Childcare Worker In Cheras Nabbed On Suspicion Of Abusing Toddler

The worker was seen pinching, slamming the toddler’s head down and yanking her up by the hand at a child care centre in Bandar Sri Permaisuri.

(Credit: Wanie Johari Sim / Facebook)

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The police have detained a childcare worker for allegedly abusing a two-year-old at a childcare centre in Bandar Sri Permaisuri, Cheras on Monday (4 Sept).

According to Mstar, Cheras District Police Chief ACP Zam Halim Jamaluddin said the father of the child filed a police report at 11.28 a.m. on Monday. The 28-year-old suspect had allegedly abused the child by causing injuries to her head and hands.

The woman surrendered at the Kuala Lumpur Contingent Police Headquarters at 1 p.m. the same day. She was detained for 24 hours and has been released on police bail.

The video that went viral

In a post shared by a Facebook user, Wanie Johari Sim, the mother recounted the chronology of the case that happened since August.

On 3 August, the toddler refused to go to school as she was afraid. The mother requested a check of the CCTV footage that day from the childcare centre’s headquarters and they only gave her a peek at random CCTV videos.

On 30 August (Wednesday), a staff named Athirah told the father when he came to pick her up that she accidentally bumped into his daughter during playtime with the other kids.

But the parents both noticed a pinch mark on their daughter’s cheeks and arm. The little girl said her cheeks hurt when the mother washed her face.

The mother asked to view the CCTV that Wednesday but the centre didn’t respond.

On 1 September, the mother took a day off and went to the centre’s office to find out what happened and to look at the CCTV footage. They didn’t let her in, saying there wasn’t enough staff that day and she needed to wait until Monday morning (4 September) to see the videos.

On 4 September, the father went to the office to look at the footage and was shocked to see a staff pinching his daughter’s cheeks roughly and slamming her head on the floor. Both of them were disappointed to see the other staff not paying attention to it as if it were a normal occurrence.

Currently, the case is investigated under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act 2001.

Has it become a trend?

Year after year, month after month, cases of child abuse in daycare centres are frequently emerging in Malaysia.

Just a month before in August, a similar case of child abuse by a childcare provider surfaced in Kota Kinabalu.

A 27-year-old female suspect was caught by CCTV kicking, slapping and hitting a 4-year-old child repeatedly while he was eating in a childcare centre in Luyang, Sabah.

Quoting NST, police there received three reports, one from the parents, one from the childcare centre owner and another from the suspect itself, claiming that the parents were abusing the child.

Eventually, the childcare centre temporarily suspended its operations and issued a public apology after the case went viral, as reported by The Borneo Post.

Another similar case, again happened in Johor in May this year when a 21-year-old woman allegedly abused two babies (11 and 9-month-old babies). In the videos that went viral, she was seen handling the babies roughly and even hitting their heads.

The childcare centre was then ordered to close after they found out that it was operating without a valid license.

Childcare Centres should be operating with a valid license

Parents who are keen to send their children to childcare centres are advised to check whether the premises have a valid licence from relevant authorities, including the Department of Social Welfare.

The welfare department has a lot of requirements that the centre should abide by, including getting approval from the local authority, the Fire and Rescue Department as well as the Health Department in case anything goes wrong.

In addition, they also have a compulsory course that the owner, supervisor and childcare worker have to attend and pass in order to open a childcare centre. They need to pass a course called Kursus Asuhan PERMATA (Basic Child Care Course) where they are trained to care for, nurture and educate babies and children.

Here are a few more stories on child abuse that we covered.

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