AUDREY REED
News Editor
A riot involving 50 youths throwing rocks that was stopped by police using tear gas occurred Saturday near the university used by Pepperdine students studying in Lyon, France, Saturday.
The riot is part of a three-week long spree of riots that has spread across France. Students studying with the Pepperdine International Program in Lyon are safe, but are taking precautions to avoid any possible uprisings. The Saturday “skirmish,” director of International Programs Charles Hall said, happened across at the city plaza from the Catholic University.
Pepperdine students were not at the university on that day and no one was hurt, Hall said. Across France, French youth, angry about the lack of jobs and Muslim racism in the country, have been responsible for the destruction of 8,500 vehicles and 100 buildings.
Pepperdine students are being told to go directly to their homestays from class and not to “linger in town unnecessarily,” program director Henri Brenders said in an e-mail to the students in Lyon. “This is not a piece of advice. It is mandatory.”
Hall said that he thinks the curfew will soon be terminated as the riots are decreasing in number.
However, students have not felt the many direct effects of living in France during the uprisings.
“I was in Paris around the time that the rioting broke out and have been in Lyon since then and not once have I felt any sort of personal danger,” sophomore Heather Scott said. “Government authorities are the main targets of the riots, and since I don’t live in an area where there is a sentiment of social unrest, nor do I own a car or involve myself with the police, it is very unlikely that I will even ever see rioting first hand.”
Scott said the media has made these events much more dramatic and that, if not for the media coverage and shortened bus schedules, she would not be aware of what was happening. The buses, she said, shortened the hours of operation as a precautionand as a statement against violence.
Hall said students can use this as a learning experience, both in media coverage and in the nation’s underlying problems
“It is a good opportunity to ask, ‘What are the issues behind these riots and demonstrations?’” Hall said. “This is a perfect opportunity to read and explore with their French families, how the French deal with such issues and any differences between American and French responses to the use of violence.”
Sophomore Alexis Padis said friends and family from the United States have contacted her to make sure she is safe.
“I’ve gotten e-mail from pretty much everyone and their mother,” Padis said. “Everybody has been hearing that ‘France is on Fire,’ courtesy of Fox News and CNN, so they all e-mail or call to see if I am OK. I ended up sending a mass e-mail out to family and friends to let them know that France really isn’t on fire, and that I am not in danger.”
In the city of Lyon, a new curfew was put into place for unaccompanied minors between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Also gatherings in the city are now prohibited.
11-17-2005