The investigation into possible child abuse in "extracurricular" centers in Paris has expanded to 84 kindergartens and 20 primary schools, reported prosecutor Laure Beccuau, a month and a half after it was revealed that 78 monitors have been suspended so far this year in the French capital (31 of them under suspicion of sexual violence against minors).
"The acceleration of the investigations is good news because the wait for parents can become unbearable", declared the Mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, who has made the fight against "omertà" one of his priorities.
"We have changed the recruitment procedures for monitors, we are conducting frequent inspections, and we have launched a citizens' convention on children's rights," stated Grégoire. "I want to tell parents that they need to trust their schools again".
The news was met with concern by affected parents, who demand the opening of a similar investigation on a national scale. "President Emmanuel Macron must speak out on the issue and take responsibility", warned Barka Zerouadi, co-founder of the organization #MeTooécole. "We cannot allow our children to be violated in the schools of the Republic. A national strategy is needed to prevent tragedies and psychoses in schools."
The association SOS Périscolaire has compiled a map with 437 recent cases of alleged abuse against minors in "extracurricular" centers across France. As a result of the scheme, more than half have occurred outside Paris in towns like Tours, where on April 17, a monitor was dismissed, suspected of raping a three-year-old girl.
Meanwhile, the Paris prosecutor announced the pretrial detention of another suspect of sexual violence against minors in the city, as well as five judicial summonses. The prosecutor warned that we are facing "a national emergency" and Mayor Grégoire has acknowledged the "systemic nature" of the abuses and the existence of an "omertà" that has protected monitors until now.
The investigation has coincided with the release of the book "The Kings of Silence" by Le Parisien journalist Victoire Halfreingue-Molulard, who infiltrated extracurricular centers and collected dozens of shocking testimonies of "humiliation and sexual violence" towards children. The journalist has denounced extracurricular centers and, in particular, nurseries as "a blind spot in child protection, whose system has huge deficiencies that have allowed the hasty recruitment of staff susceptible to dangerous behaviors, even sexual violence."