Do you ever know if your kids are safe?   A teacher strangles a kid at a private nursery in Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City. Tuoi Tre How many of us actually remember when we were two or three years old? I have to confess I do not remember that much until I started primary school. The odd fleeting memory of being pushed around in a pram and getting lots of attention is no bad thing. But what I do remember is having the love of my mother and father, and in particular idolizing my teachers at kindergarten (in Scotland we called it nursery) who gave you everything that you missed from being in the family home. Nursery school was doing exactly that, nursing you away from your mum and helping prepare you for your time ahead in primary school. When I speak to my mum on the phone, she will sometimes tell me that she met my old nursery or primary teacher and I can remember all their names. I think they were all women and spoiled me and my classmates. What men do not like to be spoiled by women, even at a very young age? Now with that in mind, you can understand that when I saw the story about the two pre-school teachers beating up, strangling, torturing and even holding up a kid upside down over a water barrel, I honestly felt physically sick. I had to re-read the story just to check it was true. The video is horrific. Women, employed by the school, financed by the parents, who are responsible for taking care of their little loved ones, are ruining their children’s innocence and possibly psychologically scarring them forever. Can you honestly believe it? It is bad enough that parents are kept awake at night after watching movies or reading a book, scared about what horrors lurk on every corner and they double check their precious children are still sleeping sound, enjoying the innocence of childhood. All parents want their children to be innocent forever but they know one day that innocence will be shattered. Hopefully in their late teens or early twenties when their first crush goes wrong, not when they are mere babies, being bashed and strangled and mentally attacked by these monsters. No, I am not being dramatic in the slightest; these two women who were caught on video are monsters. They have done more damage in the short time ‘teaching’ those kids than most kids will face in the whole of their childhood. Can you imagine how you would feel? You are sitting at home waiting for your little boy or girl to come home after pre-school, you get a knock at the door. It is the police and they want to show you a video. You see your kid being thrown around like a toy, beaten, slapped, strangled, being wiped on the mouth with dirty cloths, OMG. Some animals are treated better. Your gut instinct would be to find these women and… Thankfully the police have intervened and put these child-abusers into jail until they are sentenced. And the pre-school has been closed down and I am sure the owners will never be allowed to own an educational business ever again. They also should face jail for allowing this to go on. In one instance, one of the teachers was slapping and punching this poor little boy and she also strangled him. No wonder he raised his hand to fight back. Fair play to the little guy. I bet that is why he got the brunt of it because he stood up for himself and fought back. Maybe he is one little boy who might fight off this horrendous abuse not too badly scarred. So what did these babies do to earn the wrath of such cowardly characters? They cried, OMG babies crying - unheard of. They were sick, refused to eat or ate too slowly. Having seen the pictures of what happened to dog-stealers in Vinh City recently, I’d love this mob to be alone in a back street with these two women. According to experts, once kids are abused they can become depressed, anxious and stressed. They are easily frightened, do not sleep well at night or have a lot of nightmares. Some even suffer from anorexia and others have eating problems because of the way they are treated when they refuse to eat or eat slowly. Apparently some panic and have palpitations or panic attacks when something triggers previous abuse. All this because two women like to beat up kids, have no patience, run a pre-school, hate kids, are cowards but at least they have been found out before this could continue anymore. It just makes you wonder how many others like them are out there. No wonder most kindergartens have cameras in every room. Perhaps some teachers think they are monitoring their teaching skills, not likely the managers are just making sure you are not harming any of the kids. Jesus, what kind of world are we living in? Looks like it will be home teaching for my future kids. After watching this video, can you genuinely trust anyone? The thing which I cannot get my head round is the why? Is it not human instinct to take care of kids and make sure no wrong is done to them? What do these women feel when they see those cute little guys? Anger? I do not think I will ever understand. Maybe just as well. One of the abusers is Le Thi Dong Phuong, 31, who is actually the manager of Phuong Anh Private Preschool, located in Hiep Binh Phuoc Ward, Thu Duc District. The other accused is Nguyen Le Thien Ly, 19, who is Phuong’s niece. So it is a family operation, this child beating thing. I hope they throw away the key. DEREK MILROY, Tuoitrenews