Nearly 400 French High Schools Shut as Student Protests Turn Violent

A student protest movement that began on September 21 in the Creteil academy has spread across the country, turning increasingly violent in places. Students are protesting a shortage of teachers, overcrowded classes of up to 32 or 35 pupils, heavy timetables, run down buildings, and stress linked to the Parcoursup university admissions platform, in a context made worse by temperatures that reached 35 degrees Celsius during the 2026 summer heatwaves.

On Friday, October 2, clashes broke out between students and police in several cities. Tear gas clouded the streets of Strasbourg, fireworks were fired at police lines in Marseille, and rubbish bins were set ablaze in Rennes. In Paris, a bin fire spread to the facade of the Gaston Bachelard vocational high school in the 13th arrondissement, blowing out the entrance windows before Paris fire brigade crews brought the blaze under control.

The fallout from the movement is now being felt on a large scale: around 400 high schools, nearly one in ten, have remained closed. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on TF1 that around 5,000 people, most of them teenagers, had been arrested since Monday, September 28.

Faced with the scale of the crisis, Education Minister Edouard Geffray urged parents to tell their children not to attend the gatherings. Following a crisis meeting held Thursday, a source close to the prime minister said the movement had shifted from a social protest into urban violence. Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin went further, saying the movement had been hijacked by outsiders with no connection to the schools.

The crisis comes as the government is already grappling with pushback over the 2027 budget and public debt nearing 122 percent of GDP, adding further pressure on a weakened executive just months ahead of the presidential election.

This account draws on reporting by Al Jazeera and U.S. News.