France Closes 400 High Schools As Student Protests Spread Nationwide

Nearly 400 high schools across France were closed on Friday as a week-long protest movement by students continued to spread, with authorities reporting dozens of injured school staff and about 2,000 arrests.

The demonstrations, which began in the Paris region last week before expanding to other parts of the country, have involved students in their final years of secondary education blocking entrances to schools and clashing with police.

The students are protesting what they describe as excessively long school hours, inadequate learning conditions, including overheated classrooms, and a shortage of staff due to frequent absences.
The government has acknowledged the students’ concerns but condemned the violence and disruption accompanying some of the demonstrations.

Education Minister Edouard Geffray said the protests had been taken over by what he described as “ultra-violent fringe groups.”

Geffray said nearly 400 of France’s 3,700 high schools were expected to remain closed on Friday.
Several schools have also arranged for lessons to be conducted remotely, particularly in the southern city of Marseille.

According to Geffray, at least 65 education workers have been injured since the protests began, including 40 high school principals.

Speaking to BFMTV, the minister urged parents to discourage their children from participating in the demonstrations.

“Parents must clearly step up and tell their children not to go” to the protests, he said, stressing that the immediate priority was to keep students off the streets and away from potential danger.

Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, meanwhile, said prosecutors had been asked to pursue parents over damage allegedly caused by their children during the protests.

He said parents could be required to “pay for repairs” resulting from the destruction.

Darmanin told RTL that approximately 2,000 people had been taken into police custody since the protests began, with about 90 per cent of those detained being minors.