A primary school teacher in France has found herself in hot water after a class exercise to discuss emotions and expressions attracted the attention of the country's president. When she asked her nine-year-old students t

It seemed like a harmless class project. The classroom walls of the primary school in Albi, a small town in southern France, were covered with large blank sheets of paper. After discussing the theme of emotions in class, as a homework assignment the pupils brought in newspaper cuttings and drawings and stuck them onto each sheet to illustrate different emotions.

One child chose a particularly glum photo of France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, for the page labeled ‘meanness’.

A letter of complaint, thought to be written by a parent, eventually found its way to the President's desk. The sender took the photo of Sarkozy, which was only chosen because his facial expression appeared to show 'meanness', as an 'attack on the image of the President of the Republic'.

Shortly afterwards the school principal was informed that an internal investigation had been launched at the personal request of Nicolas Sarkozy.

The event has created a storm in the French press, with many criticising Sarkozy’s reaction as excessive.

A representative of the school's Parents' Council (FCPE), Emmanuelle Herdwig, said “It seems completely over the top, it's like something from another world, or another era!”