investigation into the privately-owned kindergarten.
The newspaper report did not say whether the kindergarten was still open for business as normal.
Similar claims of abuse at kindergartens have been reported in Beijing in recent years. Many of these alleged incidents had occurred at privately owned kindergartens in residential areas of the city.
