Can an elected representative of the Republic take children hostage on the pretext that their parents have not paid the bill for the school canteen? Yes, replied Jean-Jacques Eroles, the various right mayor of the small town of Teste-de-Buch, located in the Arcachon basin in Gironde. The case revealed by The dispatch from the Basin makes a big noise today.
The city councilor has indeed served substitute menus to schoolchildren whose parents are late in payment. We knew the hours of glue to punish the students but the formula starter-ravioli-dessert to call adults to order was hitherto unprecedented.
Its author points out that this measure was applied “after the usual letters, the reception and the interview of the parent(s) with the school staff”. To these repeated calls, he says, some parents would not have bothered to provide documents or even to come forward.
Three families and five children would be affected out of 1,355, adds the mayor of La Teste. Far from diminishing the scope of this case, this figure makes the symbol even stronger.
Moreover, several associations expressed their indignation vis-à-vis this measure deemed discriminatory. “Lamentable” and “shameful”, tweeted Juliette Méadel, Secretary of State in charge of victim assistance.
In 2013, recalls Le Figaro, the Defender of Rights published a report stating that while school catering remains an optional public service, a mayor cannot, once created, treat “children placed in a comparable situation differently. And the Defender specifies: “All children whose parents so wish must be able to have lunch in the canteen, when the service exists, whatever the social or family situation of the parents”.