France: 600 students arrested during protests
The headteacher of a sixth-form college was “doused in petrol and beaten” whilst trying to calm the “very tense” situation at the scene, according to information obtained by *Le Figaro* from a police source
Student protests continue in France, with secondary schools being blockaded. According to information obtained by *Le Figaro* from a police source, 600 people had already been arrested by 11 am this morning. In Paris, the entrances to two secondary schools were damaged by fires. Firefighters were called to the Léonard de Vinci secondary school in the 15th arrondissement (south of the capital) to extinguish the flames in front of the entrance gate. In south-east Paris, in the 13th arrondissement, the entrance to a technical college was blackened by flames after a fire – which involved bicycles and rubbish bins – spread to the school gates, according to the police prefecture.
Meanwhile, another act of violence against school headteachers has been reported. The headteacher of the Lycée de la Méditerranée in La Ciotat (Bouches-du-Rhône) was “doused with petrol and beaten” whilst trying to calm the “very tense” situation at the school, according to information obtained by Le Figaro from a police source. The perpetrator was identified and arrested but released “due to the aggressive behaviour of the school’s pupils, who confronted the police”. A police car was also “doused with petrol”, but no fire broke out. In addition to the schools, there has also been financial damage to local businesses, which were forced to keep their shutters down due to the tensions. According to the Ministry of National Education, 564 businesses have had to suspend operations since the start of the day.
Student protests in France: 65 school staff injured (including 40 headteachers). Damage to over a hundred schools
Yesterday had been marked by chaos, violence and two thousand arrests across France following student protests that escalated into full-blown riots, with schools set alight and clashes with the police. At a secondary school in Marseille, the headteacher and staff were attacked and doused with petrol, but a total of 40 headteachers were injured during the protests, according to the Minister for Education, Edouard Geffray, in an interview this morning with Bfmtv. “Among the 65 public education staff members who were injured, there are 40 headteachers,” the minister clarified, adding that, since the start of the week, over a hundred schools have suffered serious damage. Today, Geffray will meet with student and parents’ associations in Paris for talks following yesterday’s mass mobilisation. The French Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin, has asked prosecutors to hold parents civilly liable for damage caused by their children during the protests involving the blockades of secondary schools, with a view to making them ‘pay for the repairs’, he told RTL.
The Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nunez, who last night convened a meeting with prefects, senior police and gendarmerie officials, and heads of the intelligence services, has denounced “a worsening of the situation that no longer has anything to do with the legitimate expression of demands by secondary school pupils, but now bears all the hallmarks of a situation of urban violence”.
