Close to 40 children are alleged to have been sexually abused in a Mexico City kindergarten where parents have accused school officials of a cover-up.

A man identified as an administrative employee was singled out by one of the parents about a month ago after noticing strange behaviour in his son.

But a school official ignored the parent’s accusation of sexual assault and asked him to “keep the incident secret” as it was only “an isolated case.”

News of the attack soon spread and before long the parents of 37 of the children discovered that all had been exhibiting similar and unusual behavior: they had all urinated in their pants while at school, suffered nightmares, stopped talking and refused to go to school.

The parents subsequently determined that their children were afraid of a figure they called The Monster or La Calaca (the skeleton).

They learned that the school employee, identified as Ramón Morales, told the children that he was a monster, that he had eyes everywhere, was very big and strong enough to lift houses and kill whomever he wanted. He said he was watching over them even during their sleep, and that if they spoke about what he did to them he was going to kill their parents.

The man waited for the children to go to the washroom before taking them to a storeroom where the sexual assaults took place.

Morales’ whereabouts are unknown but some parents are claiming that two other staff members were complicit in the attack and that the school principal was aware of them.

The case is now under investigation by the federal Attorney General’s office.

Source: Milenio (sp), ADN Político (sp)