A trial in Paris is underway for a former school employee accused of sexually assaulting eight children. The case highlights an ongoing crisis with child abuse allegations in over 130 schools, kindergartens, and nurseries in the French capital. The accused, referred to in French media as David G. for privacy reasons, was suspended last April and arrested in June, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.

David G., 36, denied all charges in court, expressing that he failed to maintain proper boundaries with children. He served as a nonteaching staff member at Alphonse Baudin school, a kindergarten in central Paris. Concerns arose from parents noticing behavioral changes in their children, prompting the school’s director to alert the authorities, leading to David G.’s arrest. Additional accusations include sexual assault or harassment of two adult colleagues. The school leadership and the education ministry have refrained from commenting due to the ongoing legal proceedings.

David G. is one of many nonteaching staff within Paris’s school system under investigation for allegedly abusing children, often during recess or after-school activities. These allegations have disrupted trust in the school system and present one of the first challenges for the new mayor, Emmanuel Grégoire.

Rebecca Royer, the lawyer representing six of the victims’ families, hopes the trial will act as a pivotal change for child protection. Royer and another lawyer, Hannah Kopp, opted for a public trial to showcase that these are not isolated incidents.

In the French educational framework, the national Education Ministry handles teaching, while city-hired staff manage recess, lunch, and extracurricular activities.