Egypt’s Ministry of Education announced Wednesday it has placed Alexandria Language School under full administrative and financial supervision, following the sexual assault of four kindergarten students by a school gardener.
The children’s parents accused the gardener of molesting and sexually assaulting the four students inside the school’s garden. The accused denied the charges, claiming he had only hugged the children “from a fatherly instinct.”
Police investigations corroborated the children’s testimonies, and prosecutors formally charged the man with assaulting three girls and one boy, all in the KG2 class.
According to local media, a judge at Montazah II Court extended the suspect’s detention for another 15 days on Tuesday. The court also rejected the defense team’s request for his release on bail.
The prosecution has expedited a forensic medical report for the four survivors and ordered the seizure and analysis of the school’s surveillance footage to track the suspect’s movements and confirm his contact with the children.
This case is part of a growing trend of school-based sexual violence in Egypt that has triggered ministerial takeovers and judicial action.
Two weeks ago, the ministry placed Seeds International School in Cairo under similar oversight, after at least five students were sexually assaulted inside a classroom.
The Public Prosecution charged four school workers with kidnapping and sexual assault, and added three more defendants to the case earlier this week.
Following the incident at Seeds, the education ministry had mandated new safety protocols for private schools, including increased on-campus surveillance and the presence of female staff around schoolchildren at all times.
In recent months, multiple teachers have been referred to disciplinary trials for sexual misconduct. In a 2020 landmark ruling, Egypt’s top administrative court upheld the dismissal of a teacher who harassed 120 girls in Alexandria. The court ruling acknowledged that sexual harassment in schools was systemic and accused government bodies of negligence in preventing abuse.
