France’s government said it would suspend the use of stun grenades during student protests after a 15-year-old boy lost his hand in a confrontation with riot police, intensifying accusations that officers had used excessive force.
The unrest showed little sign of abating. More than 500 schools remained closed one day after demonstrations spread across the country, while unions representing high-school students, teachers and other workers prepared additional marches for tomorrow.
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The protests, now in their third week, have laid bare deep public frustration just six months before voters are due to choose a successor to President Emmanuel Macron.
France cannot remain “indifferent” to the concerns of students whose demonstrations have unsettled the country, the prime minister said, insisting that the “anger of young people does not come from nowhere”.
He said the government would announce its first decisions in response to the crisis “at the end of October”.
The prime minister had earlier called the unrest the most violent student demonstrations in decades.
At Lycee Lamartine, a school in central Paris, protesters sang the Marseillaise, raised chants and joined Mexican waves while blocking the entrance.
“We saw there were lots of crumbling walls, a shortage of teachers in public schools, absent teachers,” said Gabriel Fillieule, who attended a public school before moving to a private one.
He and fellow protesters said they wanted better learning conditions for students across the country.
Students blockade a school with a banner reading ‘fewer cops, more money’
Police’s use of force being investigated
Most blockades remained peaceful, but police fired tear gas and forced protesters back from a rubbish bin barricade outside Sciences Po university in central Paris.
Rights organisations, trade unions, students and several opposition politicians have accused police of responding to the demonstrations with disproportionate force.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez ordered the suspension after an incident in the northern city of Lens on Monday, saying there was a “strong possibility” that a stun grenade had caused a teenager to lose his hand.
“I am suspending their use for the high-school students’ movement until light has been shed on what happened in this case,” the minister said. He added that 18 incidents had been referred to the police inspectorate for investigation.
Hundreds of schools are at least partially closed as students block doors with bins
Students have blamed deteriorating school conditions for a sharp decline in French teenagers’ reading and maths results over the past decade.
French 15-year-olds scored 43 points lower in reading in 2025 than in 2015, according to the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment, the steepest decline among OECD countries.
Their mathematics scores also recorded the largest fall.
But with the government under pressure to rein in public debt as growth remains weak, there is little spare cash to resolve complaints about teacher shortages, ageing buildings and inequalities between schools in wealthy and poorer communities.
Schools damaged by fire or vandalism
Education Minister Edouard Geffray told parliament that fire or vandalism had damaged 24 secondary schools so severely that they would remain shut for weeks. As a result, around 30,000 students would have no in-person classes until the schools reopened.
Students blockade Sciences Po Paris university on Boulevard Saint-Germain in Paris
He put the repair bill at €20-€30 million.
Marine Le Pen, the far-right presidential candidate and poll frontrunner, said the people responsible for damaging schools should cover the cost instead of leaving taxpayers to pay.
The government has taken a similar position and is backing legislation in parliament that would establish such a system.
Across Europe, where governments have faced strained budgets while responding to successive cost-of-living and energy crises, students in parts of Belgium have staged comparable protests.
In Liege, in Belgium’s southern French-speaking Wallonia region, at least 107 people have been arrested in connection with student protests this month, the Belga news agency reported.
Students march from Central Station to the Federal Parliament in Brussels, Belgium
Teachers are also taking industrial action.
In Portugal, the country’s largest teachers’ union, FENPROF, began an indefinite strike in mid-September over working conditions. Teachers are refusing to carry out unpaid duties beyond the 35-hour working week set by law.
In Spain, meanwhile, teachers’ unions have been protesting conditions in state schools.
Teachers in Madrid are due to strike on 14 October, seeking measures including shorter working hours, smaller class sizes and higher pay.
Read more: Hundreds injured as school protests sweep FranceDisillusioned students and teachers concerned with political responsesHow a high school blockade movement spread across France
