Monster child abuse scandal in France: school staff under investigation for acts of violence and sexual assault
France is facing a major child abuse scandal after authorities opened investigations into dozens of state kindergartens and primary schools, where auxiliary staff are accused of violence, sexual assault and rape.
Paris police are investigating complaints of child abuse by “supervisors”/PHOTO
Paris police are investigating over 100 allegations of ill-treatment, physical violence and sexual assault on children as young as three years old, French prosecutors have confirmed, The Guardian writes.
“We have ongoing investigations in 84 kindergartens, approximately 20 primary schools and around 10 day care centers”said the chief prosecutor of Paris, Laure Beccuau. Lawyers involved in the case say that the investigations include allegations of rape against three and four-year-old children.
Parents' groups say that they have tried for years to convince the authorities to treat seriously the complaints regarding the behavior of the auxiliary staff in the schools. They accuse serious deficiencies in the process of recruitment and verification of employees.
“It's a huge scandal”said Florian Lastelle, the lawyer for three Paris families who filed criminal complaints. “The public education system is a source of pride in France, but today we can no longer say that the public service guarantees the safety of children.”
In France, so-called “school monitors” supervise children during breaks, lunch, afternoon naps and extracurricular activities. In many cases, they spend more time with the students than the teachers. These employees are not recruited directly by schools or the Ministry of Education, but by town halls or local authorities, often without professional training or specific qualifications.
Kindergarten is compulsory in France from the age of three, which makes school monitors a constant presence in the lives of children between the ages of three and 11.
The accusations of the parents
Among the accusations made by parents in different regions of France are yelling, pushing, hair pulling, deprivation of food, forcing children to eat until they vomit, but also sexual assaults or rapes.
Lawyer Louis Cailliez, who represents two families in Paris, filed complaints in February regarding alleged rapes of kindergarten children that took place in 2025.
In one case, a three-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a monitor in a school in the west of Paris. In another case, a boy of the same age was allegedly assaulted by the same employee, later transferred to another school after complaints related to violent behavior towards children.
“One morning the boy became so frightened in front of the school gate, refusing to enter, that he went into a state of shock and his mother burst into tearsCailliez said. “The principal of the school came out to force him into the building, without anyone then understanding the reason for his reaction.”
According to the lawyer, the children involved suffer severe physical and psychological consequences. “For the parents it is a daily torture, while they try to find out the extent of the investigated facts”, he said.
Next week, the trial of a school monitor accused of sexually assaulting five children between the ages of three and five, in a kindergarten in the 11th arrondissement, is to begin in Paris. In another case, French justice is to pronounce the verdict in a case involving a 47-year-old man accused of sexually assaulting nine 10-year-old girls.
The new socialist mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, announced a 20 million euro investment plan to reform the system of school monitors, which he described as affected by “major dysfunctions”.
“If there has been a collective mistake, it has been treating these incidents as isolated cases, when in fact they indicate a systemic risk and perhaps even a culture of silence”Grégoire told Le Monde.
Between January and April, Paris City Hall suspended 78 school monitors
Between January and April, Paris City Hall suspended 78 school monitors, 31 of whom are suspected of sexual abuse.
Grégoire also revealed that he himself was the victim of sexual abuse by a school monitor as a child. The mayor has now created a citizens' assembly to analyze the role and responsibilities of these employees, with the conclusions to be presented in June.
The collective of parents SOS Périscolaire, which has been in the front line of the campaign for justice for the last five years, claims that the problem is a national one.
“It is clearly a systemic phenomenon, present throughout France“, said Anne, one of the founders of the group. “We are not only talking about failures at the local level, but also about state dysfunctions.”
She believes that the opening of the investigations is an important step: “Finally, the testimonies of parents and children are taken seriously.”
Another group of parents, #MeTooEcole, established in the east of Paris, says that French society is beginning to understand that the school “is not the sanctuary” that many imagined.
“When you leave your child at school in the morning, he is not protected against administrative dysfunctions or pedophile behavior”said a representative of the organization. “Children are exposed to all forms of violence, from verbal and physical abuse to sexual assault. It is horrifying and frightening. Parents are outraged.”
