Officials in the city of Auxerre opened the probe into the school's actions, after some parents complained that students were given neck strings with red and yellow plastic discs during lunchtimes, so workers could identify which students weren't allowed to eat pork and meat respectively.
In Auxerre (France), a canteen makes children not eating pork wearing a red marker. Now how bad is that? pic.twitter.com/xbNXm1bWzl
— Hugo Giraudel (@HugoGiraudel) September 25, 2015
It's understood that students wore the tags for one day before the school scrapped the initiative on the back of complaints from some parents.
Malika Ounes, a conservative member of the Auxerre city council, was among those highly critical of the school.
"It's revolting. It brings back memories of dark times," she told French news website Creusot-Infos.com, in reference to measures undertaken in Nazi-occupied France that forced Jewish people to wear yellow stars on their clothes.
"You *will* eat pork…" Thanks France; this vegetarian mother of Jewish children will never give you my tourist $ https://t.co/26UiQpkxgW
— Deborah Nam-Krane (@dnkboston) September 27, 2015
Despite outrage from some parents and community members, others saw the scandal as a massively over-exaggerated issue.
Auxerre mayor Guy Perez said the use of the tags was "unfortunate", while one Muslim mother of two boys at the school told broadcaster RTL that a lot of fuss was being made over a non-issue.
"The yellow tag doesn't even correspond with the yellow star. I don't think there's a scandal here, just an error that doesn't require all this rebuke."
Local media reported that Muslim and vegetarian students were among those told to wear the red and yellow tags, while there was no mention of Jewish children.
The issue of offering pork and meat-free dishes in schools has been a divisive issue in France, with some right-wing politicians arguing that making such exceptions is an example of religion creeping into the public sphere.
