Blockades in France over high school grievances see hundreds detained

Black smoke billowing from burning bins and bicycles as students blockade a secondary school in the French city of Lille on Sept 29.

PARIS - More than 400 people, most of them minors, were detained in France on Sept 29 over blockades and protests at high schools across the country, the interior minister said.

Since last week, students have staged protests outside hundreds of schools over grievances including timetables, class sizes and a shortage of teachers, as well as overheated classrooms during this year’s heatwaves.

“440 were detained across national territory,” Laurent Nunez said on BFMTV.

“We don’t have the final tally yet, but I’m told two thirds led to police custody.”

Forty-eight law enforcement officials were injured during the clashes that in some places saw students set fire to rubbish bins and hurl projectiles at police and officers responded with batons and tear gas.

“Violence is never legitimate. There is nothing that justifies violence,” Nunez said.

“There is nothing that justifies showing up at institutions to demonstrate, masked, with your face disguised, carrying projectiles, and waiting for the intervention of law enforcement just to go after them,” he said, adding that the Sept 29 clashes saw seven instances of hydrochloric acid being thrown at officers.

The protests started in the Ile-de-France region around Paris but have now spread to other cities nationwide.

According to the education ministry, 400 schools were affected by protests or disruptions on Sept 29, out of some 3,700 across the country. AFP

Students blockading the entrance to a secondary school in Nantes, western France, on Sept 29. Students have staged protests outside hundreds of schools in France over grievances including timetables, class sizes and a shortage of teachers, as well as overheated classrooms during this year’s heatwaves.