Child sex abuse scandals loom over France as pupils head back to school

To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Cover image: © France 24 01:42 Issued on: 01/09/2026 - 16:54Modified: 01/09/2026 - 16:54 In France, children headed back to school on September 1. But this year, parents had more to worry about than packing backpacks and getting them there on time. Several months ago, news broke of hundreds of sexual assault and rape allegations against monitors at schools and childcare centres in Paris. Monitors are employed by local authorities for after-school care and also look after the children before classes begin and during breaks. Parents want the government to provide safety guarantees. Keywords for this article