“The student demonstrations in France, which began as a protest against poor conditions and teacher shortages at a school in Créteil, south-east of Paris, spread this week into a violent movement that has touched at least a dozen cities.”

Schoolyard protests are setting France ablaze

“It all began, it should be remembered, with the spontaneous blockade of a high school in the Paris suburb of Créteil by students exasperated by their daily lives: overloaded schedules, a persistent lack of teachers, inadequate facilities, all overshadowed by deep anxiety about the future, embodied by the automated university admissions platform. Unions and parties were nowhere to be seen. There was no new reform to denounce. But these high school students, many of them living in working-class suburbs of Paris, had things to say, even if it came out awkwardly or unclearly. But few were willing to listen. Fueled by social media and immediately seized on by the radical left, the protest spread rapidly after September 21. High school students began mobilizing in every region of France (1,000 schools, or one in four, were affected as of Thursday, October 1), joined by university students, in what has become the largest youth movement since 2018, the year of major high school reforms, as well as the Yellow Vest protests. But unacceptable violence has marked these actions, carried out by both inflamed youths and autonomous groups.”

French high school protests: Authorities should have listened to students first