PARIS – A groundbreaking public trial launched in Paris this week has thrown long-silenced child abuse scandals in French educational settings back into the national spotlight, after a group of affected parents broke with decades of legal convention to open proceedings to the public, inspired by a high-profile campaigner’s fight against abuse. The defendant, a 36-year-old school assistant whose identity has not been released to protect the ongoing case, stands accused of sexually assaulting nine children between the ages of 3 and 5 at a Paris nursery school. The alleged offenses occurred between August 2024 and April 2025, during bathroom supervision, lunch breaks, and after-school care sessions. He additionally faces charges of sexual harassment against two colleagues and sexual assault against one, and has denied all allegations. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years of prison time.
Under standard French law, all criminal cases involving minor victims are held behind closed doors to protect the privacy of children. But the parents of the victims in this case chose to waive that privacy protection, drawing direct inspiration from Gisèle Pelicot, who made her own widely publicized trial for rape and drug-related offenses open to the public to shine a light on systemic abuse. Echoing Pelicot’s core mantra that shame should rest with abusers, not survivors, the families say their choice to open the trial is intended to break the culture of silence that has allowed child abuse to persist unaddressed in French schools for years.
The allegations first came to light in April 2025, when multiple children disclosed the abuse to their parents. According to the families, their trauma was compounded by systemic failures: a warning raised by one mother months before the case came to light was dismissed outright by school leadership, a revelation that has amplified calls for sweeping oversight reform. Outside the Paris courthouse Tuesday, parent activists gathered to demand action. Barka Zerouali, co-founder of MeToo Ecole – the grassroots MeToo School movement focused on educational setting abuse – told protesters that the moment demands a national reckoning. Demonstrators carried banners reading “Because no child should be afraid to go to school”, echoing the growing public anger over unaddressed risks for young children.
Rebecca Royer, a legal representative for multiple affected families, outlined the broader goals of the parents’ campaign: “what we are expecting is a real turning point in child protection, meaning we expect the government and municipalities to implement real measures to protect children, but also to provide real resources.”
This trial is not an isolated case. In recent months, a cascade of similar allegations across Paris and the rest of France has pulled the issue of child abuse in early education into the center of public and political debate. Last week, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau confirmed that active investigations are ongoing across 84 city nursery schools, 20 elementary schools, and 10 daycare centers. Since the start of 2026, 78 school and after-school staff in Paris have been suspended from their roles, 31 of them over suspicions of sexual violence, according to newly elected Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire.
Unlike state-employed teachers, school assistants and after-school program leaders in France are hired and overseen by municipal authorities – a structural arrangement that has come under intense scrutiny in the wake of the allegations. Grégoire, who took office in March, has named combating child abuse his “absolute priority”, and recently unveiled a €20 million ($22 million) action plan to fix what he has called “major dysfunction” in the city’s school oversight system. He has pledged that any employee suspected of child abuse will be suspended immediately pending investigation. Before his election, Grégoire publicly shared his own experience as a child abuse survivor, when he was assaulted as a 9- and 10-year-old in elementary school. The wave of abuse allegations that emerged earlier this year made child protection a defining issue of the Paris mayoral campaign, cementing its place as a top national priority.