bellyscratch
9th September 2009, 20:03
First there was a wave of boss-nappings in protest at job-cuts, then workers threatened to blow up factories, now disgruntled French parents are taking their own radical action in protest at school cuts.
Until this week the Elysee Maury primary school at Laroque d'Olmes, a village in the Ariège, was best known as the place where the French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez first kicked a ball. But on Tuesday evening, furious that the authorities were going to scrap a class and move a teacher away, a group of parents took over the school on the edge of the Pyrenees, blocking exits and taking the school's three teachers hostage overnight.
At 6:30pm, after lessons had finished, the parents were joined by local councillors in blockading the school which serves a struggling rural community already hit by job cuts and the economic crisis.
The primary school had expected 50 pupils at the start of term and planned to divide them into three primary classes. When only 47 arrived for registration, the authorities decided to scrap one class and move one of the school's three teachers elsewhere. Furious parents intervened before the teacher could be moved.
Councillors who had joined in the protest insisted it was peaceful. "We're continuing this non-violent action until French inspectors make a move in our direction," said Francis Fourtalin, a local deputy mayor. "It's going well. There is no violence. For lunch, we're going to [light a] barbeque in the courtyard," he told Reuters, speaking from inside the school where the teachers had spent the night in the gym.
The atmosphere was described as "convivial" with food and camp-beds provided by local shopkeepers. Fourtalin said it was now up to the education authorities to act, and that local MPs had been instructed to fight the case in Paris.
Parents spent the night with the teachers at the school, reportedly allowing them visits from their families. One of the hostages – the school's headteacher – was allowed out this morning to take part in discussions. A meeting with local politicians and gendarmes was due to be held this afternoon to discuss the situation and the teachers' release.
In the neighbouring department of Haute-Garonne, five primary teachers were also being held by parents in a separate action over the closure of a primary class.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/09/france-school-protest-teachers-hostage
Until this week the Elysee Maury primary school at Laroque d'Olmes, a village in the Ariège, was best known as the place where the French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez first kicked a ball. But on Tuesday evening, furious that the authorities were going to scrap a class and move a teacher away, a group of parents took over the school on the edge of the Pyrenees, blocking exits and taking the school's three teachers hostage overnight.
At 6:30pm, after lessons had finished, the parents were joined by local councillors in blockading the school which serves a struggling rural community already hit by job cuts and the economic crisis.
The primary school had expected 50 pupils at the start of term and planned to divide them into three primary classes. When only 47 arrived for registration, the authorities decided to scrap one class and move one of the school's three teachers elsewhere. Furious parents intervened before the teacher could be moved.
Councillors who had joined in the protest insisted it was peaceful. "We're continuing this non-violent action until French inspectors make a move in our direction," said Francis Fourtalin, a local deputy mayor. "It's going well. There is no violence. For lunch, we're going to [light a] barbeque in the courtyard," he told Reuters, speaking from inside the school where the teachers had spent the night in the gym.
The atmosphere was described as "convivial" with food and camp-beds provided by local shopkeepers. Fourtalin said it was now up to the education authorities to act, and that local MPs had been instructed to fight the case in Paris.
Parents spent the night with the teachers at the school, reportedly allowing them visits from their families. One of the hostages – the school's headteacher – was allowed out this morning to take part in discussions. A meeting with local politicians and gendarmes was due to be held this afternoon to discuss the situation and the teachers' release.
In the neighbouring department of Haute-Garonne, five primary teachers were also being held by parents in a separate action over the closure of a primary class.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/09/france-school-protest-teachers-hostage