Lyon: creation of an information mission on the security of after-school reception

After the scandal of sexual assault in Parisian after-school settings, the city of Lyon voted this Thursday to create an information and evaluation mission (MIE) dedicated to Lyon's “after-school reception systems”. A mission demanded last May by the opposition and now adopted unanimously. This MIE will bring together thirteen elected officials representing all the political groups in the municipal council. For six months, its members will work on analyzing, establishing findings and formulating recommendations on Lyon's extracurricular activities. “During these six months, the work of the information and evaluation mission will be organized around plenary meetings, supplemented by hearings of extracurricular stakeholders and field visits. These different times will allow elected officials to collect the contributions and information necessary for their work,” promises the city of Lyon.

A final report will be presented to the municipal council at the end of this mission. “Faced with current events which question extracurricular time, the quality of reception and the activities offered, as well as the safety of our children, the City of Lyon wishes, in complete transparency, to allow exchanges. It is a matter of both highlighting the work carried out daily by municipal and associative structures, and of collectively building avenues for reflection in order to continue to improve the care of children during after-school time,” declared the mayor of Lyon, Grégory Doucet (EELV).

Strengthened training of extracurricular workers

In Lyon, 30,000 children were enrolled last year in at least one extracurricular time and 16,500 in end-of-day time. 89% of Lyon schoolchildren spend between 1h30 and 5 hours per day in extracurricular activities. “Our country is today experiencing revelations of sexual violence during after-school hours. And not just in Paris. Closer to us, Villeurbanne is experiencing this tragedy. This invites us to urgently think about the protection of children: what are the criteria for recruiting facilitators, what is their training, their background and how do we ensure their criminal records? We need answers, parents are now afraid of leaving their children in after-school activities,” declared opposition MP Barbara Vélon (Lyon Ensemble) during the council meeting this Thursday.

At the end of August, the city of Lyon announced that background checks on agents would be extended to all people working in contact with children, from the canteen attendant to the guard. “We were attentive to what was happening in Paris. In Lyon, we did not experience such a serious situation because, when one existed, the existing protocols were triggered. And, even if we are not safe from anything, our system has been robust,” assured the mayor of Lyon at the beginning of September.