France braces for fresh student demonstrations as Macron calls for ‘respect’

Students have been protesting absent teachers, overloaded schedules, overcrowded classes and dilapidated classrooms, among other grievances.(AFP) — Student protests gripping France for three weeks continued Monday, though authorities hoped they were beginning to ease ahead of midterm holidays, even as the country braced for fresh nationwide demonstrations.In an incident apparently unrelated to the protests, police arrested a 14-year-old Monday near Marseille after a middle school principal and a teacher were shot and wounded with a hunting rifle.Students have blocked entrances to hundreds of high schools for students ages 15 to 18 since late September to protest poor classroom conditions. Squads of riot police have been deployed, and violent clashes have occasionally erupted.On Monday, about 130 of France’s 3,700 high schools remained closed, according to the Education Ministry, which said that although “the number of school closures is falling … the violence is intensifying.”The ministry said eight staff members were injured early Monday, mostly in the Paris region and the cities of Bordeaux and Lyon. The tally did not include the shooting in Aubagne, near Marseille, which police were treating as a separate crime.President Emmanuel Macron, speaking to reporters at the Paris Motor Show, said the students’ grievances would take time to address and urged restraint from protesters.“These are issues that deserve time, consultations, discussion, and respect,” Macron said, urging calm.Macron’s appeal came ahead of nationwide demonstrations Tuesday being promoted online by the far-left France Unbowed party, which fiercely opposes Macron. They were to be followed Saturday by broader public demonstrations against the rising cost of living.Naila, a 17-year-old student in Rennes, said she would participate in Tuesday’s demonstration and hoped it would “converge” with the broader one Saturday.“Students aren’t being heard enough … not their proposals to authorities and elected officials,” said Leo, a 19-year-old graphic design student in Paris.He added that the protesters, many of whom were minors, were “disturbed by the level of repression never before seen for a student movement.”One young protester lost a hand to a police stun grenade earlier in the protests, another lost many of his teeth after being struck in the face by a tear gas canister fired at close range, and another lost an eye.Rights groups and students have accused police of using disproportionate force.Several police officers and teachers have also been hurt. On Monday, authorities said fireworks fired through a tube injured two school workers in Reims, one school worker in a Paris suburb and a police officer outside a school in Marseille.Police have opened internal investigations into 24 allegations of brutality against demonstrators since the protest movement began last month.More than 6,800 people, mostly minors, have been taken into police custody, the Justice Ministry said.The protesting students have been blocking access to schools by piling dumpsters, bins and barriers at entrances to protest absent teachers, overloaded schedules, overcrowded classes and dilapidated classrooms, among other grievances.Students blocked school entrances Monday in Paris, the southern cities of Marseille and Toulouse and the western city of Rennes, AFP reporters observed.The government last week promised to deploy about 3,000 substitute teachers in the coming days to replace absent staff at the 114 most affected high schools.A government spokeswoman said Monday that the substitute teachers had begun receiving assignments.The national students’ union has dismissed the government’s move as “crumbs” and is demanding a 10 billion euro ($11 billion) funding increase for high schools.However, some parents and students voiced concerns about missed classes, with some worrying that students were being used as pawns by opposition political parties.Some parents pleaded for the teens to lift their blockades at Paris schools.“The blockades are by their very nature undemocratic,” said one mother, who used the pseudonym Gladys.“It’s shameful to block students who really want to study, by a movement they aren’t part of,” said Clara Juillet, a university student in Tours who has been unable to attend classes because of the protests.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