Khaberni - The Paris municipality suspended the work of 9 supervisors in a kindergarten in the seventh district following reports of physical and sexual violence, and opened an administrative and judicial investigation.
The Paris municipality decided to suspend the work of nine employees engaged in extracurricular activities since the end of January, against the backdrop of suspicions of committing physical violence and behaviors of a sexual nature within a kindergarten in the seventh district of the French capital. The decision came after multiple reports, as confirmed by the municipality on Monday.
The French network "C News" said that the precautionary measure came after the broadcast of an investigation by the program "Cash Investigation" on France 2 on January 29, which showed through hidden camera footage behaviors described as physical violence and unprofessional conduct.
The Paris municipality clarified that several employees were identified as having inappropriate behaviors, and their work was suspended immediately, taking into account additional reports provided by parents in the following days.
The concerned employees were working at Saint Dominique public school in the seventh district, while another employee was suspended at Volontaire school in the fifteenth district.
Simultaneously, about 73 parents of students from three schools in the seventh district (Rapp, La Rochefoucauld, Saint Dominique) filed a collective complaint before the Paris prosecutor's office. The complaint includes charges including deliberate violence against minors, deliberately endangering the lives of others, and neglecting a person unable to protect themselves.
Insiders indicated that the parents expressed their concerns about the possibility of their children being placed under the responsibility of unqualified or potentially dangerous individuals.
The complaint does not relate to cases of rape or serious sexual assaults, as stated therein. A lawyer for the parents confirmed that the collective action aims to remind the administration of its duty to ensure the complete safety of children within schools, accompanying activities, and recreational centers.
Politically, the candidate for the mayor of Paris from the Republicans and the Democratic Movement, Rachida Dati, intervened in the crisis, demanding the municipality to disclose accurately and updated the list of supervisors who were transferred or suspended, in addition to the number of reports recorded in each school in Paris, on the eve of the school holidays.
Dati criticized what she described as the absence of major procedures to determine the extent of the incidents, noting that she withdrew last week from a session of the Paris council in protest of what she considered a denial by the municipal majority of the violence file in extracurricular activities.
In a moving testimony, one of the mothers of students at Saint Dominique school expressed her anger, stating that she does not forgive the municipality or anyone who knew and tried to conceal the matter, affirming that they demanded an audit of the institution during October and November without an adequate response.
The case is still under judicial and administrative follow-up, amid increasing demands for transparency and accountability to ensure the protection of children inside educational institutions.
