Schools in Lyon, France Won't Teach Roma Pupils; It's "a Case of Discrimination of Ethnic Minority"

A group of Roma (Gypsy) children in Lyon in southeast France have been forced to attend classes at a police station, because local schools refused to take them in, the France 24 website reports today (January 30, 2013).

Their "school" is on the second floor of a police station at Saint-Fons, a suburb of Lyon. The 20 children -- aged between six and 12 -- are all taught by one teacher.

They are not fed at lunchtime -- as are all other pupils at French state schools -- so at noon every day they have to walk a mile and one-half back to the shanty town where some 100 Roma have been camped near the city bypass.

"It goes against all the principles of integration," Jean-Philippe, a local campaigner for anti-racism group MRAP said. "It is a simple case of discrimination and stigmatization of an ethnic minority," he added.