Shocking Complaint from Girls in Sharon: “The Assistant Punished Us and Put Us in a Storage Room. In the Dark”
Mothers of two girls, ages 3.5 and 4.5, complained to police last week and alleged that an assistant at a municipal kindergarten in the Sharon area put their daughters in a dark storage room as punishment. One mother’s request to court to bar the assistant from the kindergarten was rejected. Police confirmed that an investigation has been opened.
According to one of the mothers, last month her 4.5-year-old daughter began behaving in an unusual and troubling manner. She refused to eat for several days and showed signs of distress, but would not say why. The mother told ynet: “My daughter first told the daughter of a friend of mine, who is two years older than her, what happened and how the assistant grabbed her hand tightly and twisted it on the way to the storage room.”
The mother said that later her daughter agreed to share the details with her and described the punishment method used at the kindergarten. According to her, when she asked her daughter why she had not told her, the girl said the assistant told her, “A little girl who tells her mother? Mother doesn’t have cameras in the kindergarten.” According to the mother, the child’s fear prevented her from exposing the incident.
The mother of a 3.5-year-old girl, who is also in the same kindergarten, said her daughter reported similar details about the punishment method, and some of the girls’ testimonies were documented and are now being revealed exclusively by ynet. According to the recordings, children at the kindergarten were allegedly placed in the storage room as a disciplinary measure. The girls described a closed, dark and frightening place, crying, fear and a sense of distress. One minor described children being put in the storage room on several occasions, while the other pointed out the location of the room and described its alleged use.
From the girls’ testimonies, it emerged that the storage room allegedly served not only as a place of punishment, but also as a deterrent for the rest of the kindergarten children, because they saw who was taken into the room and who was brought back out of it. “She put me in the storage room near the toys,” said one of the girls, aged 3.5, in a recorded testimony obtained by ynet. “We knocked on the door and she would not let us out. I was in the dark, and both I and the other girl were crying. And they did not open it for us and we were even more upset. Then one of the teachers opened the storage room for us and was angry at the assistant.”
In the testimony of the 4.5-year-old girl, she told her mother that the assistant put her there many times, not just once. The mothers said that after receiving the girls’ testimonies, they contacted the city education department and the kindergarten supervisor. To their surprise, in the reply letter they received, it was noted that a discussion had been held with the kindergarten staff on the matter and that the procedures had been clarified.
As noted, the mothers filed separate complaints with the police, and one of them also petitioned the Kfar Saba Magistrate’s Court to have the assistant removed from the kindergarten until the police investigation is completed. During a hearing in the courtroom of Judge Dr. Hagit Bolmesh, the request was rejected. According to the mothers, it was said during the hearing that “testimonies from 4-year-old minors are not admissible.”
“We did not ask the court to convict the assistant or determine that this was a criminal incident,” said the mother bitterly. “We also did not ask it to rule on an issue under investigation, only to temporarily remove her from the kindergarten מתוך the understanding that when it comes to helpless people, the precautionary principle should be favored until the facts are clarified.”
Because of the court’s decision, the two mothers removed the two girls from the kindergarten and transferred them to other settings, just a few weeks before the end of the school year. “It is absurd,” one of the mothers argued. “Instead of the system temporarily removing the alleged risk until the facts are clarified, it was the girls who had to leave their familiar environment, part from their friends and start over somewhere else.”
Police said in response: “Upon receiving the complaint to the police, an investigation was opened in which the necessary investigative actions are being carried out in order to get to the truth and to bring those involved to justice. Due to the fact that the investigation is still ongoing, we naturally cannot comment on its details.”
"A terrible and threatening atmosphere was created around the staff"
In response to the ynet report, parents whose children attend the kindergarten drafted a letter supporting the assistant. “We wish to state clearly and unequivocally our full faith and our unwavering support for the assistant,” the parents wrote, claiming that the assistant “provides a sense of security, stability and love every day.”
The authors of the letter also claimed that “a terrible and threatening atmosphere was created around the staff. It is inconceivable that a claim by one or two parents would lead to harm to a professional, dedicated and beloved staff member.”
One parent said tonight to ynet: “The city did not remove the assistant in question, and the court decided the same, the two girls continued to come to the kindergarten and parents who are worried are not sending their daughters to the kindergarten. We parents tried to get our children to talk and no other child raised anything alarming.”
