Protests shutter hundreds of French schools as violence flares 

Hundreds of schools have been closed across France amid a student protest movement that has turned increasingly tumultuous.

At least 400 of France’s 3,700 high schools were closed on Friday, the Ministry of National Education said, with 560 reporting protests or disruptions. The demonstrations began at high schools in the Paris area last week, but they have spread nationwide and led to violent clashes with police.

On Friday, students across the country, many clad in masks, blockaded schools, lit fires in the streets, and faced off with police as they rallied against large class sizes and absent teachers.

“We are 35 per class, we don’t have enough chairs in classrooms, the one-hour lunch break [is too short] for everyone to get food,” 15-year-old Kesia told the Reuters news agency in the Paris suburb of Pantin before running off as the police used tear gas.

Fire damaged the entrances of two high schools in the capital, Leonard de Vinci in the south of the city and Gaston-Bachelard in the southeast, with the fire brigade called to extinguish the blazes.

Students waved placards reading “We have a future to build, not to endure.”

The school protest movement coincides with a public sector strike against the government’s budget plans, raising the pressure on President Emmanuel Macron before elections next year.

Approximately 2,000 people have been detained so far, the vast majority of whom are children, according to Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin.

Parents should be liable for damage caused by their children and “pay for repairs”, he told RTL.

Education Minister Edouard Geffray warned parents to “tell their children not to go” to the protests.

At least 170 students have been wounded, along with 65 school staff members, including 40 principals, he told BFMTV. More than 100 high schools have sustained “severe damage”.

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

Rights group Amnesty International wrote on social media that “the images of high school students being assaulted by law enforcement are extremely alarming”.

“Many are minors, children,” the organisation said. “They must be protected, not beaten with batons.”

Lola, a 16-year-old speaking to the AFP news agency in the western city of Rennes, condemned what she described as police violence while standing outside Jean-Mace high school.

“It makes us even angrier – the police have no right to hit us or use tear gas on us,” Lola said.

The government has accused the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party of commandeering the movement. Senior LFI official Manuel Bompard dismissed the assertion as a “conspiracy theory”.

In an effort to quell tensions, Geffray said he planned to meet on Friday with education unions and student associations to find room for dialogue.