Protesting French teens, police clash

PARIS

Students carry out a blocking protest at the Lycee Lamartine during a day of nationwide public sector strikes and demonstrations in Paris. (AFP Photo)

French teenagers on Sept. 29 set fire to rubbish bins and hurled projectiles in clashes with police, as they kept up a blockade of some high schools demanding better conditions at their establishments but which has angered the government.

High school students have since last week staged protests outside their schools over grievances including timetables, class sizes and a shortage of teachers as well as overheated classrooms in the wake of the recent heat waves.

The movement in the lycees, which handle the final years of school in France, started in the Ile-de-France region around Paris, where blockades in some 10 schools were reported by education authorities on Sept. 29. It has now spread to other cities nationwide.

Masked students gathered outside the Lycee Cesar Baggio in Lille, in northern France, setting bins on fire. Bus shelters and advertising billboards were vandalized, with bottles, paving stones and various objects hurled at police who responded by firing tear gas.

Teens piled up dozens of bins to prevent entrance to the Lycee Gabriel Guist’hau in the western city of Nantes, while in Paris there was an uneasy standoff between 30 students and a contingent of police at the Arago school.

Similar actions were also reported in cities including Marseille, Bordeaux and Lyon.

At the Lamartine school in Paris around 80 students gathered outside brandishing slogans including “more hours of lessons than sleep” and “8 a.m. to 6 p.m., are we pupils or under arrest?”