French student protests leave hundreds injured, thousands arrested: What to know

Student protests in France have shut down hundreds of schools after demonstrations against teacher shortages and rundown buildings turned violent.

Since late last month, protests have spread across the country, and clashes with police and school officials have resulted in hundreds injured.

Despite meetings with top country officials, students are not looking to slow the demonstrations and are calling for a National Day of Protests on Tuesday to keep up pressure.

The protests began Sept. 21 at a high school in a suburb of Paris over teacher shortages and deteriorating building conditions.

The complaints resonated with students across the country as the protests spread from city to city in France in the following weeks.

“Classrooms are not ventilated, and we can barely open the windows,” Issam Makhloufi, a French student at Rosa Parks High School in St.-Denis, told The New York Times .

Nearly 500 schools have been forced to close this month.

The protests have been supported by some teachers’ unions and leaders of the far-left France Unbowed political party, according to the Times, although its leadership denies sparking tensions among the students.

“The duty of a republic’s elected official is to protect young people and call for calm,” Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on social media. “Exploiting their anger for partisan purposes is a fault.”

Bally Bagayoko, a member of France Unbowed, told the Times the protests were a result of a “considerable shortfall in the resources allocated for our children’s education.”

“The education ⁠authority is not investing enough in the suburbs. It’s classist and racist,” one student protester told Reuters .

France is gearing up for a presidential election next year, with incumbent President Emmanuel Macron term limited.

Thousands of minors have been arrested during these demonstrations.

Education Minister Édouard Geffray told France 2 at least 24 schools have been ransacked or set on fire.

Officials said the protests have caused millions of dollars in damage so far.

“Social unrest is legitimate, but it cannot be expressed through violence. I have therefore asked the attorney generals for a firm criminal response and the imposition of civil liability on the parents of minors whenever possible,” Gérald Darmanin, France’s justice minister, said on social platform X.

Students, police officers and school officials are among the more than 100 people injured from the demonstrations.

A 15-year-old reportedly lost his lower arm and hand after he picked up and detonated a police stun grenade, newspaper La Voix du Nord reported.

And the BBC reported at least one student lost teeth and others suffered eye injuries during the protests.

Police have used tear gas and other means to disperse the protests, but students are determined to push forward.

“Students and high school students, while the authorities seek to drive us out of our places of study through budget cuts, the closure of places, dilapidated buildings, selection, or repression, let’s not let them: let’s block and retake the universities and high schools!” two student unions wrote in a statement.

Human rights groups have spoken out against police tactics to quell the protests.

Amnesty International said in a translated statement that the response from the police has been “disproportionate” and the students are “demanding their right to education.”

While Darmanin said parents could be held responsible, the country’s education minister has also met with student activists to attempt to calm tensions.

Geffray said he made promises to address the teacher shortages and create plans to include students in fixing the system, but organizers said the vague proposals weren’t enough.

“One of the difficulties of this movement is that there are no national demands. It all started with local demands,” Geffray said.

Students are now calling for more protests Tuesday and for others to join in their fight.

“We’re also protesting about the conditions in the heatwave,” one student told The Guardian. “Young people just want to study and learn in decent conditions. The French state seems surprised about worsening school results, but they’re doing nothing to remedy that.”

But the consequences don’t seem like they will be contained to France.

Some conservatives are blaming immigration policies in Europe for the violent protests, arguing it’s a “cautionary tale” for the U.S.

“I would also say as we’re sitting here in beautiful New York City, this is a cautionary tale,” Fox News co-host Tomi Lahren said on “The Big Weekend Show.”

“When you let so many people come into your country, leech off of your system, then the people who are from there are going to at some point get upset,” she added.