Teenager loses hand picking up grenade in France school protests

A 15-year-old student lost a hand on Monday picking up a police grenade as part of nationwide protests over classroom conditions that have disrupted lessons at hundreds of schools since last week.

Some students returned to classrooms but others maintained actions outside their schools, ahead of a day of larger demonstrations expected on Tuesday.

Authorities said the teenager was injured in the northern town of Lens. A police union source said he appeared to have picked up a sting-ball grenade fired by riot police and that it exploded in his hand.

Since late September, students have blocked the entrances to hundreds of schools, complaining of teacher absences, overloaded timetables, dilapidated classrooms and buildings ill-adapted to rising temperatures, among other grievances.

The unrest erupted just months to go before 2027 elections 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.

The French Human Rights League (LDH) on Monday accused security forces of using disproportionate methods against protesters, many of whom are legally minors.

“We can see that in the instructions given to the police, there is no directive to show restraint, even though they are dealing with children,” LDH president Nathalie Tehio said.

Dustbins ablaze

More than 400 out of France’s 3 700 high schools, known as lycees, were partially or totally closed on Monday morning, the education ministry said.

A third of the 468 lycees for teenagers aged 15 to 17 were expected to be closed in the Paris region, authorities said.

In central Paris, dozens of teenage students demonstrated outside a school while passing cars honked their horns. Some classmates made their way inside to attend lessons.

“We’re missing our lessons to give you one,” read one cardboard sign outside the Turgot high school, located in Paris’s 3rd arrondissement.

In Bordeaux, in the southwest, some students returned to the classroom while others continued to demonstrate in the presence of riot police.

Some protesters outside the Gustave Eiffel high school set off fireworks in the direction of the police, who responded sporadiacally with tear gas, but overall the situation remained calm, AFP reporters said.

In the northern city of Lille, masked protesters destroyed bus shelters and set fire to dustbins, as police fired tear gas towards demonstrators.

The movement started on September 17 at a high school in the Paris suburb of Creteil, in support of teachers striking over a lack of staff and resources.

It gained momentum and spread across France, at times spiralling into vandalism, including the destruction of bus shelters, the burning of school entrances and clashes between protesters and security forces.

Since the start of the movement, 24 schools had been burned or ransacked, according to the education minister.

More than 5 000 people, 85 percent of them minors, have been arrested.

Protesters have also accused the police of using excessive force, and internal investigations have been opened into at least three instances of alleged police brutality.

‘Parental responsibility’

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu set out a timetable on Sunday urging local authorities to prioritise filling gaps left by long-term teacher absences and unfilled posts.

He called a meeting for Tuesday with regional presidents to discuss overhauling the country’s often-dilapidated school buildings.

The government is also pushing legislation to make those responsible for damaging public property pay for repairs themselves, instead of drawing on public funds.

Government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon defended the bill.

“When you have 14-, 15-, 16-year-olds who, at 9 am, are burning bus shelters or — perhaps even more seriously — the high school where they study, that raises the question of parental responsibility,” she told the Europe1/CNews broadcaster.

Lecornu has said the draft law could allow compensation payments to be recovered from family allowances and housing benefits while preserving a minimum income threshold.

The head of the main CGT labour union, Sophie Binet, slammed what she called a “populist announcement”, which she said would “end up targeting the most vulnerable families”.