Dorchester Students Ask French Consulate To Revise Boston Travel Advisory

Students from Dorchester's Codman Academy Charter School are asking the French foreign ministry to rethink an advisory urging French tourists to avoid the neighborhood.

On its (in-French) website, the French foreign ministry says visitors should avoid travel on foot or at night in the neighborhoods of Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan.

That doesn't sit well with Gzharia Lynch, a senior at Codman Academy.

"I've lived there a long time," she said Tuesday. "Any neighborhood is scary when you're walking at night. That doesn't mean you shouldn't go see what's real."

She and about a dozen other students on Tuesday delivered a letter to the French consulate in Downtown Boston, inviting the consul general to visit Dorchester.

Deputy consul Jerome Henry accepted the letter on behalf of the consul general.

Henry did not make any comments.