If it went to the District Office Kulmbach, Marc would run in the summer and fall to the school bus. Then he would leave Ziegenburg at 6:30 am and arrive at the bus stop in Marktschorgast half an hour later, assuming that everything went well. Because the way of the 13-year-old leads on an unlit country road, on which the cars are allowed to drive 80 km / h. There is no footpath.

Marc's family finds this unacceptable - and has sued the district office therefore. Until the fourth grade, the municipality still had to pick up the boy, because elementary school children may be expected to travel two kilometers at the most. But since his move to secondary school two years ago, different rules apply.

To get a so-called student transport, Marc's family had to prove that his way to the school bus is particularly dangerous or arduous. That was only the case in winter, was the district office.

Günter country villages

Road sign direction Ziegenburg

From November 2016 to the end of April 2017, Marc's mother should therefore receive a grant of 25 cents per trip - provided that the ride served only the transport of Marc to the school bus. If the mother then continued to work, the money should stay away. Hard to afford for a mother who works shifts.

"So far we've always had two cars and I've been able to drive it, but now I'm a retiree and we can not afford it anymore," says Marc's stepfather Günter Landendörfer. Previously, when his biological children still went to school, parents organized carpooling or paid external drivers for the routes. "But now Marc is the only child here."

Fear of precedent?

The community is apparently afraid of a precedent: they could not drive individual children, as there are other small districts, said Mayor Hans Tischhöfer the "North Bavarian courier". And since there are currently no primary or middle school students in Marcs district Ziegenburg, for which the municipality is officially responsible, put out their buses.

After the family had lodged an objection to the travel allowance, the Landratsamt Marc granted at least an additional taxi for the times in which his mother worked and nobody could drive him.

But Marc's stepfather thinks the way too dangerous in summer - the family complained. However, the competent administrative court Bayreuth dismissed this. Although the way to school requires a certain amount of attention and caution, this was to be expected of an 11-year-old pupil, it was said at that time.

Günter country villages

There is no sidewalk beside the highway

"The way in summer is really bad," says Landendörfer. "If everything is overgrown, you can not see 100 meters on the road in many places, so the route is even more confusing, and when a car comes, there is not even an escape route - next to Marc is the guardrail." In autumn, it would be dangerous especially in the rain, if the surface is slippery: "The slope is in one place twelve percent."

Now the Bavarian Administrative Court decides

"At the beginning, we also tried to leave Marc at home to build up pressure," says Landendörfer. "But that did not work, that did not work for Marc either." The family has now moved with the case before the Bavarian Administrative Court in Munich.

Marc has run the track only a few times in the company of his stepfather. "Everything else is out of the question," says Landendörfer. And if the court decides otherwise? "Then I would probably not go to school anymore," says Marc. He has just been operated on the knee and has got two metal plates inserted. "I would have to take many breaks along the way."

"We have to find a solution with our hands and feet," says his stepfather. Next Tuesday, a delegation from the court wants to drive to Marktschorgast to see the route. "All families who want to have children keep their fingers crossed for us."