▲ High school students chanting slogans on the streets of Paris on the 29th
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
High school students across France dissatisfied with public education have simultaneously taken to the streets, setting fires and blockading schools, leading to a flurry of violent clashes with police.
As school classes are disrupted and chaos mounts, French authorities are on high alert, and the political sphere is also closely watching the possibility of the high school student protests spreading into solidarity with labor union strikes.
According to AFP and the British daily The Guardian, high school students staged fierce protests at hundreds of schools across France on the 29th, local time, confronting police in various locations.
In the northern region of Lille, high school students gathered in front of schools wearing masks, set fire to trash cans, destroyed facilities such as bus stops and billboards, and hurled chunks of paving stones and bottles at police.
In the western region of Nantes, high school students piled up dozens of trash cans to block school access routes.
Protests also broke out in Marseille, Bordeaux, and Lyon.
Students are raising complaints particularly over class hours, classroom sizes, and teacher shortages, and also expressed outrage that classrooms were left exposed to overheating during the heatwave this summer.
At a school in downtown Paris, 80 students gathered and spread the chant, "Class hours are longer than sleeping hours."
In response, police fired tear gas and swung batons in an attempt to suppress the protests.
In the process, about 440 people have been arrested as of this day, and injuries have broken out in succession among both high school students and police officers.
These protests began in the suburbs around Paris last week and have spread to 400 out of 3,700 schools nationwide.
During the protests, 40 schools were blockaded, and blockade attempts were made at 44 schools.
At a school near Paris, teachers were even seen standing in lines around students to protect them from the police.
French education authorities have defined the protest situation as an act of violence and warned of a strong response.
Education Minister Édouard Geffray wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "Legal procedures have been initiated regarding such actions," adding, "This violence is unspeakably serious."
He warned, "Justifying this or inciting blockades puts students and public institution officials at risk. It is irresponsible."
The political circle is keeping a nervous eye on the fallout from the protests.
France is currently experiencing union protests and strikes in backlash against the budget bill pushed through by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, an ally of President Emmanuel Macron.
Union street marches are continuing in major cities including Paris, with 10 percent of teachers nationwide having joined the strike.
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
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