Inquiry as pupils hit by riot police
CRS attacked school party on tour of Paris with with truncheons after mistaking them for protestors say staff.
LEADING education union, the FSU, has condemned police “brutality” after riot officers attacked a party of schoolchildren who were waiting in a station.
The head of the police in Paris has ordered an inquiry into events.
According to school staff, some members of a group of troisième pupils (age 14 – 15) who were visiting Paris on a school trip were attacked with truncheons and shields after riot police thought they were part of a group of protesting students.
They were waiting for a train home at the Montparnasse station when the incident occurred.
The FSU is demanding that the Education Ministry offer support to teachers and families who have lodged complaints against the police and said light must be shed” on who was responsible.
The union has also criticised the “pitiful” reaction of Interior Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie, who stated that “when you are in charge of young people, especially if they are very young, you avoid putting them in places where there might be protests and crowd movements.”
Photo: Riot police fired tear gas and attacked students protesting at a visit by PM François Fillion in June 2008.
Afp/Martin Bureau
