PARIS — A 15-year-old lost a hand yesterday in the latest round of French high school protests that have erupted into clashes with police, with more than 200 students injured in the violence.
France has been shaken by a wave of demonstrations by teenage students at high schools, or lycees, since late September demanding better classroom conditions.
More than 500 of France’s 3,700 lycees were fully or partially closed on Monday, and bigger demonstrations dubbed “Act III” by a secondary school students’ union are expected on Tuesday as social media calls mount for a “black week” of protests.
The 15-year-old lost his hand in the northern town of Lens when he picked up a sting-ball grenade fired by riot police and it exploded, according to a police union source.
The teenager, hospitalised in Lille, is “out of danger”, said Francois-Xavier Lauch, the prefect for the northern Pas-de-Calais region.
Another protester, aged 16, who suffered serious head injuries at a protest in the central city of Tours last week has lost the use of one eye, prosecutors said.
The government says 215 students and 715 police officers have been injured since the protest movement began, while 10 investigations have been opened by the police watchdog.
The protests have seen students block the entrances to hundreds of schools around the country, complaining of teacher absences, overloaded timetables, dilapidated classrooms and buildings ill-adapted to rising temperatures, among other grievances.
“It’s clear the education system isn’t working,” Alma, a pupil at the Lycee Charlemagne in central Paris, told AFP.
The unrest ignited just months before the 2027 election that will determine the successor to centrist President Emmanuel Macron.
The government has sought to address the grievances, while accusing hard-left activists of having hijacked the protest movement.
“They think that just because they’re letting us express ourselves on a platform, on the internet, we’ll stop blocking access and being angry, but this anger has been here for years,” said Simon, a pupil also at the Lycee Charlemagne.
The French Human Rights League (LDH) on Monday accused security forces of using disproportionate methods against protesters, many of whom are legally minors.
