Weird World: Sheep registered as students in local school to prevent its closure

Parents in France have enrolled 15 sheep into Jules Ferry School.

The animals – including Saute-Mouton, Baaaaah-Bete, and Panurge – have found themselves on the school list at Crets and Belledonne as families look to avoid closure of a class due to a lack of pupils. The outrageous act occurs as student numbers fell from 266 to 261, as reported by the BBC.

A local farmer provided 15 sheep – each with a birth certificate – to be registered after a class faced closure from September. Local sheepherder Michel Girerd decided to symbolically register some of his ewes. Birth certificates were presented to Mayor Jean-Louis Maret; in an attempt to keep the school open.

15 moutons inscrits à l’école de Crêts en Belledonne contre la fermeture d’une classe et 65 dans la cour de récré.
(Shaun 🐏 va en CM2 ! ) @bleu_isere https://t.co/YaPHoIvR6X pic.twitter.com/KxAv2B7oJ5

— Valentine Letesse (@valentineletess) May 7, 2019

A crowd gathered as students protested the registration proclaiming “We are not sheep.”

Galle Laval – part of the parent committee and one of the organizers of the unusual protest – argued that “children get into trouble here, but National Education is not concerned about the arguments in the field, just about numbers”.

Galle laughed: “We don’t have to close any classrooms like that.”