French authorities are investigating more than 100 allegations of mistreatment, physical violence and sexual abuse involving children as young as three in nurseries, primary schools and daycare centres across Paris, linked to school monitors working in these institutions.
Paris police are examining complaints across a wide network of sites. Paris’s top prosecutor Laure Beccuau confirmed the scale of the investigation, saying, “We have investigations under way in 84 preschools, about 20 primary schools and about 10 daycare centres,” as quoted by The Guardian.
The allegations include reported sexual assaults and rape, as well as physical abuse during lunch breaks, nap times and after-school activities.
School monitors are adults responsible for supervising children during these periods, often spending more time with them than teachers. They are not directly employed by schools or the education ministry but are recruited by local authorities, often on casual contracts and sometimes without formal training or qualifications.
Reports gathered across France include children being screamed at, pushed, having their hair pulled, denied food, forced to eat until they vomited and in some cases being sexually assaulted or raped.
Several legal cases are now moving through the courts. One trial begins in Paris next week involving a school monitor accused of sexually abusing five children aged between three and five at a nursery school in the 11th arrondissement. In another case, a 47-year-old school monitor is due to receive a verdict next month after being accused of sexually abusing nine girls aged 10.
Lawyers representing affected families say the abuse was able to continue due to systemic failures. “It’s a massive scandal,” said Florian Lastelle, a lawyer for three Paris families who have filed police complaints over the alleged abuse of their children. “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.”
Lawyer Louis Cailliez, who represents two Paris families, said he filed complaints in February over alleged rapes in 2025. In one case, a three-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a school monitor at a school in the west of Paris. In another instance, a three-year-old boy was allegedly raped by the same monitor after he had been moved to a different school following earlier complaints of violence.
Describing the impact on families, Cailliez said, “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," as quoted by The Guardian.
Parents’ groups say concerns were raised repeatedly over several years but not properly acted upon. They argue that weak recruitment and insufficient background checks allowed abusive individuals to continue working with children.
The alleged failures have also raised concerns about wider systemic issues in the sector, with claims that problems were treated as isolated incidents rather than part of a broader pattern.
Paris city hall has now suspended 78 school monitors between January and April, including 31 suspected of sexual abuse.
Paris mayor Emmanuel Grégoire has launched a 20 million euros plan to address what he described as “major dysfunction” in the system.
Grégoire, who has said he was sexually abused as a child by a school monitor, has also set up a citizens’ assembly to review the role of school monitors, with findings expected in June.
The parents’ collective SOS Périscolaire has been central in gathering testimony over the past five years and pushing for action. One of its founders, Anne, said the problem extends beyond Paris.
“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 added, "At last parents and children’s accounts are being taken seriously.”
She also said parents are still fighting for basic safeguards, including access to names and photographs of school monitors working with children, which are not systematically provided.
