SINGAPORE – A former Kinderland pre-school teacher who ill-treated several children under her care was sentenced to a year, five months and two weeks’ jail on March 13.

On March 5, Lin Min, 35, who has been fired by the school, pleaded guilty to three counts of ill-treating a child with acts that included squeezing open the mouths of two of the victims to force them to drink water.

Three other charges were considered during the Singaporean’s sentencing.

In earlier proceedings, the court heard that the former Mandarin teacher had abused a total of four children, who were between one and three years old at the time.

The case made headlines in 2023 when videos of the abuse taken by another teacher were uploaded on social media.

The court heard that Lin began working as a pre-school teacher in March 2020.

Her first victim, referred to in court documents as V1, was a year and 10 months old when the incident happened.

In June 2023, Lin saw that V1’s water bottle was full and realised that she had not been drinking water.

She then tried to get the girl to drink her water. When the child refused, Lin grabbed her by her arms and pushed her down on the floor.

Lin held the child’s mouth open by squeezing her cheeks, and used her other hand to pour water into her mouth.

Her colleague caught her in the act and took a video. In the clip, the child could be heard crying, coughing and choking.

Her parents were not aware that she had been ill-treated until two months later in August 2023, when the school informed them.

The parents later told the police that they had noticed that their daughter would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and cry “no” and say “bye bye, lao shi (teacher in Ma...