Clashes between French teens, police as school blockades intensify

At one school in the Paris suburbs, teachers formed a line around protesting students in an effort to protect them from police.(AFP) — French teenagers set trash bins on fire and threw projectiles at police Tuesday as students continued blockades and protests at hundreds of high schools, demanding better conditions. Police responded with batons and tear gas.The movement at French high schools, known as lycées and attended by students ages 15 to 18, has angered the government.Since last week, students have protested over class schedules, class sizes, teacher shortages and overheated classrooms during recent heat waves. The protests began in the Île-de-France region around Paris and have spread to other cities.The Education Ministry said 400 of the country’s roughly 3,700 high schools were affected by protests or disruptions Tuesday. About 40 were blockaded, and students attempted to blockade 44 others. Police made 40 arrests, and 10 students and staff members were injured.At one school in the Paris suburbs, teachers formed a line around protesting students in an effort to protect them from police.Masked students gathered outside Lycée César Baggio in Lille, northern France, and set bins on fire, an AFP photographer reported. Bus shelters and advertising billboards were vandalized. Protesters threw bottles, paving stones and other objects at police, who fired tear gas.In the western city of Nantes, teenagers piled up dozens of bins to block the entrance to Lycée Gabriel Guist’hau. In Paris, about 30 students faced off with police at Arago school.Similar clashes were reported in Marseille, Bordeaux and Lyon.Mayor defends protestsAbout 80 students gathered outside Lamartine school in Paris, holding signs complaining that they had “more hours of lessons than sleep.”At Lycée Bréquigny in Rennes, the largest high school in Brittany, about 100 students threw projectiles at the building, an AFP video journalist said.The protests came as unions held nationwide demonstrations and strikes over Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s budget. Lecornu is a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron.Union marches took place in Paris and other cities. About 1 in 10 teachers went on strike nationwide, and thousands of firefighters staged a protest in Paris.Unions said about 300,000 people joined marches across the country. Police estimated that 30,000 took part in Paris.Lecornu said Monday that any escalation of the high school demonstrations would be “irresponsible.” He accused the hard-left France Unbowed party, known as LFI, of encouraging the protests.Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 164 people were arrested Monday and 180 schools were affected.In Seine-Saint-Denis, a low-income area outside Paris, LFI Mayor Bally Bagayoko joined hundreds of students protesting at Lycée Paul-Éluard.He led students in singing the national anthem, called the protests “completely legitimate” and said low-income areas received fewer resources than wealthier ones.As a crowd formed, police carrying riot shields struck students and an AFP journalist with batons.“We, the children of the suburbs, are abandoned and neglected,” said Victoire, a 16-year-old student who described conditions at the school as “unsanitary.”“Sometimes, violence can be legitimate,” Bagayoko told BFM TV on Tuesday, denying accusations that he had set fire to a bin at the school. “But whenever it can be avoided, it is better,” he added.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads