French high school students took to the streets in late September, protesting chronic teacher shortages, crumbling school buildings, overcrowded classrooms and what they called years of inadequate government funding.
The protests escalated into the most severe school-related unrest in decades, according to Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu. Demonstrators clashed with riot police, threw projectiles, and set fires at or near schools, including major damage at Nelson Mandela High School in Nantes.
Authorities reported more than 6,000 arrests, mostly minors, along with more than 200 student injuries, roughly 85 school staff hurt, and at least 700 police officers injured. Among the most striking incidents: a 15-year-old lost a hand after picking up a police grenade, and several schools were ransacked or burned.
Eight staff members were injured Monday in incidents concentrated in the Paris region, Bordeaux and Lyon. Separately, an unrelated shooting occurred near Marseille, where a 14-year-old wounded a middle-school principal and a teacher with a hunting rifle.
President Emmanuel Macron, speaking at the Paris Motor Show, said students' grievances over teacher shortages, overcrowding, and crumbling buildings "deserve time, consultations, discussion, and respect," and urged calm. He also drew a sharp line on violence: "I will obviously never approve of or justify any violence, whether among high school students or by people who are no longer students and who come to take advantage of all this to burn, destroy or commit acts of violence."
At its peak, large marches drew an estimated 250,000 participants, with disruptions continuing into mid-October. The government condemned what it called a descent into "urban violence," deployed heavy policing, and accused some left-wing elements of inflaming the unrest. Officials acknowledged some student demands as legitimate and later pledged measures including deploying additional teachers.
The government has begun deploying the roughly 3,000 substitute teachers it pledged last week for priority schools, but student unions dismissed the move as "crumbs," continuing to demand a 10 billion euros investment package and an overhaul of the university admissions system Parcoursup.
