|
First students expelled over French law
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-10-20 20:55 Two Muslim girls who
refused to remove their head scarves in class have been expelled from their
schools, and two more risked the same fate Wednesday as officials began taking
action against those who defy a new French law banning conspicuous religious
symbols from public schools.
 |
| An
unidentified Sikh, wearing a head piece instead of a turban, enters his
high school in Drancy, outside Paris, early Wednesday Oct. 20, 2004. Some
Sikh schoolchildren risk expulsion from their school for wearing their
turban. Two Muslim girls who refused to remove their head scarves have
been expelled Tuesday in Mulhouse, eastern France, as officials begin
taking action against those who defy the new law banning conspicuous
religious symbols from public schools. Sign reads: Eugene Delacroix
highschool. [AP] | Two girls, ages 12 and 13, were expelled from
a school in the eastern city of Mulhouse on Tuesday night — the first to be
expelled from French public schools under the new law, the Education Ministry
said.
Two 17-year-old girls risk the same fate when their schools
convene two disciplinary councils Wednesday, said Gilles-Jean Klein, spokesman
for the Academy of Strasbourg, which oversees schools in the area.
There are 72 cases of students who risk expulsion for
refusing to remove conspicuous religious signs or apparel. Most are Muslim girls
who wear Islamic head scarves. However, some Sikh school boys who refuse to
remove turbans are among the 72.
Those expelled have the right to appeal their cases to the
head of the academy. If they are under 16 — the legal age for leaving school —
the expelled students must continue their education at a private school, by
correspondence or another means, Klein said.
Some 600 cases of defiance of the law were counted at the
start of the school year in September, but most have been resolved through
dialogue — as called for in the law, Education Minister Francois Fillon said
Tuesday.
The law, passed in March but applied starting with the
opening of school in September, bans conspicuous religious signs and apparel,
including Jewish skull caps and large Christian crosses. But Muslim head scarves
were the main reason for the ban.
The law is intended to uphold France's constitutionally
guaranteed principle of secularism, considered undermined by a growing number of
Muslim girls wearing head scarves in public school classrooms.
In the first court case resulting from the law, Sikh leaders
have asked an administrative court to force the Louise-Michel school to convene
a disciplinary council or let the boys into classrooms. A ruling is expected
Friday.
| |
 |
|
|
|
|
Today's
Top News |
|
|
|
Top World
News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
