Thousands mass in France for high school protests

• Tens of thousands of students and trade union members are protesting in Paris against school conditions, causing clashes with police and injuries on both sides.
• Protests highlight issues like missing teachers, poor school facilities, and government plans to make vandals pay for damages.
• Authorities face criticism for police brutality, with Amnesty International calling for an end to excessive force and internal investigations underway.

PARIS - Thousands of demonstrators were massing under heavy police surveillance on Oct 6 in Paris and cities across France, as unions and teachers joined high school students who for days have been demanding better conditions in protests punctuated by violent clashes.

Students have blocked the entrances to hundreds of high schools attended by those aged 15 to 17 since late September, complaining of missing teachers, overloaded timetables, dilapidated classrooms and buildings that cannot cope with rising temperatures.

In the Paris suburb of Creteil, where the protests started in September, students have piled barriers outside the Saint-Exupery high school.

“We are here to make our voice heard, all too often forgotten,” student Abderrahmane Abdelkader said on the microphone.

In the western city of Rennes, teacher Romain Dubourgn said he and other teachers were present to show support.

“With about thirty colleagues, we talked about the police brutality we’ve witnessed and decided to be there for our students if they need us,” he told AFP.

While many protests have been peaceful, some demonstrators have lit dustbin fires, destroyed bus shelters or clashed with riot police, who have responded with batons, tear gas and riot-control rounds.

The government says 215 students and 715 police officers have been injured since the start of the movement, with a 15-year-old losing a hand on Oct 5 after, according to a police union source, he picked up a sting-ball grenade fired by riot officers.

Television images on Oct 6 showed anti-riot police with shields pushing back crowds who had formed a human chain and blocked a road by a school in eastern Paris.

There were protests taking place in Marseille in the south, Nantes in the west and Lyon in the south-east, AFP correspondents said.

‘Protect high-school students’

The unrest has erupted with just months to go before the 2027 election to choose a successor to centrist President Emmanuel Macron after his maximum two terms in office.

The government has sought to address the grievances, while accusing the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party of being behind the movement.

Veteran LFI presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon has strongly supported the protests, while calling for non-violent methods.

The authorities are expecting some 20,000 to 40,000 demonstrators in Paris.

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s office has called for “peaceful” gatherings, calling for a return to “a structured, legal and democratic form of opposition”.

The head of the CGT labour union Sophie Binet has said its members would be there to “protect high-school students”.

Greens party leader Marine Tondelier has urged local officials and parents to wear white and “go and protect our children during demonstrations”.

‘Disproportionate police repression’

Several unions and rights groups have accused the police of using disproportionate force against the protesters.

Amnesty International said late on Oct 5 that the French authorities should “put an end to the disproportionate police repression seen in recent days during student protests”.

“The images and testimonies widely circulated over the past week raise alarming concerns about the dangerous use of tear gas, batons and policing techniques by the police,” Amnesty’s Anne Savinel-Barras said.

The police have launched 10 internal investigations into allegations of brutality since the protests started, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said late on Oct 5.

Since the start of the movement, 24 schools have been burned or ransacked, according to the education ministry.

More than 5,000 people, 87% of them minors, have been arrested.

Lecornu’s office said 85 teaching staff have also been injured.

The prime minister has sought to address the issue of missing teachers and renovating buildings that are dilapidated.

The government is also pushing legislation to make those responsible for damaging public property pay for repairs themselves, instead of using public funds. AFP