Paris Arrests Two After-School Staff And One Other Man Over Sexual Assaults On 12 Children

Three men, including two after-school program staff, were arrested and brought before the courts over sexual assaults alleged against 12 children aged 3 to 9 in three Parisian schools, according to a source close to the case cited by Le Figaro and AFP.

The incidents include a school in the 15th arrondissement, Vigée Lebrun, where nine victims aged 6 to 9 were assaulted by an activity facilitator, and a preschool in the 20th arrondissement, Grands Champs, where two children aged 3 and 4 were assaulted by the husband of a teacher.

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In the 10th arrondissement, a 5-year-old girl was assaulted by an activity facilitator, and at the same establishment, Aqueduc school, a teacher was also arrested and placed in custody for sexual assaults on six children aged 3 and 4 but was not brought before a judge.

Le Figaro said the three investigations were assigned to the intrafamilial section of the Brigade de Protection des Mineurs (BPM) of the Paris judicial police, while Le Monde with AFP reported the arrests were made over the past two weeks.

The case was described by Le Monde with AFP as part of a broader after-school sector marked for months by reports of violence and sexual assaults, with gaps highlighted in recruitment and in the handling of alerts.

Ahead of the municipal elections, Radio France reported that hundreds of parents in Paris mobilized to end a “wall of silence” after the Cash Investigation investigation into failures of the after-school program sent “shockwaves through many Parisian families.”

Radio France said 73 parents filed a complaint against X on February 12, 2026 to “obtain guarantees that their children are safe within the public school,” according to the collective’s attorney, Florian Lastelle.

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A mother identified as Hélène (a pseudonym) told Radio France that “Both the staff and their supervisor, as well as the school’s director, shut us out with a wall of silence,” and she said they were forbidden to respond to questions.

Radio France also quoted a father who said, “Every time, we were really made to believe we were crazy,” and it quoted Sarah (a pseudonym) saying, “I feel like I’ve been lied to.”

In parallel, Le Monde with AFP reported that many families deemed the City of Paris plan “insufficient,” with some denouncing a “wall of silence” by both political and judicial authorities.

Beyond the specific after-school arrests, The Guardian reported that Paris police are examining more than 100 allegations of mistreatment, physical violence and rape of children as young as three by school monitors during lunch breaks, nap times and after-school activities.

“Structural Dysfunction March 14, 2026 With about thirty complaints, several after-school program staff suspended, the Saint-Dominique school case brutally revealed what parents had been denouncing for years: an accumulation of ignored warning signals and opaque management of the after-school program”

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The Guardian quoted Paris’s top prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, saying, “We have investigations under way in 84 preschools, about 20 primary schools and about 10 daycare centres,” while lawyers said the investigations included alleged rape of children as young as three and four.

Florian Lastelle, a lawyer for three Paris families, told The Guardian, “It’s a massive scandal,” and he added that “the public service guarantees children’s safety” could not be said to be guaranteed in France.

The Guardian reported that Emmanuel Grégoire, the new Socialist mayor of Paris, launched a €20m (£17.3m) plan to tackle “major dysfunction,” and it said that between January and April Paris city hall suspended 78 school monitors, including 31 suspected of sexual abuse.

It also quoted Grégoire telling Le Monde last month that “If there was a collective mistake, it was to treat these incidents as isolated when in fact they point to a systemic risk,” while the parents’ collective SOS Périscolaire said prosecutors opening investigations was “a good sign” because “At last parents and children’s accounts are being taken seriously.”