Child abuse in kindergartens keeps happening: how are children to be protected?

The incident

A video that has been spreading online, "a kindergarten teacher hits three children in six minutes", has prompted wide discussion. The video shows a female kindergarten teacher striking three children one after another within six minutes, dragging them roughly, pushing them over, slapping their cheeks and mouths with her hand and kicking them with her foot.

The video was taken at Dongjiang kindergarten in Qiaotou town, Dongguan, Guangdong, and the teacher shown hitting the children was a trainee at the school, Teacher Jiang. It came to light because a parent noticed that her child was reluctant to go to kindergarten and even afraid of it, and went to the kindergarten to ask to see the surveillance footage. The footage showed Jiang hitting three children within six minutes, between 10.06 and 10.12 on the morning of 3 June. The matter was soon all over the parents' group chat, and other parents, finding that their children had been hit, asked the class teacher, Teacher He: "You are the class teacher. Teacher Jiang, the assistant, was hitting the children; why did you not stop her?" Teacher He replied on WeChat that she would certainly have stopped it had she seen it, and that Jiang did not normally behave in that way. The parents were doubtful. On the afternoon of 6 June more parents came to the kindergarten and asked to see more footage, the head of the kindergarten refused, and someone called the police.

After the incident the Qiaotou town police station and the education office both investigated. The education office met the head of the kindergarten and its proprietor and, through the police station, reviewed earlier surveillance footage, which showed that Jiang had indeed not hit children in the past and had begun to do so only recently. The main reason was that she wanted to resign, but the kindergarten, having no one to take over at short notice, had not approved it and asked her to work one more month, and she had taken out her frustration on the children.

The law

Article 21 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors provides that staff of schools, kindergartens and nurseries shall respect the personal dignity of minors and shall not subject them to corporal punishment, disguised corporal punishment or any other act that insults their personal dignity.

Article 260A of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, the offence of abusing a person under guardianship or care, provides that a person who has a duty of guardianship or care towards a minor, an elderly person, a sick person or a person with a disability and abuses the person under his guardianship or care, where the circumstances are flagrant, is sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or to criminal detention. Where a unit commits the offence in the preceding paragraph, the unit is fined and the person directly in charge and the other persons directly responsible are punished in accordance with the preceding paragraph. Where an act under the first paragraph also constitutes another offence, the person is convicted and punished in accordance with the provisions imposing the heavier penalty.

Article 260A was added by the Amendment (IX) to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, adopted at the 16th session of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress on 29 August 2015. The subject of the offence is a person with a duty of guardianship or care, such as a kindergarten teacher towards the children in the kindergarten, staff of a home for the elderly towards its residents, or a doctor or nurse towards a patient.

The objective aspect of the offence lies mainly in "abuse", that is, conduct that torments and destroys the physical and mental health of the person under guardianship or care. Abuse under this article is characterised by regularity and continuity: the offender subjects the person under his guardianship or care to sustained or repeated physical destruction and mental torment over a considerable period, causing grave damage to the victim's body and mind, typically by beating and reviling, freezing and starving, binding, forcing excessive physical labor, restricting freedom or humiliating the person. Isolated incidents of beating, reviling, freezing or starving do not constitute the offence.

Under that provision, "flagrant circumstances" are a necessary element of the offence and mark the line between an offence and no offence. "Flagrant circumstances" mean in particular that the motive for the abuse is base, that the means are cruel, or that the person under guardianship or care has been abused over a long period. Where the offender has abused the person under his guardianship or care but the conduct is not yet flagrant and has not seriously damaged the victim's physical or mental health, the offence is not made out.

On 6 June the Qiaotou public security sub-bureau, having received the report, investigated at once, preserved the relevant evidence and took the teacher concerned into custody. Preliminary investigation established that Jiang Mouhong, a teacher at Dongjiang kindergarten, was suspected of the offence of abusing a person under guardianship or care, and the suspect was criminally detained in accordance with law. The police are continuing to handle the case.

Child abuse in kindergartens keeps happening

How are children to be protected?

In recent years the internet has repeatedly exposed videos of kindergarten teachers abusing and beating children. Children in kindergarten are small, do not know how to resist and may not even know how to tell anyone, which has invisibly encouraged unscrupulous teachers. Teachers who abuse children deserve punishment, but punishment of that kind can hardly heal the trauma the children carry.

Child abuse must therefore never be tolerated. Such things happen because supervision in kindergartens is weak and because the quality of kindergarten teachers varies widely. Kindergarten teachers in China generally have little education, and some who have graduated from a secondary vocational school and never studied early childhood education enter the profession through personal connections. Low pay and heavy work also leave many kindergarten teachers resentful and unable to vent their feelings, and some discharge them by abusing children. Raising the quality of teachers and improving their pay would therefore also help to curb abuse at its root. Kindergartens, teachers and parents should each be prepared.

For kindergartens and teachers, management should be strengthened. As to internal supervision, teachers should be strictly vetted on entry, so that those who have not been assessed are kept out at the outset; serving teachers should be trained in professional ethics and standards, so as to raise their ability and quality; and management should supervise more closely and establish a system of responsibility and sanctions. As to external supervision, surveillance systems should be installed in kindergartens and parents should have the right to view the footage, which will also make unscrupulous teachers think twice.

For parents, children should be told that if they suffer any physical harm at kindergarten they must speak up boldly and at once, and must not be afraid. Where a problem is found, parents should promptly talk to other parents and take the matter up with the school, and where necessary may call the police for help.