About 400 French Lycées Were Shut on Friday as a Student Protest Over Class Sizes and Absent Teachers Turned Violent
Roughly 2,000 young people have been detained and more than 100 schools badly damaged in blockades that began over classes of 35 and missing teachers. The government blames the hard left.
Friday, October 2, 2026/2 min read
At least 400 of France's roughly 3,700 lycées were closed on Friday 2 October as a student movement that began in the Paris region spread across the country and turned violent. Al Jazeera reports that about 560 schools were disrupted, that more than 100 sustained severe damage, and that around 2,000 people have been detained, most of them minors.
Where it began
The protests started with practical complaints. Students pointed to classes of 35, too few chairs, a one-hour lunch break too short for everyone to eat, and teachers who were absent and not replaced. A 15-year-old told Al Jazeera: "We are 35 per class, we don't have enough chairs in classrooms." Placards carried the line "We have a future to build, not to endure."
Violence and the toll
On Friday, according to CBS News, students blockaded schools, lit fires in the street and faced police, who used tear gas. A 16-year-old protester told CBS that police have no right to hit students or use tear gas on them. Two Paris schools, Léonard de Vinci and Gaston-Bachelard, were damaged by fire, Al Jazeera says.
The injury figures cited in both reports are stark. At least 170 students were wounded, and 65 school staff were injured, among them 40 headteachers. Amnesty International said that images of high school students being assaulted by law enforcement are extremely alarming, and stressed that many of those involved are minors who need protection.
The government's line
Education Minister Édouard Geffray urged parents to tell their children not to go, and told CBS that the student movement was being held hostage by ultra-violent fringe groups. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin announced the detention figures and said parents should pay for repairs to damaged schools. The government has also accused the hard-left France Unbowed party of stirring up the unrest, a charge that party dismissed as a conspiracy theory.
Geffray has planned meetings with unions and student organisations, which suggests ministers want to separate the original grievances from the violence. That is a hard line to hold when the number of detained children is the headline figure.
A hard moment for the president
The unrest coincides with a public sector strike against the government's budget plans, which Al Jazeera says is adding pressure on President Emmanuel Macron ahead of next year's elections. Classroom overcrowding and teacher shortages are exactly the kind of everyday failure that voters notice.
What happens next depends on whether the ministers' talks produce a concrete offer on staffing and class sizes, or whether the movement hardens. With hundreds of schools closed and the police response under scrutiny from rights groups, the question for Paris is how quickly the original complaint can be separated from the disorder it now sits inside.
Published in The Outspoken Digest
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