SINGAPORE, April 1 — A former preschool principal has been sentenced to 10 days in jail for failing to report sexual abuse at her school, The Straits Times reported today.
The 62-year-old woman who cannot be named to protect the children’s privacy, had agreed to reformat the CCTV system after a cook, Malaysian Teo Guan Huat, was caught on video molesting a two-year-old girl at the preschool in 2023.
“(This case) serves as a sobering reminder that child protection cannot be reduced to the mere completion of courses or formal training,” District Judge Sharmila Sripathy-Shanaz was quoted as saying during sentencing.
The former principal had pleaded guilty to intentionally omitting information to the police about Teo’s offences.
The judge criticised her for abusing a position of trust, highlighting that educators have an absolute duty to safeguard children in their care.
She added that the inaction could have allowed a sexual predator to strike again.
“These are precisely the harms that reporting obligations are designed to guard against,” the judge was quoted as saying.
Teo, then 61, was sentenced in November 2025 to nine years, four months and seven weeks’ jail for molesting three girls aged between one and two during nap time at the pre-school.
The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority revoked Teo’s Singapore permanent residency on April 1 and announced that he will be deported after having served his sentence and barred from re-entering the republic.
Two other staff members have already been sentenced for obstructing justice, including deleting video footage of the assaults, while one received a stern warning and a discharge amounting to an acquittal.
The offences occurred between May and November 2023, and a gag order prevents revealing the identities of the victims, the other women involved, or the pre-school itself.
