A hundred schools investigated in Paris for sexual abuse and mistreatment of children by monitors

ParisThe spectacular figures give an idea of the scope of the problem: the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation into 84 nursery schools, 20 primary schools, and 10 nurseries in the French capital due to complaints against monitors and childcare educators, for both sexual abuse and acts of mistreatment (violence, punishments, etc.). The Prosecutor's Office announced this week, coinciding with a strike this Tuesday by educational staff who look after children in schools during non-teaching hours, both during the lunch break and in activities held in the afternoons, when classes have already finished.

Monitors have been in the spotlight for a few months, when cases of not only sexual violence, but also verbal and physical assaults, shouting, and punishments of young children in Paris schools, came to light. It all began a year ago, with the suspension of a monitor from a public nursery school in the 11th district, accused of sexual assault on children and an adult. This highly publicized case triggered a wave of complaints in other schools.

What seemed like an isolated incident has ended up becoming a scandal of great proportions, with cases reported in more than a hundred schools. Since the beginning of this year, 78 monitors have been suspended in Paris, 31 of them for sexual offenses, according to data from the city council. Last year, 46 workers had been removed. Some of the cases are already being prosecuted.

Ignore the alerts

The council, responsible for the selection and hiring of public school monitors, has been accused of ignoring alerts from families and of being careless when choosing employees. 20% of the monitors have no training in childcare, not even a leisure monitor qualification. In fact, no specific training is required to work in schools.

Weeks after the first cases broke out, a journalist from the public television channel France 2, from the investigative program Cash investigation, managed to get hired as a monitor at a nursery school in the seventh district. The journalist recorded everyday scenes with a hidden camera that outraged families. In one of them, a monitor addresses the children in a clearly derogatory tone, shouts at them and threatens to leave them without a snack. "I think I'll take all your snacks and you'll go without eating!", the woman shouts. Some of the children, aged 3, end up crying.

The journalist hired as a monitor tries to comfort one of the crying children. "If this makes you sad, this job is not for you", the worker snaps at her. The next day, the journalist records another monitor in the playground who shouts at a child, grabs him and kisses him twice on the mouth. "I'm crazy about him", she justifies. After the broadcast, nine monitors from the center were suspended.

Normalizing verbal violence

The images recorded by France 2 are not the most serious cases among those reported, but they are an example of what can happen daily in schools without anyone noticing. Some situations – especially verbal violence – have become normalized in educational centers, especially in a country where discipline – also for 3 and 4-year-old children – is one of the pillars of school.

All of this has forced the City Council to take action. The new mayor, Emmanuel Grégoire, who suffered sexual abuse as a child, has announced measures to prevent situations like those reported from recurring and has promised "zero tolerance" for these types of behaviors, especially regarding sexual abuse. The previous mayor, Anne Hidalgo, had already implemented some measures before the end of her term: now new monitors must take a two-day course before starting work and the City Council has organized training for active monitors to prevent cases of violence and sexual abuse. These are, in reality, measures that were supposed to be implemented in 2015, but they were shelved.

Systemic problem

Grégoire has admitted that there is a "systemic" problem and wants a mechanism to be put in place for next year to prevent a monitor from being alone with a child. It was one of his electoral promises. "My feeling is that if there has been a collective error, it has been to consider these cases as isolated incidents, when in reality they reflect a systemic risk and perhaps even a systemic omertà. There has been silence," admitted the socialist mayor in an interview with Le Monde.

The dozens of complaints have generated much concern among families and have provoked a climate of mistrust towards the group of monitors. The workers, in turn, denounce their precarious situation, with low wages and contracts of a few hours a week, aggravated by a climate of tension due to the multiple complaints. A monitor lamented to

Le Monde that they now "live with the anguish of being suspended because they have spoken out in the school canteen." The group held a day of strike this Tuesday to protest against the situation.