Last September, with the start of the course, hell began for Clara (fictitious name), five years old, and her family.
She “she began to touch her genitals.
We didn't see it as normal, we wrote to the school and they told us that this was normal.
She told us that another girl had taught it to her, ”explains her father.
Until, in the month of March, the box of thunder was uncovered.
“One day, fed up with her touching herself, we insisted and she explained everything: that there was a man in orange and yellow who took the children to the bathroom, who told them to take off their clothes and taught them to touch themselves.
And that he took photos and videos of them, ”says the father, dismayed.
In March, the family denounced him to the Mossos d'Esquadra.
It is one of the cases that the Catalan police are investigating about an episode of sexual abuse at the French Lyceum in Barcelona, allegedly perpetrated by a dining room monitor.
The man, SR and about 33 years old, was not arrested, but the court issued a restraining order that prohibits him from approaching less than 500 meters from the early childhood education building, located on Munner Street.
For its part, Serunión, the company that manages the canteen service at the school, removed the monitor from the service, although with paid leave.
In the complaint, crude details are related of how the monitor took boys and girls to the bathroom and told them to undress and touch themselves.
And also that he showed them his penis and had brushed them with it.
In the letter it is stated that Clara was not alone and she listed a series of colleagues.
María (also a fictitious name), who was five years old at the time, is one of them.
The mother of the minor received a call from the teacher in the first trimester who alerted her that her daughter "had strange behaviors, that in the bathroom she was showing her parts to another girl", although in the same call they reassured her, assuring that "At those ages it is normal for children to discover their bodies," says the mother.
The alerts also went off at home because her eldest daughters told her that they had found the youngest "rubbing".
The mother talked to her to stop that behavior.
“I had no idea what was really happening,” she admits.
Until in March she received a call from Clara's family explaining what was happening.
“I heard such fat words… I imagined everything.
I felt dizzy and wanted to vomit.
It was horrible".
The family took the girl for a check-up at the hospital and finally got her to explain.
"She said that the monitor rubbed her hands in front of her body, that he rubbed her penis against her, that he masturbated in front of the children and that he taught them to masturbate," explains her mother, overwhelmed.
These two families are the only ones who have filed a complaint, but they are sure there are more victims, since they explain that the monitor worked at the school for about five years.
“Unfortunately, we believe that we have only scratched the tip of the iceberg.
At the school there are families with a certain position who do not want it to be known and who deny the possibility that it could happen to them.
Other families do not know what to do and others cannot report because the children do not explain anything.
In addition, the police talk to the parents, but the children are not being listened to," laments the mother.
The affected families also point to the school and criticize the management for its "inaction", since they consider that it minimized the warning signs and calls that the parents had made.
They also censure the center for not opening an investigation to clarify the magnitude of the case, especially since they assure that other personnel,
like the teacher and some monitor, they had seen signs that something was happening.
According to Clara's father, the director held some meetings with the families, some very tense meetings "where there were some very nervous parents, but the director fled, hid."
“The school hasn't done anything until the police came,” adds Maria's mother.
For its part, the center defends its management.
"We are moved and the school is next to the families and hopes that the bottom of the matter will be reached," says the director of the French Lyceum of Barcelona, Jean Bastianelli.
The head of the school assures that he learned of the case through the Mossos, once the complaints were filed.
Likewise, the director admits that the center has not opened any internal investigation.
“We are a school, not the police.
We have complete confidence in the investigation of the Mossos”, says Bastianelli, visibly nervous and reading part of the responses.
The director assures that, once they became aware of the case, the protocol of the Department of Education of the Generalitat was activated, and they informed the Education Consortium and the EMMA service (violence against children) of the Vall d'Hebron Hospital.
From the association of families of the school (APE, in its acronym in French) they assure that they learned of the case from the center and that there was a "reaction of concern and fear", and they positively value the reaction of the school.
“From the very beginning, the center organized meetings in small groups to make psychological support and detection mechanisms available to families.
The school has reacted with agility and transparency, ”says a spokeswoman.
“We are in solidarity with the victims and we remain vigilant in case more cases arise and for the management of the school,” she adds.
This spokesperson also ensures that the center is in contact with the Vicky Bernadet association to develop a protocol for cases of abuse and that teachers are already being trained to detect them.
The French Lyceum, with some 3,000 students and tightly controlled access in the heart of Pedralbes, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Barcelona, follows the French educational system and is administratively dependent on the French State.
In fact, last Friday he received a visit from those responsible for the Agency for French Education Abroad (AEFE), the body that reports to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that manages open educational centers in different countries.
Testimonial search
The affected families work in collaboration with the Innocence in Danger association to detect if there are more victims.
“Maybe a child pees the bed or is afraid to go to school.
This indicates that something has happened.
Parents do not know how to detect a case of abuse and are afraid that a scandal could affect their reputation”, says its president, Homayra Sellier.
The entity has carried out what is known as a "call to witnesses" to bring more cases to the surface, and also to gain muscle in the complaints to take the file to the French prosecutor and request that an investigation be carried out in France.
You can follow EL PAÍS Catalunya on
and
, or sign up here to receive
our weekly newsletter
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Keep reading
I'm already a subscriber
