Catholic School Scandal Shocks Paris

Police officers responding to a school emergency with students on the floor — Photo: Shutterstock

A 31-year-old English teacher sits in a French jail cell tonight, accused of raping and sexually assaulting toddlers as young as three at a Catholic nursery school in Paris.

Story Snapshot

Yasser G., an Algerian national, worked as an English instructor at the private Saint-Laurent nursery school in Paris’s 10th district.
French prosecutors formally charged and jailed him on September 24 for rape, sexual assault, and violence against 22 children ages three to five.
About 20 separate complaints from families triggered the investigation, which began with his arrest days earlier.
His lawyer says he denies the accusations, and his employer says it pulled him from classrooms the moment it learned of the claims.
The case lands inside a much larger French scandal touching more than 100 schools and nurseries across Paris.

Charges Filed Against Nursery School English Teacher

Paris prosecutors placed Yasser G. under formal judicial investigation on September 24 and ordered him jailed, French outlet Le Figaro reported. He faces charges of rape, sexual assault, and violence against 22 children between ages three and five. The alleged abuse happened at Saint-Laurent, a private Catholic nursery in the city’s 10th arrondissement, where he taught English to preschool-age kids.

Court records show Yasser G. worked at the school from September 2025 until June 23, 2026, when he was pulled from the classroom. Roughly 20 families filed complaints against him, according to Le Figaro’s reporting on the case. He was first taken into custody on September 22, then formally charged two days later once investigators reviewed the complaints against him.

Employer And Defense Push Back On The Claims

Yasser G.’s attorney told the French wire service AFP that his client does not recognize the facts alleged against him. That denial is the only counter-account on record so far, and it carries real weight since no conviction has been reached. An arrest and formal charge are allegations, not proof of guilt, and French courts will now weigh the evidence.

CapEnglish, the company that employed Yasser G. and placed him in the nursery, said it removed him from all contact with pupils the moment the school’s head told the company about the allegations. The firm also said its standard background checks on him were completed before he ever started working with children, and it pledged to cooperate fully with investigators.

Part Of A Much Bigger Paris School Abuse Crisis

This single case did not appear out of nowhere. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau has confirmed investigators are examining allegations across roughly 84 preschools, about 20 primary schools, and additional daycare centers throughout the city. Police have logged more than 200 separate allegations of violence, mistreatment, and sexual abuse of young children stretching back over a decade.

Former Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo called it a “collective failure” of city institutions to protect children in their care. Current Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire has echoed that language, acknowledging systemic failings as prosecutors dig through case after case involving non-teaching staff, activity leaders, and outside instructors who moved through school hallways with little oversight.

Why This Case Cuts So Deep For Parents

What makes the Saint-Laurent case sting is the setting. This wasn’t a rough public daycare with strained resources; it was a private Catholic nursery, the kind of place families choose specifically because they trust it. Twenty families believed they had picked a safe environment for their three-year-olds. Now they’re facing a criminal investigation instead.

A private Catholic nursery in the 10th district of Paris left an outside English teacher alone with groups of three- to five-year-olds. One child spoke in May. Classes went on. By late September a judge had charged the man and sent him to jail while the case is built. Twenty-two…

— Planet Today (@PlanetTodayNews) September 25, 2026

French parents’ groups have grown increasingly vocal, demanding faster reporting timelines and stricter vetting for anyone who works near young children, whether they’re full-time staff or outside contractors like English tutors. One earlier case in this broader scandal already ended in an 18-month suspended sentence for a school monitor convicted of abusing a preschooler, the first guilty verdict in what has become a defining child-safety reckoning for France.

The Saint-Laurent case now heads toward trial, where prosecutors will have to prove their charges beyond the initial complaints, and the defense will get its chance to challenge the evidence in open court. Until then, the presumption of innocence stands, even as the sheer number of alleged victims keeps this story impossible for French officials, and worried parents everywhere, to look away from.