The China Mail - New Paris mayor pledges to prevent sexual violence in preschools

Emmanuel Gregoire, a Socialist elected last month who says he too suffered sexual abuse as a primary school pupil, in comments to Le Monde newspaper promised to invest 20 million euros ($23 million) in the plan.

"If another 10 million euros need to be put in, I'll do it," he said, promising better monitor recruitment and training, clearer channels to report alleged abuse, as well as transparency with parents.

In Paris, school monitors recruited and trained by the city help look after children outside the classroom, including in the evening before their parents can pick them up.

Allegations that abusers slipped through the recruitment system to look after small children became a central theme in the run-up to the Paris mayor election.

Last year, 30 of these monitors were suspended in the capital, including 16 on suspicion of sexual abuse, according to figures from the city hall.

Since January, nine more people -- all working at the same Paris nursery school --- have been suspended on suspicion of physical and sexual violence.

Parents of pupils have accused school management of failing to inform them about their suspicions.

"If there was a collective mistake, it was treating these cases as isolated incidents when in fact they reflect a systemic risk, and perhaps even a systemic code of silence," said Gregoire, who left city hall in 2024 to become a lawmaker.

Kindergarten pupils were especially vulnerable, and almost all alleged perpetrators were men, he said.

"Each quarter, I will share the statistics and the number of suspensions," he said.

Gregoire has spoken publicly about being a victim of sexual abuse in an after-school swimming programme for several months when he was in primary school.

Y.Parker--ThChM