China daycare teacher jailed over ‘needle’ scandal

A Chinese kindergarten teacher was yesterday jailed for 18 months for abusing children with needles, a Beijing court said, sparking criticism online that the sentence was too short. Liu Yanan, who was a teacher at the RYB Education New World kindergarten, pricked four children with needles in November 2017, the Beijing Chaoyang Court said.

The scandal triggered national outrage. An investigation into the kindergarten began when parents found needle marks on their toddlers who attended the high-end, bilingual Chinese-English school. There were also allegations that the children were made to take mysterious pills.