A 10-year-old boy from northern Germany ran away to Switzerland after receiving a bad grade on his school report, according to German media.
Local newspaper Schleswiger Nachrichten reported that the unnamed boy ran away because he was too scared to tell his parents about a single “average” grade in one of his classes. German Federal police reported that the child’s worst grade was a “3,” which is equivalent to getting a C in the United States.
Whether the boy’s cross-country flight was motivated by high expectations of himself or some other factor is still not clear.
The evening of July 21, the child somehow acquired a valid train ticket and boarded a train headed to Hamburg, Germany. He then transferred to a train bound for Basel, Switzerland.
The boy’s home in Schleswig, Germany is about a 10-hour train ride away from Switzerland, or about 590 miles.
