REPORTAGE
Bread and water, as a meal, for two children of the school of Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule in the Allier. The mayor of the city made this decision, overwhelmed by the unpaid parents who no longer paid the bills in the canteen for many months. But in the city, the method, a bit brutal, shocked.
It's been over a year since it lasted. Unpaid canteen bills were accumulating for several hundred euros. Since the beginning of the school year, this family had not even bothered to register their children at the school restaurant. However, every day, the two schoolchildren were fed free, despite the many requests of the municipality. "It's a family that is deaf to phone calls, letters, visits ... We do not even find them at home," reports to Europe 1 Mayor (LR) Emmanuel Ferrand. "When you have unpaid bills for a year, you think that you are going to cause electroshock." The children were given fresh bread and water, "he explains.
"Today, the laws are made to protect those who do not pay", still laments this city. "I have no way: I can not make levies on family allowances, I can not make payroll deductions, I can not mandate a bailiff ..."
"It's still children, they have nothing to do with the problems of parents"
But this radical decision has made waves on the side of the parents of students. "To blame the children, for me it is inadmissible, give them a piece of bread and water ... and besides put them in a separate room ...", annoys a father who denounces humiliating methods. "If it had happened with my children, I would have been a little upset.I would have gone to see the mayor.That are children, they have nothing to do with the problems of parents," abounds another.
Nevertheless, the mayor's decision proved particularly effective. The same evening, the parents came to pay their bills, and even made the necessary to register their children in the canteen.