Six-Year-Old Punched at Kindergarten, Mother Says Staff Ignored Repeated Warnings

The mother of a 6-year-old boy from Ashkelon says he was punched by other children at his kindergarten this week and accuses the staff of ignoring repeated warnings about violence. A passerby rescued the child and called for help. Police have opened an investigation.

According to Moran Dror, her son was attacked by several children at the kindergarten in Ashkelon and required medical treatment. She says the family had been warning for months about recurring incidents of violence at the kindergarten, but nothing was done.

"It is unacceptable that a passerby had to help our child before the kindergarten staff," Dror said. She said that throughout the school year, her son was forced to deal with violence from several children in the group. "I expected the educational staff to act firmly to eradicate the phenomenon," she said. "We reached out again and again, we warned them, we asked for intervention, and we were promised that the matter was being handled and that such incidents would not happen again. In practice, nothing changed."

Dror said the situation came to a head this week. "Those children attacked my son violently and punched him. This is a 6-year-old child who is in a setting that is supposed to protect him and keep him safe. Instead, he found himself helpless during an attack."

What upset the family most, she said, was what happened afterward. "As far as we know, the person who intervened, stopped what was happening, documented the incident and called the police and MDA was actually a passerby who happened to be there," Dror said. "That cannot be the situation."

According to the mother, as a result of the incident, her son was injured and needed medical treatment. "Throughout the day he suffered from vomiting and was taken for medical care. Only after hours was he discharged from the emergency room. This is a 6-year-old child who is already dealing with fears and anxiety because of the security situation, and with a medical history of asthma. A child like that needs protection, not to experience such a violent incident inside an educational framework."

Dror also sharply criticized how the matter was handled after the incident: "The most serious thing for me is that no one bothered to update me in real time about how severe the case was. Even after my son needed medical treatment, no one from the kindergarten staff called to ask how he was. My feeling is that instead of understanding the seriousness of the incident, they tried to normalize it and treat it as if it were just another routine event."

According to her, this was not an isolated incident. "This is not a one-day story. It is the culmination of a series of events I warned about for months. Every day I hoped that a disaster would not happen. This week, the disaster almost happened."

The family is now demanding a thorough review of the kindergarten's conduct and the conduct of those responsible, along with explanations for how, despite repeated requests and warnings, no solution was found to prevent the violence from continuing. "I demand answers, accountability and action," Dror concluded. "No child should be afraid to go to kindergarten. No parent should receive a phone call saying their child was hurt after months of warnings that were not addressed. In my view, this is a failure that must be investigated to the end."

Police confirmed that an investigation was opened after the complaint was filed. The Education Ministry said in response: "The case is being handled and accompanied by the South District of the Education Ministry, in cooperation with the Ashkelon municipality. As part of the treatment, the kindergarten staff has been reinforced with additional team members, and the supervision and professional teams are providing ongoing professional guidance and monitoring of what is happening in the kindergarten. Due to the young age of the children, for privacy reasons and out of a commitment to preserving the integrity of the educational therapeutic process, we cannot expand further in the media."