France shocked by footage of preschool teacher beating child

A video showing a preschool teacher beating a three-year-old child in class in France has sparked a wave of indignation Tuesday after the footage of the incident went viral online.

The video, filmed by a parent present at the school in central Paris, shows a girl standing next to a knocked-over chair and crying. The teacher approaches, grabs the girls' arm, yanks her around and slaps her hard on the back. The girl then runs away, and the teacher goes about her usual business in class.

"These images are terribly shocking and unacceptable in our schools," French Education Minister Nicole Belloubet said on X, adding she had "immediately" ordered the teacher's suspension and disciplinary proceedings against her.

The incident happened on September 3, the day after French pupils returned to school after the summer break.

A lawyer for the girl's family, Vanessa Edberg, said the three-year-old had told her mother that she had already been beaten the previous day.

"You can tell that the teacher is restraining herself," because of the presence of the mother who filmed the scene, Edberg said.

The girl's family has filed a legal complaint with police for violence, aggravated by the fact that it was perpetrated against a vulnerable person in a school setting.

The psychological harm done was "severe" according to an evaluation, the lawyer said, as the child was now avoiding looking adults in the eye, and has refused to talk about the teacher.

Philippe Goujon, mayor of the French capital's 15th district where the school is located, said the teacher's behaviour was "unbearable" and "unspeakable".

He said she was an experienced teacher, having worked at the school for around 10 years, and is around 50 years old. "She knows the school, the parents and the children well" and "is not usually overcome by her emotions", he told BFMTV.

"We never had any information of this kind about her before, obviously," he added.

In subsequent conversations with her superiors the woman had been unable to give an explanation for her behaviour, "which makes this even more worrying", he said.