More schools in France are getting special mailboxes for children to flag abuse
More schools in France are getting special mailboxes for children to flag abuse
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A special mailbox for children to flag abuses was set up Thursday at a Paris primary school, a first in the French capital as part of nationwide effort to encourage more victims of sexual violence to speak up. Some 360 such mailboxes have already been deployed across France, where children can drop letters that will be assessed by experts. The program is supported by child protection association Les Papillons, or Butterflies, and runs under the motto: “If you can’t say it, write it.”.
It comes as activists are pushing to lift taboos that have long surrounded sexual abuse and make “shame changes sides.” That was highlighted recently during the trial that made Gisèle Pélicot, who was drugged and raped by her now ex-husband, France’s symbol of fight against sexual violence.
12-year prison sentence resulting from one message. In June 2022, on the first day a mailbox was set up in a school in eastern France, a 10-year-old girl left a message naming her grandfather and describing what appeared to have been instances of incestuous rape. A few days later, police officers said she and two other girls in her family had allegedly been victims of incest for years.
In September the grandfather was found guilty and sentenced to a 12-year prison sentence. According to Les Papillons, about 2.4% of the messages lead to reports to local child protection officials in charge of taking necessary measures. 1.4% of the messages are immediately reported to prosecutors, leading to a police investigation, in line with French law regarding “serious and imminent danger” to children. They include all alleged sexual abuses.
