France’s education minister has visited a school where some pupils refused to look at a painting of nude women in class, sparking a teacher walkout.
The pupils also accused their teacher of making racist and Islamophobic remarks, which the school denies.
Teachers at the Jacques-Cartier school near Paris refused to work in response.
Tensions had been high since the start of the term, with officials citing repeated complaints by parents about coursework and punishments.
The row began when a teacher showed Diana and Actaeon, a Renaissance-era painting portraying a mythical scene from the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Several first-year high school students, aged 11 and 12, said they were offended by the work by 17th-Century Italian painter Giuseppe Cesari, Sophie Venetitay from the Snes-FSU teachers union told AFP.
The next day, according to French reports, a parent wrote to the head teacher claiming that his son had been prevented from expressing himself in a later class discussion.
Staff felt they had been left unsupported and were working in a “degraded climate”, Ms. Venetitay said.
She said the case recalled the brutal killing of Samuel Paty, who was murdered after he showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in a class.
French authorities believe untrue rumours spread about the class contributed to inciting an 18-year-old radicalized Chechen refugee to murder him close to the teacher’s school in a Paris suburb. Last week, six teenagers were convicted for their role in the murder.
Education Minister Gabriel Attal said the pupils behind the complaints at the Jacques-Cartier school would face disciplinary measures and a team would visit the school to make sure it adhered to the “values of the republic”.
