France Detains Nearly 3,000 Students as School Protests Spread

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu called an emergency cabinet meeting on Thursday as student protests over school conditions escalated into what the government described as “urban violence,” with hundreds of schools affected and thousands of teenagers detained.

The demonstrations, initially concentrated in the Paris region last week, have spread nationwide, prompting the government to warn that many schools would move to online teaching to protect students and staff.

Lecornu instructed ministers to cancel their travel plans and attend the crisis meeting. His office said the growing violence was threatening the continuation of public education and putting school employees and students at risk.

“This upsurge in violence makes it virtually impossible to maintain the continuity of public education and is exposing staff and students to danger,” Lecornu's office said.

Education Minister Édouard Geffray is scheduled to meet student representatives on Friday.

Police reported approximately 900 demonstrations, school blockades and related incidents nationwide, with more than 160 high schools forced to close. Around 30 university campuses, including facilities in Paris and Marseille, were also blocked on Thursday.

Nearly 3,000 high-school students aged 15 to 18 have been detained since the protests began, including 1,949 on Thursday alone, according to the Interior Ministry. More than 300 police officers, along with dozens of firefighters, teachers and students, have been injured.

The protesters' complaints include excessive workloads, overcrowded classrooms, a shortage of teachers and unbearable temperatures during heatwaves earlier this year. Riot police have been deployed as demonstrations have become increasingly violent.

Most injuries have resulted from objects thrown during clashes, although some were caused by riot-control projectiles fired by police. The Interior Ministry has launched an internal investigation into allegations that officers used excessive force and acted brutally toward three students.

Fires have been set in rubbish bins outside numerous schools, while more serious attempts to start fires have been reported inside several buildings. Authorities said a school in Nantes, northwestern France, sustained such extensive fire damage that it would remain closed for a month.

In Caen, in northern France, 16-year-old Maelle said she wanted protesters setting rubbish bins alight to express their grievances verbally instead.

“with words” was how she said she wished the protests would be conducted, telling AFP that students were demonstrating “against this government that doesn’t invest in heating, air conditioning, or teachers’ salaries”.

In Strasbourg, northeastern France, tram services were temporarily halted after protesters blocked the tracks with crowd-control barriers. The regional prefect said the suspension was intended to “restrict the movements of rioters and demonstrators”.

A 17-year-old student in Strasbourg described deteriorating conditions at school, citing overcrowded classrooms, inadequate toilet facilities, leaking water and insufficient space in the cafeteria.

“There are 35 of us per classroom,” the student said. “There aren’t enough toilets, and there are water leaks in some rooms. The building is falling apart, the cafeteria is too small. There’s zero budget, zero resources.”

Several rubbish-bin fires were also reported in Toulouse, in southern France, while young people wearing black hoodies destroyed a bus stop in Lille. In Marseille, attempts were made to start fires inside two schools, and a teacher at one of them was splashed with petrol.

Although teachers and several school principals have reported physical threats and occasional attacks, some educators have expressed support for the protesting students.

Juliette Estiville, a Spanish teacher at a Paris high school, said she was disgusted by the police response and had joined the demonstrations to protect students.

“I’m actually here just to provide protection, to form a barrier between the police and the students,” she said. “Today went well, it’s going well, but I think that the teachers who come to the blockades are really there to protect our young people.”

The government has accused the radical-left France Insoumise (LFI) party of encouraging the demonstrations. Several of its lawmakers and mayors, including Bally Bagayoko, the party's mayor of the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, have received cheers at protest gatherings.

LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the party's candidate for the 2027 presidential election, said on Thursday that his party supported nonviolent forms of protest while expressing concern about police conduct toward young demonstrators.

“non-violent methods of struggle” were the approaches backed by LFI, Mélenchon said, adding that his “greatest worry is an unbearable level of police violence against these young people”.