Warning: You may find some of the graphic detail in this story disturbing
A school assistant will go on trial in Paris on Tuesday accused of sexual mistreatment of young children in his care.
It is the latest case in a year-long scandal that has shaken the school system in the French capital, where some 15,000 such assistants – known as animateurs – are employed as non-teaching staff.
Currently enquiries are under way at nearly 100 Paris crèches, kindergartens and junior schools where animateurs have been accused of inappropriate, aggressive or sexualised behaviour.
Trials in three other cases are to take place over the summer, and a verdict is due in a fourth which was held earlier this month. More are likely to follow.
Last week police detained 16 people after a swoop at three schools in the 7th arrondissement or district. Three people were subsequently charged with sexually inappropriate behaviour to children.
Tuesday’s case centres on the Alphonse Baudin junior school in the 11th arrondissement, where the animateur is accused of sexualised touching with five children.
One man told the BBC that in April 2025 he had already spotted unusual signs in his four-year-old daughter when another parent reported that their child had been molested.
“My wife took our daughter into the garden and asked her if she had been touched in after-school time, and she said ‘Yes, David touches me and gives me cuddles.’
“My wife said, ‘Show me’, and my daughter started stroking her back in a bizarre way. That’s when we knew something was wrong.”
The scandal has created a climate of mistrust and fear among parents of young children in Paris, many of whom accuse the City Hall – which employs the animateurs – of failing initially to take the complaints seriously.
According to after-school association SOS-Périscolaire, the main problem has been the low quality of animateurs, who are poorly paid and at most need only a basic certificate in child management to get a job. Sometimes the pressure to recruit is so great that even that requirement is waived.
Elisabeth Guthmann, who founded the association in 2021, said it was in response to the growing number of stories circulating among parents about teasing, taunting and other types of low-level abuse by animateurs.
She cited a case of four animateurs at a junior school in the 16th arrondissement who “set up a fight-club with the other children standing around shouting ‘Hit him!'”.
The new mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, has vowed to reform the recruitment system with €20m (£17.2m) for training and monitoring. He also said animateurs would be automatically suspended after a single complaint had been lodged. Since the start of the year nearly 80 have been suspended.
The animateurs – most of whom are on short-term contracts – are expected to look after young children during meal-times and in the afternoons after classes finish. They are supposed to conduct various sporting, craft and leisure activities.
But the assistants say they themselves are now victims of generalised suspicion and discrimination because of the scandal. Last week they staged a strike to call for recognition and more investment in their profession.
“Parents have, so to speak, taken power over the schools and started reporting things. Except that not everything they report is necessarily accurate,” said Carla Bonnet of the FO union.
“City Hall is no longer objective,” said Rémi, an after-school assistant. “It doesn’t investigate [the allegations]… it doesn’t look after us.
“Working with children today, at the drop of a hat you can be accused of absolutely anything.”
“When you have a system in which workers aren’t properly paid or trained or monitored, and where there’s no money or proper procedures for raising the alert, it’s not surprising that things get out of control,” said Grégoire Ensel of the parents’ organisation FCPE.
The scandal has been centred on Paris, but activists say that similar problems exist across the country.
