Hitting resolved

I talked to Penny's preschool principal the next day after Penny talked to me about the hitting. I told the principal what Penny had told me and asked her what the teachers usually do to discipline the children when they misbehave. She is a very kind woman, and she sounded legitimately concerned. She assured me that in the 10 years she had worked there, they had never had a teacher hit a child, and it was something they definitely didn't allow. She would talk to Penny's three teachers and see what the situation was.
Now I've worked with kids and I know that even when they tell you the truth, it might not be the whole situation. I remember kids telling the counselors things at the day camp where I worked, and sometimes we would have to tell them, "Maybe that's not something your mom or dad wants you to tell everyone at camp." The one I remember the most clearly was when one little girl explained to us that her "mom has a boyfriend, but only at night." Of course we thought it was hilarious, and it could have been possible that her mom was the town harlot. But it also could be just a misinterpretation. I really have no idea. But kids sometimes have their own perspective.
One time we had a counselor hit a kid. Right after it happened, the counselor came and told me about it. His eyes were wide, and he was obviously horrified by what he'd done. And if we left it at that and let the kid go home and tell his parents that part of the story, it does sound like we were the worst ever. But then he told me that this little boy had come up and-- without warning-- punched him in the stomach. So his reaction was to swat/shove the boy away. We talked to the kid about how his human jungle gym of a counselor wasn't invincible, and he had to be more gentle with him. We also talked to the parents about it when they came to pick him up.
And that's how we handled it in America.
I took Penny to school yesterday, and Penny's teachers talked to me. I understood most of what they said, and then I filled in the blanks with what I thought they meant. So the story I got was that there is a little boy in Penny's class who likes to touch Penny's cheeks. When the teacher reached over to get this boy's hands off Penny's face, she accidentally whacked Penny in the face.
How do I feel about this? Well, I give it a 50% chance of being true. If this is really what happened, then that's fine. If the teacher really did slap Penny, then this is also what I would expect them to tell me. So I still don't know.
But I do know that they don't allow hitting the kids, and it's not something they regularly do for discipline. I asked what they do in a normal situation, and a teacher told me that they stop the child and then talk slowly with them. Or if they need to, they'll take the child to the side of the room and talk to them there. But they never hit the children. And the teacher reassured me that they all really like Penny. They would never hit her.
And I believe them. I don't know what really happened that day, but I feel confident that they have addressed my concerns. Whatever happened that day, they'll be more careful in the future. And I think they'll be more likely to talk with me when I pick Penny up if there has been any sort of incident, large or small.
For now, that's probably the best I can do.