A school teacher in northern France is at the centre of a national storm over respect in the classroom after police detained him for 24 hours for slapping the 11-year-old son of a gendarme who had sworn at him.

The case of José Laboureur, 49, a technology teacher at a secondary school in the town of Maubeuge, near the Belgian border, has prompted the wrath of teachers and many parents, who say that it exemplifies the breakdown of discipline and values.

The affair began when Mr Laboureur slapped the boy for calling him a connard, an insult equivalent to c***, after he had asked him to tidy his desk during a lesson. The boy’s father had Mr Laboureur arrested and held for a night and a day in a civilian cell. He was charged with serious assault against a minor, which carries a maximum prison term of three years, and ordered to appear in court next month. No action was taken against the boy until the story broke and Xavier Darcos, the Education Minister, ordered the school todiscipline him. He was suspended for three days.

Mr Laboureur regretted his action but said that the response of the authorities was unjustified. “In 30 years of teaching, no one has ever spoken to me like that,” he said. “I saw red and slapped him. It was a spontaneous reaction . . . I felt like a criminal, being jailed in run-down, cold quarters, photographed, finger-printed and giving a DNA sample. It was completely out of proportion.”

Parents and colleagues rallied to Mr Laboureur’s side, praising him as a dedicated veteran who should not have lost his temper but who had been provoked. The father has been pilloried for abusing his authority and polls have shown sympathy for the teacher.

Teachers’ unions have gathered tens of thousands of signatures on internet petitions in support of Mr Laboureur, despite prosecutors’ allegations that he lifted the boy against a wall and slapped him hard.

François Fillon, the Prime Minister, voiced sympathy for Mr Laboureur.

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