A kindergarten attended by a 5-year-old, who died after allegedly being tortured by her father and stepmother, has started an internal investigation after reports that the preschool was alerted of the girl’s abuse before she quit in October.
At the same time, a series of social media posts, reported to be by the child’s kindergarten teacher, have emerged online, expressing guilt and questioning whether more could have been done.
Chan Sui-lam — who local media are referring by her nickname “Lam Lam” — was taken in an unconscious state to hospital on Saturday. Her body had numerous bruises and scratches and she was later declared dead.
Her 26-year-old father and 27-year-old stepmother were arrested and appeared in court on Wednesday, charged with murder. The court heard that the couple allegedly regularly abused Chan and her 8-year-old brother.
The SCMP today reported that Hong Kong Lutheran Social Service was looking into reports that wounds had been found on Chan during her time as a pupil at its Fu Tai Lutheran Day Nursery in Tuen Mun.
Chan had not attended the school since October and the reports suggested staff had previously been alerted about her domestic situation.
The Lutheran Social Service told the SCMP that it took the reports “very seriously”, had established a taskforce to look into the matter, and would cooperate with authorities.
Meanwhile, a woman surnamed Cheng, reported to be a teacher at the preschool, wrote on social media about the case, saying: “A great mistake has been made. I cannot bury my guilty conscience”.
According to an HKET article, the messages — which don’t mention if the abuse had been noticed at any point by the kindergarten — were posted on Monday but were picked up by local media yesterday.
“My heart aches… the first thing I think about is ‘is there anything I did not do enough of’, and ‘is there more I could have done’, but in the end it was too late,” one of the messages read, according to HKET.
“I remember every morning you would hug me and greet me with the sweetest smile. I remember every time after your afternoon nap I would help you do your hair and you would always say ‘so pretty’ and ‘thank you’. You are a sweet and honest little angel, why did this happen to you? When I think about you going home after school, I wonder what your daily life must have been like.”
Another post says: “Lam Lam, Miss Cheng believes you are in God’s arms where there will be no pain and tears, we will meet again in the future.”
According to Apple Daily, it is not clear if Miss Cheng is still working at the school, and she is not accepting interviews.
