The movement started on September 17 in Île-de-France and spread across the country, overseas territories included. On Friday, October 2, Education Minister Édouard Geffray cited between 400 and 500 of 3,700 high schools with classes suspended, and a similar number on Monday. Valérie Pécresse announced that more than 160 of the 468 public high schools in the Paris region would stay closed on October 5. On Sunday evening, the prime minister sent his ministers a letter setting five workstreams: replacing absent teachers, teaching conditions and school buildings, organization of the school calendar, Parcoursup, and follow-up to what students have said. He wants costed decisions before the end of October, a review of replacements on October 16 and a faster track for the “casseur-payeur” bill. On Monday around 10 a.m. in Lens, a 15-year-old student had a hand torn off by a grenade, a few hundred meters from his high school. According to the prefect, a group of 200 to 250 young people had thrown projectiles at police officers; a police source says the teenager picked up the device, and the Béthune prosecutor does not rule either way. The IGPN is investigating. In Tours, a 16-year-old student lost the use of an eye and his family has filed a complaint. More than 5,000 people have been placed in police custody since the start, according to franceinfo.
This is no longer just a school movement. It mixes demands for resources, disputed police violence and a risk of convergence with the unions, the CGT and farmers, who are joining Tuesday's day of action. The government, already fragile on the budget, has to respond without giving ground on public order. Every serious injury hardens the debate.
If you have a child in high school, the most likely outcome is a “gradual” return to classes from Wednesday, announced by the minister, with half a day set aside to talk about the movement. Schools may still close at the last minute: check your school's online portal.
The students are saying concrete things: absent teachers, run-down buildings, heat, an opaque Parcoursup. The five workstreams come after four weeks of blockade and several serious injuries; the crackdown fed the anger.
The government cannot let schools stay blocked, police officers be hit and high schools be set on fire. Firmness and dialogue go together, and legitimate demands are being exploited by politicized groups.
Remember three dates: Tuesday, October 6, for the number of demonstrators (the Interior Ministry and the organizers will not count the same way); October 16, the first review of replacements; and the end of October, the deadline for costed decisions. A student movement is judged by its ability to win one specific measure. The Lens grenade will show whether the policing question overtakes the one about resources.
franceinfo (update on the mobilization, Lecornu's letter, 5,000 people in custody) · France 24 (Geffray's remarks, Oct. 4) · Le Monde (analysis of the movement, injuries) · Les Échos · Le Figaro (Tours, Belfort, Nantes) · Sud Radio/AFP and Paris Match (Lens, Oct. 5) · LCP · Journal du Net · L'Étudiant (five workstreams) · tallies of injuries and demonstrators not yet cross-checked
High school blockade enters its fourth week. Lecornu sets five workstreams, a teenager loses a hand in Lens
Between 400 and 500 high schools suspended classes on Friday, according to the education minister. The prime minister wants decisions before the end of the month. A “third act” is announced for Tuesday.
Launched on September 17 in the Île-de-France region, the student movement has spread across the country. On Friday, Education Minister Édouard Geffray counted between 400 and 500 of 3,700 high schools with classes suspended, and expected as many on Monday. In Île-de-France, regional president Valérie Pécresse announced that more than 160 of the 468 public high schools would stay closed on October 5. Le Monde sees a “singular and already historic” movement, rooted in a lack of resources and the “failures of mass schooling.” The first tallies of the crackdown are heavy: more than 5,000 people placed in police custody since the movement began, according to franceinfo.
On Sunday evening, Sébastien Lecornu sent his ministers a roadmap of “five workstreams”: replacing absent teachers, teaching conditions and school buildings, organization of the school calendar, Parcoursup and student democracy. He demands first decisions, with cost, financing and timetable, before the end of October, a first review of replacements on October 16 and a faster track for the “casseur-payeur” bill. On Monday morning in Lens (Pas-de-Calais), a 15-year-old student had his hand torn off by a grenade explosion near the Auguste-Béhal high school. He is not in danger, according to the prefect. The IGPN is investigating, and it is not yet known whether the teenager picked up the device or whether it was thrown at him. The CGT wants to “protect high schoolers’ right to demonstrate,” and the Confédération paysanne, a farmers’ union, is calling on farmers to join them on Tuesday.