French school smoking lights up key debate

What poses a greater risk to French school children: a potential terror attack, or smoking cigarettes? This is the unusual question gripping France as a result of the jihadist attacks on Paris last November -and a court ruling later this week may point to the answer. Many schools began letting pupils smoke on premises as part of security steps introduced after the Paris attacks. To officials, having dozens of teens crowd the pavement outside their schools to grab a quick smoke during breaks was simply too much of a risk. “But this doesn’t mean you have to let them smoke inside,“ complains Corinne Depagne, a 16year-old’s mother, who has filed a complaint against a Lyon school.