When a young father watched a television documentary in January focused on sexual abuse in Parisian public schools, he was stunned to find it concentrated on the preschool his 3-year-old daughter attended. Alarmed, he asked her about it, and she said a preschool employee had raped her with his finger in a school bathroom. The father, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his daughter's identity, filed a police complaint. His lawyer, Louis Cailliez, confirmed the central parts of the account.
The father soon learned he was among dozens of parents from three schools in central Paris, including the St.-Dominique preschool, accusing school workers of child abuse. Police interviewed 44 children, and 16 school workers were arrested in May, two of them detained on suspicion of sexual offenses, including the man accused of raping the 3-year-old.
The case is part of a widening crisis. By October, Paris prosecutors were investigating 179 sexual abuse allegations in city schools, and at least 74 of the city's 14,400 after-school supervisors had been suspended since January. Two have been convicted of child sexual abuse. Prosecutors are also examining negligence by city officials, including Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire and his predecessor, Anne Hidalgo. Both expressed regret at a parliamentary hearing in September and acknowledged a "collective failure" to keep sexual offenders out of schools. Grégoire said the city had never tried to cover up abuse, and his office says it is attempting a "deep overhaul" to prevent future abuse.
The furor adds to a broader reckoning in France over sexual violence. An independent committee estimated in 2023 that 160,000 French children were abused every year. Weekly protests have called on officials to do more to prevent child abuse. Senator Agnès Evren, who led a parliamentary inquiry, said, "We need a collective awakening, because it is clear that denial and silence persist."
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing