Chinese daycare teacher jailed in "needles" scandal

A Chinese kindergarten teacher was sentenced Friday to 18 months in prison for mistreating children with needles, a Beijing court said, citing criticism that the sentence would be too short.

Liu Yanan, who was a teacher at RYB Education New World, nabbed four children with needles in November 2017, the Chaoyang court in Beijing said. The scandal sparked national outrage.

A kindergarten investigation began when parents found marks of stings on their toddlers attending the bilingual Chinese-English high school.

There were also allegations that children would be forced to take mysterious pills.

"The circumstances were vile and his behavior seriously damaged the physical and mental health of the minors," the court said in a statement, adding that the violence had not resulted in any lasting injuries.

Ms. Yanan was also prohibited from working with minors for five years after serving her sentence.

RYB Education, a New York-listed company that runs the chain of kindergartens, apologized for this incident and pointed out on its official social media account that the violence had been committed by one person.

However, the online conviction sparked sharp criticism, with many social media users being insurgent against the fact that no official was punished.

Three Beijing education officials have been investigated for "lack of supervision", but the case has not progressed.

"The cost of committing a crime is too low! It is tolerating crimes!" read an article on Weibo, the Chinese platform resembling Twitter, claiming that Ms. Yanan should have been banned for life from working in the education sector.

The incident prompted the State Council, the supreme administrative body of China, to request an "immediate" investigation on all the country's children's gardens.

According to its website, RYB Education has about 500 kindergartens and nearly 1,300 learning centers in China for children under six.

The scandal was not the first to touch the company.

RYB suspended the head of a Beijing kindergarten in April 2017 after screening videos of teachers throwing a child on a bed and hitting another in the back.

In 2016, two teachers from a RYB kindergarten in northeastern Jilin Province were jailed for 34 months for beating children's heads, mouths and bad with sewing needles.