France is struggling to restart schooling after violent student protests staged on Friday in numerous cities. Lessons will be suspended “totally or partially” tomorrow in “400–500” high schools where safety conditions are not met, the French Minister of Education, Édouard Geffray, announced. He also reported that 24 school institutions were “set on fire or devastated” during the student mobilization that began earlier in the week. “Between 400 and 500 institutions suspended lessons” on Friday and “probably a similar number will do the same on Monday, albeit with a partial and gradual resumption of teaching activities,” the minister said on France 2 and France Inter, adding that “78 staff members” have been injured “since the start of the events.”
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has called for classes to resume “wherever” security conditions allow, issuing a roadmap to several ministers that sets a timetable to address some of the students’ demands. The head of government specifically asks that, in each school district and starting this week, there be “priority management of substitute coverage for prolonged absences and filling of vacant posts,” with an initial review scheduled for 16 October. He has also convened a meeting with regional presidents on Tuesday to discuss renovation of school buildings and has asked ministers to put forward, by the end of October, initial proposals to improve Parcoursup, the national digital platform used to manage applications to the first year of higher education.
Meanwhile, a 16-year-old has been taken into custody in connection with the investigation of an attack on a teacher in La Ciotat, in the Bouches-du-Rhône: the teacher was doused with gasoline on Friday during the student mobilization. Thierry Laurent, a physics and chemistry teacher at the La Ciotat high school, told Bfmtv that he was trying to extinguish a burning tree when a student sprayed him with “a shower of gasoline” while his feet were “very close to the fire.” The teacher was then struck before the youth fled. “What matters to me is that this boy does not repeat the same act,” he said.
According to the teacher, the student was enrolled at the school where he works. Thierry Laurent does not know him personally, but school staff confirmed the student’s identity. “I filed a complaint at the school’s request. Personally I was not eager to do so, but I discussed it with the headmaster, who told me it was necessary for the good of the institution,” the teacher explained, saying his motivation was not fear or anger but a desire to obtain an explanation and to understand, together with the student, why the incident occurred. Laurent also said he asked to meet the young person at the police station, a request that was denied. “I want to meet him as soon as possible and speak with him. What matters to me is that this boy does not repeat the same act,” he added.