Special needs therapist manhandled boy, given 'verbal warning' with 'no further action', MSF investigating

Video footage of the incident, which allegedly happened in March 2019, resurfaced on social media recently.

Nigel Chua | July 01, 2020, 11:45 AM

Distressing CCTV footage has surfaced on social media, capturing an incident involving a young boy with special needs being manhandled by his therapist.

The incident took place in March 2019, according to a June 30 Facebook post about the incident by the boy's mother, Safirah Oshin.

2019 incident brought up as "no justice" was served

The post stated that after a "reappeal", there was "still no justice" even though the case was reopened in January 2020.

Safirah posted two video clips capturing the incident, calling for "justice for Ali".

She said that the home therapist was given a "verbal warning" with "no further action" taken.

Safirah explained that her son, Ali, has autism, as well as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

What the videos showed

The two videos uploaded were said to be only a segment of a longer 40-minute clip.

Warning: the videos may be distressing, as they depict scenes of rough handling of a child.

Clips from the video have also been circulating on Instagram, with one post gathering over 100,000 views.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCDzEbqhcTf/

Petition started

A petition on change.org has also been started late June 30 and it received over 5,000 signatures in less than 12 hours.

MSF asked to investigate

Desmond Lee, who is the Minister for Social and Family Development, said that he has "asked that this matter be looked into thoroughly", in response to "many messages" of concern that he received.

Tan Chuan Jin, who previously held the post of Minister for Social and Family Development as well, said that MSF was looking into the case and would investigate it.
Mothership has reached out to the Ministry of Social and Family Development and the police, and will update the article with their response.

Photo via @ausometots on IG and Safirah Oshin on FB