Story Archive

Zero Tolerance, the French Way

A police officer in Ustaritz, France, was summoned to an elementary school’s cafeteria to remove a 5-year-old girl only identified as “Lea” as classmates watched. Lea’s crime? Her parents had not paid 160 Euros (US$220) in accumulated lunch fees. French officials were outraged when the report hit the news. “All children in France should be eating in their cafeteria, and not be victims of acts which, of this nature, are acts of violence,” fumed French Education Minister Vincent Peillon, who said he was “shocked” that the police were called. France’s human rights organization has started an investigation “to identify the successive dysfunctions that led to this situation,” says its director, Dominique Baudis. The police officer did as she was told: she removed the girl from the lunchroom, and took her home. When she found no one there, she took her to the police station — for lunch — and then took her back to school. (RC/Time) ...See? It’s just that easy.