France is confronting a widespread child abuse scandal as school monitors in dozens of state nursery and primary schools face investigations for violence, sexual assault, and rape. Paris police are examining more than 100 allegations of mistreatment, physical violence, and rape of children as young as three by monitors during lunch breaks, nap times, and after-school activities, prosecutors confirmed.
Scope of the Investigations
Paris’s top prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, stated, “We have investigations under way in 84 preschools, about 20 primary schools, and about 10 daycare centres.” Lawyers revealed that the investigations include alleged rapes of children aged three and four.
Parents’ groups have reported fighting for years for their allegations to be taken seriously, citing failures in the recruitment process and checking of school monitors as allowing abuse to persist. Florian Lastelle, a lawyer for three Paris families who filed police complaints, described the situation as a “massive scandal.” He added, “The state school system is a source of pride in this country, but unfortunately in France today it’s not possible to say that the public service guarantees children’s safety.”
Role of School Monitors
School monitors are adults responsible for children during lunch, breaktime, naps, and after-school activities, often spending more time with children than teachers. They are not employed directly by schools or the education ministry but are recruited by city hall or local authorities, frequently without training or professional diplomas and on a casual basis, with many paid by the hour.
Nursery school is mandatory in France from age three, and monitors are a key daily presence for children aged three to 11. Accusations reported by parents across France include children being screamed at, pushed, having their hair pulled, denied food, forced to eat until they vomited, and sexually assaulted or raped.
Specific Cases
Lawyer Louis Cailliez, representing two Paris families, filed police complaints in February over alleged rapes of nursery schoolchildren in 2025. In one case, a three-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a monitor at a school in western Paris. In another, a three-year-old boy was allegedly raped by the same monitor, who had been moved to a different school after complaints of physical violence toward children.
Cailliez described the trauma: “One morning, the three-year-old boy became so distressed in front of the school gates, refusing to go in, that he fell into a kind of trance and his mother was in tears. The headteacher had to come out to force the child into school, and at the time neither the boy’s mother nor the headteacher knew why.” He said the children suffer physically and psychologically, and parents endure “daily torture” as they await investigation progress.
Cailliez labeled the school monitor sector in France a “disaster” and “a national catastrophe.”
Upcoming Trials
Next week in Paris, the trial begins for a school monitor accused of sexual abuse of five children aged three to five at a nursery school in the 11th arrondissement. A verdict is expected next month in another case involving a 47-year-old monitor accused of sexually abusing nine 10-year-old girls in Paris.
Official Response
Emmanuel Grégoire, the new Socialist mayor of Paris, launched a €20m (£17.3m) plan to address what he called “major dysfunction” in the city’s school monitor system. He told Le Monde, “If there was a collective mistake, it was to treat these incidents as isolated when in fact they point to a systemic risk, and perhaps even a systemic code of silence.”
Between January and April, Paris city hall suspended 78 school monitors, including 31 suspected of sexual abuse. Grégoire, who disclosed he was sexually abused as a child by a school monitor, set up a citizens’ assembly to discuss the role of school monitors, with a report due in June.
Parent Advocacy
The parents’ collective SOS Périscolaire has gathered testimony and campaigned for justice for five years. Co-founder Anne, who withheld her full name, said the abuse scandal is nationwide: “This is clearly systemic and across the whole of France. There is dysfunction not just at a city level, but we’re beginning to say there is also dysfunction by the state.” She welcomed prosecutors opening investigations, saying, “At last parents and children’s accounts are being taken seriously.”
Parents are demanding basic measures like receiving lists of names and photographs of monitors working with their children’s classes, which are still not systematically provided. A spokesperson for #MeTooEcole, a parents’ group in eastern Paris, stated, “French society is opening its eyes to the fact that school is not the sanctuary we had thought. When you drop a child at school in the morning, that child is absolutely not protected against administrative dysfunction and paedophile behaviour. Children are being confronted with all forms of violence: from verbal and physical violence to sexual assault. It’s horrifying and it is creating fear. Parents are outraged.”
Support Resources
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
