Hong Kong police are investigating the suspected abuse of a three-year-old girl at a nursery school, after her mother filed a report alleging that her daughter had suffered injuries to her lower body and might have been mistreated by staff.
Education and welfare authorities on Friday vowed to follow up on the incident, while the school’s sponsoring body said a review of security footage had not found anything suspicious.
According to a police spokesman, the force on Wednesday received a report from the mother who suspected that her daughter had been treated inappropriately by school staff after finding injuries on her lower body.
The force said the case was categorised as a “request for police assistance” and taken up by the Kowloon West regional crime unit, adding that no arrests were made.
The case came to light after a message began circulating in a parents’ WhatsApp group on Friday, alleging that a three-year-old girl in a pre-nursery class at Hong Kong Christian Service Tai Hang Tung Nursery School in Sham Shui Po was abused by her teacher.
“[Her] vulva has cut wounds, [her] inner vagina is serious, and it keeps on bleeding,” the message said. “Now my daughter often says she doesn’t want to go to school … she said the teachers had hit her chest.”
A photo showing children’s clothing stained with blood was attached to the message.
The sender, whose identity was not immediately known, named Tai Hang Tung Nursery School in the message.
A staff member from the school, who declined to give her name, told the Post that it attached great importance to the incident and had reported it to police for investigation.
A spokesman for the Hong Kong Christian Service, the sponsoring body, confirmed a parent on Wednesday had notified the school that her daughter was injured and police had been called to investigate.
“Police contacted the school within approximately 45 minutes to conduct an on-site investigation, and the school has fully cooperated with the police investigation,” it said.
“The school immediately activated its mechanism to investigate the cause of the student’s injury. After reviewing the closed-circuit television footage, no suspicious behaviour by our teaching staff was found.”
The spokesman added the school had immediately contacted police and invited the parents of the girl to watch the closed-circuit television footage of the day in question.
“Since the incident, the school has been in communication with the parents of the student involved, expressing our care and concern, and understanding their needs in order to provide support accordingly,” it said.
It added student safety was a top priority for the school and a raft of measures had been implemented to better protect children.
An Education Bureau spokeswoman said it had asked the school to deal with the matter seriously and submit a report to authorities, adding that it had immediately contacted the sponsoring body and the school to understand the incident.
But she said the bureau could not comment further as police had begun their investigation.
A Social Welfare Department spokeswoman said it would hold a meeting for the case and follow up in accordance with the student’s needs.