Former members of preschool senior management admit to covering up offences of cook who molested toddlers
Suggesting to settle the matter quietly, the preschool's executive director said the acts of molestation might have no impact on the victim as she was asleep and unaware.
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SINGAPORE: Three former members of a preschool's senior management admitted on Friday (Dec 19) to covering up the offences of a cook who molested toddlers at the preschool where they all worked.
The cook, 61-year-old Teo Guan Huat, had molested three toddlers during naptime over seven months in 2023. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to more than nine years' jail last month.
The three members of senior management were the 59-year-old executive director, 61-year-old principal and 49-year-old vice-principal of the preschool.
All three failed to report Teo's acts and conspired to reformat a closed-circuit television camera that contained incriminating footage. The executive director and vice-principal also conspired to delete video evidence of the acts.
Their names and the name of the preschool where they worked cannot be published due to a gag order protecting the identities of the victims, who were between one and two years old at the time of the offences.
The executive director and vice-principal each pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiring to obstruct justice. Two other charges for obstructing justice and failing to report Teo's offences will be considered in sentencing.
The principal pleaded guilty to one charge of failing to report Teo's offences. Another charge of conspiring to obstruct justice will be taken into consideration.
Sentencing was adjourned to Jan 19, 2026.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Claire Poh and Quek Lu Yi are seeking at least three months' jail for the executive director, at least two months' jail for the vice-principal and a fine of at least S$8,000 (US$6,200) for the principal.
Defence lawyers are asking for 10 to 12 weeks' jail for the executive director, six to eight weeks' jail for the vice-principal and an S$8,000 fine for the principal.
Teo had deliberately targeted young children because they could not speak out about his actions, Ms Poh noted.
"As adults who had access to the CCTV footage, the accused persons were the only ones in a position to speak out for these voiceless victims by reporting to the police," she told the court.
The offences were inadvertently discovered by the vice-principal on Nov 16, 2023 when she was reviewing CCTV footage for an unrelated matter.
She saw Teo inserting his hand under the diaper of a two-year-old girl on Nov 9, 2023.
Teo had worked for the school for about a year at the time.
Apart from his duties as a cook, he escorted the children to another teacher for showers and helped take care of them at naptime. He would help lay out mattresses in the nap room and pat the children to sleep.
DECISION TO COVER UP
At the time the footage was discovered, the executive director and principal were overseas attending a course on protecting children from abuse.
The vice-principal sent the executive director the footage over WhatsApp, and she viewed it together with the principal. The trio then had a video call to discuss what to do.
The vice-principal and executive director then conspired to delete the footage from their phones.
The vice-principal was supposed to join them overseas for the course on Nov 17, 2023. She was instructed to delay her flight to later that day so that she could instruct Teo not to go near any children and monitor him while he worked.
The trio returned from the course a day early to deal with the matter. When they met back in Singapore on Nov 21, 2023, they decided to raise the matter to the chairwoman of the school's management committee.
This meeting took place on Nov 22, 2023 and lasted about an hour. During the meeting, the chairwoman was informed of Teo's acts for the first time.
The vice-principal used her phone to show the CCTV footage, and the executive director sought the chairwoman's decision on whether to report the matter to the police.
The executive director said there would be implications on the preschool if a police report was made: parents and the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) would have to be informed, and the police would interview the staff about how long the acts had been going on.
The executive director further said that the victim was asleep and may not have suffered any impact from Teo's acts as the girl was not aware of them.
She suggested settling the matter quietly by asking Teo to resign, instead of reporting it to the police.
When the chairwoman asked if the victim's parents needed to be informed, the executive director said if they were, then the school would have to manage their reaction as well as the reaction of other parents.
She said that the good name of the preschool would be tarnished and that it was likely many parents would withdraw their children from the preschool.
She added that the school may have to close down if the matter got out of control, and again said that the victim was not really affected by the acts.
The chairwoman asked if there was no impact on the victim.
She also questioned whether they would want to cover up the issue as Teo, a Malaysian, was a Singapore permanent resident, and terminating his employment did not prevent him from continuing to work in Singapore and committing similar offences in the future.
The vice-principal said that the impact on the victims and parents would be worse if the matter was reported to the police than if it was settled quietly.
The chairwoman said Teo's acts could still be registered in the victim's memory and if there were adverse effects, it was best for there to be early intervention.
The vice-principal then said that if she were the mother of the girl, she would rather not know what Teo had done to her.
The principal, who had broken down in tears, said that she did not want the children to be withdrawn from school and acknowledged a lapse on the preschool's part.
The meeting concluded with a consensus to monitor Teo as the chairwoman needed time to make a decision.
The next day, Nov 23, 2023, the chairwoman told them she had decided not to make a police report and to dismiss Teo. She would then consider the case closed.
The executive director, principal, vice-principal and a fourth staff member present all agreed with this decision. The vice-principal also asked if a non-disclosure agreement was needed, but the chairwoman showed some reluctance.
Later that day, the executive director spoke to Teo and gave him a choice of resigning or being fired. He chose to resign.
The trio considered the matter closed, with the executive director sending a message to their chat group reading: "Hopefully and prayerfully the issue is closed and we learn from this."
Safeguarding policies of the preschool made it clear that individual staff members should inform the police if there was abuse by a staff member, and that they could report the matter directly to the police without the approval of management, if required by the law.
REFORMATTING OF CCTV SYSTEM
Following this, the chairwoman of the school's management committee had another discussion with leaders and changed her mind – she decided the matter had to be reported to the police.
She informed the executive director of this in a text message on the evening of Nov 24, 2023, and the message was passed to the principal and vice-principal.
The trio agreed to tender their resignations, as they had earlier discussed, because they did not feel they would be able to cope with the fallout of the revelations.
The executive director and vice-principal also raised the possibility that the chairwoman might change her mind about reporting if they all resigned together.
In a discussion that did not involve the principal, the executive director and vice-principal also discussed whether the CCTV footage could be overwritten. The executive director sent links to YouTube videos for how to do this.
On the morning of Nov 26, 2023, the trio met in the office and printed their resignation letters.
There, the executive director pressured the principal to agree to overwrite or delete the incriminating CCTV footage.
The vice-principal then reformatted the hard discs of the CCTV system on the executive director's instruction.
They then went to their meeting with the chairwoman, who confirmed her intention to report the matter to the police. The meeting ended when the principal started crying and hyperventilating, and an ambulance had to be called for her.
The police report was made on Dec 2, 2023, and Teo was arrested on Dec 4, 2023.
When police raided the preschool and checked the CCTV system, all three of its hard discs had been reformatted. The police forensic team managed to recover the footage, including the video of Teo's acts on Nov 9, 2023.
ECDA fined the preschool S$26,200, restricted new enrolments and shortened its licence tenure from 36 months to six months.
ECDA also took action against four members of the preschool's management, and had barred three of them from working in the preschool sector since April 2024.
All four staff members have been removed from their posts by the preschool's operator, the authority previously said.
"This case is illustrative of the many reasons why an early childhood educator may shun away from reporting sexual abuse cases involving their charges under their care," the prosecutors said in written submissions to the court.
"Amongst them are the inability to account for the management's lapses (in this case, failing to ensure that a male cook does not come into contact with female children) and the stress that will ensue from the fallout of such a report being made.
"From these reasons emerges a strong tendency to justify one's failure to report. However, none of these reasons are valid excuses."
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