Children made to crawl for lunch

A GROUP of parents are calling for a school chef to be sacked after he made pupils crawl on the ground to get their lunch.

The canteen worker, who has not been named, is alleged to have "humiliated" 10 of the most disruptive pupils, aged between eight and 11, in front of the rest of the school at an end-of-year picnic in Venansault near La-Roche-sur-Yon in the Vendée.

One parent told Ouest France that the chef was angry that the pupils had "treated the staff like dogs" throughout the academic year and wanted to teach them a lesson.

Three parents have lodged a legal complaint and are demanding that the chef be sacked.

The local mayor, Laurent Favreau, met canteen staff and the parents to attempt to resolve the problem on Monday night and has written to the local association that runs the canteen asking it to consider disciplinary action.

The association will meet tomorrow to decide what action should be taken. Its head, Muriel Wattel, said the chef was "excellent" but admitted that he had clearly "overstepped the mark".