French police ban protests near some Paris schools and universities

PARIS - The police in Paris on Nov 15 issued a ban on protests near 10 high schools and five universities, amid a blockade movement that has gone on for two months.The order prohibits unauthorised gatherings or marches within 100m of the sites from Nov 16 through to Nov 20.High school pupils began to blockade school entrances in mid-September to protest against substandard classroom conditions.University students joined the movement, which quickly spread around France and fed into other demonstrations by unions over inflation and the cost of living.The police ban applies to 10 of the French capital’s roughly 150 secondary schools, and to universities including faculties at the Sorbonne.Paris police chief Patrice Faure said in the order that the ban was necessary because of “numerous disruptions and blockades around certain high schools and establishments of higher learning in Paris and the surrounding region, as part of a social movement at persistent scale and violence”.He said 1,548 arrests had been made since the start of the protests and several public buildings vandalised.Faure said the high school and university blockades were carried out “most often by a minority of students” who were stopping others from receiving education. AFP