France Closes About 400 Schools as Student Protests Turn Violent

About 400 French schools remained closed on Friday as nationwide protests by high school students over teacher shortages, crowded classrooms and rundown buildings spilled into clashes with police. Education Minister Édouard Geffray confirmed on France 2 late Thursday that more than 400 schools and other educational establishments would stay shut, DW reported.

The movement began last month at lycées in the Paris region and spread across the country this week. Students say they face long hours, frequent staff absences, inadequate facilities and extreme classroom temperatures during heatwaves. The government says many grievances are legitimate but has condemned what officials call “urban violence”.

Arrests, injuries and damage

France’s interior ministry told the Guardian that nearly 3,000 lycée students aged 15 to 18 had been detained since the protests began, including 1,949 on Thursday alone. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin told RTL that around 2,000 people had been taken into custody since the start of the movement, about 90 percent of them minors, France 24 reported. DW earlier put arrests at around 2,000. Figures differ by source and by the day they were counted.

Geffray said at least 65 staff members had been injured, including 40 high school principals, and that more than 100 schools had suffered severe damage, according to France 24. The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region alone reported about €25 million in damage, DW and the Guardian said. Fires were reported at schools in Paris and elsewhere; officials said teachers in Marseille were inadvertently splashed with petrol at one site, according to DW.

Students have also accused police of a heavy-handed response. Placards outside Paris’s Lycée Voltaire read “Protest is a fundamental right” and “You don’t want to hear our words; you just fire tear gas,” DW reported.

Government seeks dialogue — and blame

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu convened a crisis meeting and asked ministers to cancel trips so authorities could focus on the unrest, the Associated Press reported. Geffray said “violent individuals” were infiltrating student groups and “taking the movement hostage,” and he urged parents to keep children off the streets. “What matters now is ensuring our children are no longer out on the streets, because they are in danger,” he said, according to DW and France 24.

Darmanin asked prosecutors to pursue civil liability so parents pay for damage caused by their children, the Guardian reported. Geffray scheduled talks Friday with student representatives and education unions, calling it a “day of dialogue”.

Officials have alleged that the far-left party La France Insoumise (LFI) helped initiate the protests — a claim LFI denies. Senior LFI figure Manuel Bompard accused the government of “descending into conspiracy theories,” France 24 said. Party leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon has backed students’ demands while calling for non-violent methods, DW reported.

What students want next

Student union bodies have called for a mass protest on Tuesday, 6 October, under the slogan “Police out of schools! No to the repression of student mobilisation!” Many schools, especially in Marseille, shifted some classes online while campuses stayed closed.

The unrest lands less than a year before France’s presidential election and amid pressure over public finances. AP reported that Mélenchon’s critics accuse his camp of seeking political gain from the unrest, while Mélenchon has branded the security response repressive. Local officials in Bouches-du-Rhône said Friday’s turnout in their department looked lighter than Thursday’s peak, with some schools moving to e-learning, the Guardian noted.

Still, fresh blockades and tear-gas exchanges were reported in Strasbourg, Paris, Nantes and other cities on Friday. For parents, teachers and pupils, the practical question is whether classrooms reopen next week — or whether Tuesday’s planned national mobilisation keeps hundreds of lycées dark. Officials say roughly 400 of France’s about 3,700 high schools were closed Friday, underlining how quickly a school-level grievance became a national security and political test for Lecornu’s government.