Paris police investigate more than one hundred accusations of child abuse in schools
Paris police are investigating more than one hundred accusations of child abuse in dozens of nursery schools, primary schools and crèches. Victims could be as young as three years old.
Paris police investigate more than one hundred accusations of child abuse in schools
Paris police are conducting an investigation into more than one hundred accusations of child abuse in educational establishments. The investigation covers dozens of nursery schools, approximately twenty primary schools and around ten crèches in the French capital. The alleged victims are children aged three years and above.
According to Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau, the investigation concerns accusations of mistreatment, physical violence and rape committed by out-of-school activity supervisors against children during lunch breaks, naps and extracurricular activities.
Out-of-school activity supervisors are adults responsible for supervising children during meals, breaks and various extracurricular activities. They sometimes spend more time with children than teachers do. They are employed by town halls or local councils, often without professional training and on temporary or hourly contracts, as explained by British daily newspaper The Guardian.
Unlike other European countries, education is compulsory from the age of three in France, which in practice means that most children attend nursery school. Out-of-school activity supervisors are therefore an integral part of the daily lives of children aged three to eleven.
The accusations include cases where supervisors allegedly pulled children by the hair, refused to give them food, forced them to eat until they vomited, or assaulted and raped them.
Lawyer Louis Cailliez, who represents two Parisian families, filed a criminal complaint in February regarding alleged rapes dating from 2025. In one case, a three-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a supervisor at school. In another case, a boy of the same age was allegedly raped by a supervisor who had been transferred to his school after complaints about his violent behaviour towards children had emerged.
French investigative site Mediapart revealed the case of a supervisor who, after being accused of several assaults but following a decision to close the case without further action, had simply been transferred to another school where he was again accused of child abuse.
Cailliez described the sector of out-of-school activity supervisors in France as a "catastrophe" and a "national scourge" in a statement to the Guardian.
New Paris mayor Emmanuel Grégoire revealed that he himself was a victim of sexual abuse by an out-of-school activity supervisor during his childhood. He stated that there is a "fundamental dysfunction" in the system and launched in April a plan worth 20 million euros (approximately 500 million crowns) aimed at simplifying the reporting of cases. He described the professionalisation of the sector as his "absolute priority".
"These incidents have been treated as isolated cases, when in reality they reveal a systemic risk, and perhaps even a systemic code of silence," Grégoire said last month to newspaper Le Monde.
Between January and April, Paris town hall removed 78 out-of-school activity supervisors, of whom 31 were suspected of sexual abuse.
The Guardian cites a representative of the parents' association SOS Périscolaire who is gathering testimonies for the ongoing investigation. According to him, this is a problem affecting all of France, not just Paris. Parents had been alerting to these problems for years, according to the newspaper.
Source: Aktuálně.cz