PARIS, Aug 5: Under a new law that was adopted on Saturday, French schoolchildren will now be imprisoned for talking back to their teachers.

Under provisions of the Loi Perben, named for France’s new Justice Minister, students will be subject to a six-month prison term and a 7,500 euros (7,500 dollars) fine for a new crime that’s defined as “outrage a enseignant” - insulting a professor - for exercising any form of verbal violence against their schoolteachers.

The get-tough provision is in fact an amendment to the Loi Perben that had not originally envisioned taking such a drastic step to deal with France’s growing problem of recalcitrant schoolchildren.

The rightwing French deputies who decided to call for imprisonment said that in their estimation the previous measures, which usually resulted only in temporary exclusion of a student from his school.

“Existing measures,” noted Mr Clement, “seemed hardly effective for (under the previous law) all that would happen, at worst, would be that a student who spoke back to his professor would simply be sent to another educational establishment.