Hundreds of French schools shut, teen loses hand in protests

The school protests have spread nationwide, as here in LyonImage: Laurent Cipriani/AP Photo/picture allianceAdvertisementSeveral hundred schools in France closed totally or partially on Monday amid security fears following a wave of nationwide student protests, the education minister has said.

The protests by pupils complaining of poor conditions began at one Paris school on September 17 but last week mutated into sometimes violent demonstrations across the nation.

A 15-year-old boy in the northern town of Lens sustained a severe injury to his hand amid one of the protests on Monday. French news agency AFP cited a police union source as saying he appeared to have picked up a sting ball grenade, another term for a type of tear gas grenade also often called a blast ball, and it exploded in his hand. 

The demonstrations have started to dominate France's political debate just a few months before presidential elections that will choose a successor to Emmanuel Macron, who is approaching term limit. 

Education Minister Edouard Geffray said on Sunday that lessons would be totally or partly suspended in some 400 to 500 high schools on Monday, as the security conditions "have not been fulfilled." 

According to Geffray, the schools were being closed mainly as a precaution, with more large protests planned for Tuesday.

Geffray said the number of schools remaining closed on Monday would be similar to that on Friday but that there was planned to be a "partial, progressive return to lessons."  

He said 24 schools had been "burned or ransacked" and 78 education staff members injured since the protests began.

"There are activists — particularly from the far left — who have infiltrated the high school student movement, hijacked it from the students themselves, and engaged in extreme violence," Geffray said.

"Clearly, this poses a risk to both our staff and our students," he added.

Valerie Pecresse, the president of the Ile-de-France region surrounding the capital, said that more than a third of the 468 schools in the region would be shut on Monday.

The protesting teenagers at French upper high schools, called Lycees, have complained of high rates of absenteeism by teachers, school days that are too long and dilapidated facilities.

They have also protested at the lack of adequate cooling on hot summer days, with some towns seeing temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) last summer in a country without widespread air conditioning.

Organizers have called for the protests to continue on Tuesday, saying the government was still failing to propose "concrete measures" to remedy the situation.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu urged local authorities to make it a priority to fill gaps left by long-term absences and unfilled posts.

He also called a meeting for Tuesday with regional presidents to discuss renovating school buildings that are often in poor condition.

The protests have been marked by several violent incidents, with security forces sometimes using tear gas and batons to disperse the young protesters.   

More than 5,000 people, 85% of them minors, have been arrested since the start of the movement.

On Sunday, a 16-year-old was detained after a 59-year-old teacher was hit and doused with gasoline on the sidelines of a protest in the southern town of La Ciotat.

Last week, a group of young people was filmed beating and kicking a policeman on the ground in the eastern town of Belfort.

The French branch of rights group Amnesty International last week described the action taken by police as "disproportionate."  

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez has, however, defended security forces, saying they were "not cracking down on young people" but rather "protecting" school and university students wishing to "peacefully voice their demands."

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