France teenager's exam polemic fails to impress markers
- Published
A French teenager who used a history exam to send a political message has not been rewarded by the examiners.
Faustin, a student at a lycée in Laval, north-western France, decided to shun questions on post-war German politics and China's international relations.
Instead, Faustin penned a screed, external about the plight of homosexuals detained and tortured by authorities in Chechnya.
But on Wednesday the baccalaureate student received the results: two out of 20 points.
The teenager, who identifies as gender-neutral, will have to take a re-sit.
"I am absolutely not surprised," Faustin told followers on Twitter.
"I expected it - the important thing was... to talk about what's going on over there."
LGBT activists revealed that more than 100 men were being held in a camp in Chechnya in April - and that some had died after being tortured - because they were gay or suspected of being gay.
The news triggered international protests and moves to smuggle victims to safehouses, with some countries offering visas to allow them to escape.
Faustin - whose Twitter handle is @Satanftgaga - tweets the lowly score and says a re-sit awaits
Faustin's highlighting of the issue divided Twitter. It was applauded by some.
"I'm so proud of you," tweets @velvetzak
But others saw the action as ill-thought-out.
"Yes but what will you do without a diploma? Sad truth is: you can't do anything... Wake up" tweets @CalypsoOverkill
In the essay, Faustin compares international responses to the revelations of homosexual persecution in Chechnya.
The essay ends: "Dozens of homosexual men have been killed in these Chechen camps and outside [the camps] too, like adolescents who committed suicide because their family threatened to kill them because they were gay."