Children getting minor injuries and not knowing where they come from is common. Kids will be kids, after all.
However, this was not the case for a mother of a three-year-old, who found a 3.5 centimetre gash on her toddler’s elbow, after he came home from school.
The teacher and her son had both said that a classmate pinched him, but she found that hard to believe.
Found A Gash On His Left Arm
In an interview with Shin Min Daily News, a 42-year-old accountant surnamed Wu said that her three-year-old son had been injured four times since entering Hampton Pre-School in January.
The most recent incident happened on 29 March, when her helper had gone to pick her son up from school. Noticing his parents were not there, his teacher called them and told them their son’s left elbow was injured.
According to Ms Wu, she found that her son’s elbow was swollen, and the skin there was broken and blistered. The wound was around 3.5 cm long.
“The staff told me his classmate pinched him, but it didn’t look like it,” she said. “I took him to the doctor that day, and the doctor said the injury was unusual and didn’t look like a pinch wound.”
She informed the preschool’s principal of this matter, but was told the same thing. Two other teachers also agreed that the boy’s injury was inflicted by a classmate pinching him.
There were also no CCTVs installed in the school, so it was impossible to check what actually happened.
She revealed that her son had also said he was pinched, but she still had doubts about the incident because he had expressed it unclearly.
She also questioned why the staff member who witnessed the incident did not stop the other student from injuring her son, and why she was not informed immediately.
The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) has been informed of the incident, and she hopes they will investigate the real source of the injury.
The Aftermath
Ms Wu said that even before her son’s elbow injury, she noticed scratch marks on his eyebrows and bruises on his face after he returned home from school.
She thought these injuries were caused when he played rough with other students.
The doctor told her the injury would probably permanently scar her son’s elbow.
She also said that after the incident, her son suffered from nightmares for several nights consecutively, and would suddenly shout, “Don’t chase me” in his sleep.
The wound did not even heal after a week.
On the week of the incident, she had withdrawn her son from school, and the school had agreed to return her a deposit of a month’s fees, worth $770, but asked her to pay April’s school fees.
However, her son did not go to school after the incident, and hence did not attend even a day of school in April.
The incident happened at Hampton Pre-School, located in Tiong Bahru.
At that time, two staff members were present: a teacher and a class assistant.
According to a phone interview with Shin Min Daily News, the preschool said that the teacher notified the boy’s parents immediately after checking his wound.
Investigations on their end reveal that the injury was really caused by another student, and the preschool has also submitted an incident report to the ECDA.
“We understand that the incident has caused distress to the family, and we will work closely with parties involved to offer assistance,” they said.
The principal expressed that the preschool employs stringent safety measures, and children are supervised by two adults at all times.
The preschool has also installed CCTVs following the incident, to ensure the safety of everyone there.
A spokesperson from the ECDA said they are aware of the incident, and investigations are underway.
