A school in central France has provoked outrage for making Muslim and Jewish pupils wear a red disc around their necks at lunchtime so canteen staff would not serve them pork.
The Piedalloues primary school in Auxerre, in Burgundy, gave red discs to non-pork eating pupils and yellow discs to those who do not eat meat.
Eighteen of the school’s 1,500 pupils were made to wear the discs. They were withdrawn after protests by angry parents and community leaders, who said they were reminiscent of the yellow stars Jews were forced to wear under the Nazi occupation.
“It’s revolting. It reminds you of the darkest times,” said a local councillor, Malika Ounès. “Practices like this are not acceptable. No one has the right to impose this on children.”
Christian Sautier, director of communications in the mayor’s office, said it was “an isolated, clumsy and unfortunate initiative” that lasted only one day. He said it had been put into effect by canteen staff without informing local authorities, who ended it immediately.
“When we learned about it, we fell out of our chairs,” Mr Sautier said, adding that the mayor had ordered an investigation. » | David Chazan, Paris | Saturday, Septemebr 26, 2015
