France in Turmoil: Students Set Schools on Fire as Hundreds of High Schools Close

Violent protests in France entered their second week today (Monday). According to a Reuters report, hundreds of high schools have suspended classes amid demonstrations over crumbling buildings and classrooms, overcrowding, and teacher shortages.

The protests and blockades across the country reflect a tense atmosphere as the French government works to approve a 2027 budget aimed at reducing the deficit. Education Minister Édouard Geffray said that about 400 to 500 high schools in France, out of a total of 3,700, are expected to remain fully or partially closed. Geffray noted that since the protests began, 24 schools have been set on fire or vandalized, and 78 teaching staff members have been injured.

The protests began in late September at a high school in the Paris suburbs over teacher shortages, and spread from there across the country. "Our priority is to restore order," government spokesperson Maud Bregeon told the CNews television channel on Monday.

BFMTV reported clashes between police and students in the northern French city of Lille, the use of tear gas in Toulouse in the country's southwest, and a fire being set as people tried to break into a school in central Paris.

Carole Zerbiv, principal of the "Vauquelin" high school in Paris's 13th arrondissement, a school damaged in the vandalism, said the institution was attacked by a "very determined" group of people wearing hoods and masks. According to her, the group tried to force open the school's front door and then set a fire.

Police and firefighters quickly put out the blaze; the school was evacuated and classes were suspended. "It was very violent and happened very quickly," she said, adding that the attack lasted 15 to 20 minutes. "It was terrible for the students who witnessed this outbreak of violence," she said, noting that those responsible for the attack at her school were not students there.

Since last Monday, about 5,000 people, most of them teenagers, have been arrested across the country, and dozens have been injured. Teachers and civilians have been attacked, while property damage is estimated at tens of millions of euros.