French High School Protests Expand, Affecting 735 Schools

According to Saednews, The French government says high school students in their mid-to-late teens have every right to express their grievances, but it has condemned violent incidents during nationwide protests over school conditions.

In southern France, in La Ciotat, officials said a teacher was sprayed with petrol before being physically assaulted by two people.

In Tours, a young man injured during clashes between students and police lost the use of his right eye, the city’s prosecutor said on Friday. According to the local authorities, he was injured on Wednesday.

On Friday, trade unions and student groups called on protesters to maintain pressure on the government and hold new demonstrations on Tuesday.

“High school students are expecting concrete measures from this government, and so far we have not received them,” said Ryad Rani, head of the USL high school union.

The protests began in the Paris region in September before spreading across the country. Students in the final years of high school have blocked access to school buildings and clashed with police.

The students say their school days are excessively long and that conditions are inadequate, citing overheated classrooms and too many staff absences.

The protests have also had political repercussions, coming seven months before voters are due to choose a successor to President Emmanuel Macron.

Of France’s 3,700 schools, 735 were affected “in one way or another” on Friday, Education Minister Edouard Geffray said following talks with activists. That figure was 30% lower than Thursday’s total.

Geffray said three staff members had been injured on Friday, compared with 31 the previous day.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said 1,747 people had been arrested on Friday. He added that there had been “projectiles thrown, attacks on law enforcement, teachers, journalists, passersby”.

Geffray said the government would launch an action plan aimed at “speeding up the replacement” of absent teachers.

Students and police have accused each other of using violence.

James, a high school student in the northern city of Lille, condemned what he described as “extremely violent police repression, which inevitably fuels students’ anger.”

“When we see fellow students being beaten, choked, blinded in one eye, and tear-gassed from all sides while we’re simply trying to have a dialogue with the government, of course it makes people angry,” he said.

In the western city of Brest, police used tear gas at Kerichen High School after students threw projectiles at security forces, according to an AFP photographer.

Nunez said footage from the eastern city of Belfort showing a group of young people surrounding a lone police officer and kicking him to the ground represented “rare violence” that was “intolerable”.

In Paris on Friday, fires damaged the entrances of two high schools. Firefighters were called to extinguish the flames, an AFP photographer reported.

The police have launched internal investigations following accusations of brutality against demonstrators.

In the southern city of Toulouse, protesters were photographed administering eye drops to one another after police used tear gas.

In Aubervilliers, north of Paris, police used batons and riot shields to control protesters.

The government has accused the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), whose leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon is again running for president, of being behind the movement.

Senior LFI official Manuel Bompard accused the government of “descending into conspiracy theories”.

The education minister said that “the high school student movement is being held hostage by ultra-violent fringe groups”.

Geffray told BFMTV that at least 65 staff members had been injured since the movement began, including 40 high school principals.

Around 170 students have also been injured, while more than 100 high schools have suffered “severe damage”, he added.

“What matters now is ensuring our children are no longer out on the streets, because they are in danger.”

According to Nunez, more than 300 police officers and gendarmes were injured.