'Everyone hates the police' – what France's school protests reveal about a divided nation

ByNick Beake Europe correspondent.

Key points

• The protests – ignited at the Lycée Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry in the deprived Paris suburb of Créteil – have struck a chord nationwide.
• "We've got 50 minutes to eat at lunchtime but there are 2, 000 of us that need to get through the canteen."
• When lessons do go ahead, the classes are typically packed with 35 pupils (by comparison, the average secondary school class in England has fewer than 23 pupils).
• So far, almost 7, 000 individuals have been detained during the disorder with more than 85% being children, according to the interior ministry.
• More than three-quarters of under-30s in France interviewed for an Ipsos survey conducted for Aix-Marseille University this week remarked they were worried concerning the state of their country.

As dustbins burn and students chant "everyone hates the police" in the French city of Lille, one teenager explains why he and his friends have taken to the streets.

"There aren't even enough chairs. We have to go and find some at the start of every lesson, " the 16-year-old. This person did not want to offer his name, states of his school.

He is one of hundreds of thousands of students who have protested throughout France since the end of last month over staff shortages and dilapidated facilities in the country's lycées, secondary schools attended by 15 to 18-year-olds.

Despite the government's apparent attempts to create concessions, the students show no sign of backing down.

As she marches through Lille, "They have armies, they have the police, they have the powers, " notes Massicella, 18. "But we have the mass population."

Notably, the protests, which have turned violent, have become a focal point in France's polarised politics, with all sides accusing the other of escalating tensions. As a presidential election approaches, politicians on both the hard right and hard left have sought to capitalise on the unrest and on what plenty of see as the government's inability to resolve the crisis.

For context, the protests – ignited at the Lycée Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry in the deprived Paris suburb of Créteil – have struck a chord nationwide.

Videos of rats scuttling through corridors in other lycées shortly hit social media, providing striking symbols of the discontent. Other videos on TikTok and Instagram indicated broken toilets, holes in walls and mouldy ceilings nationwide. Students have complained of unbearable heat in the summer and freezing classrooms in the winter.

For context, the anger has additionally focused on long school hours, chronic staff shortages, overcrowded classes and a deeply unpopular university admissions system.

For context, the difficulty for the French administration – which became clearer as we spoke to dozens of pupils this week – is that even if a tiny minority of schools have a difficulty with rodents, a highly sizeable number of pupils believe their own education is failing them.

On Tuesday, authorities stated 250, 000 individuals marched, most of them young. The trade unions remarked it was more like half a million.

But it is not just students taking to the streets – their teachers are joining them.

Secondary school teacher Marine Monins. This person joined the demonstrations in Lille, demonstrates us a laminated timetable which she states illustrates the difficulty.

It has become normal for pupils to start at 8am and finish as late as 6pm, but the days are punctuated by hours-long gaps since of bad planning and staff shortages.

"It's now impossible to give every child the attention they deserve, " Monins explains.

On Thursday, the French administration produced its first sign of ceding ground to protesters, with a promise of 3, 000 extra supply teachers over the next few days.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has remarked by the end of October there will be a plan unveiled to respond to the crisis. Ministers have remarked they could look again at resources for schools within next year's squeezed budget.

But this has been met with a collective shrug at barricaded school gates nationwide.

"It goes beyond having decent toilets in schools, " lycée student Alcidor notes in Paris, under the statue of Marianne at Place de la République, a place synonymous with protest.

"It's strong anger from the youth in France that doesn't feel represented, that feels abandoned, that feels unheard and is scared of what's coming in the future." The unrest has resulted in widespread arrests and injuries.

More than 700 police officers have been injured previously three weeks.

But rights groups and unions accuse the police of resorting to heavy-handed tactics against minors, including the employ of batons, tear gas and non-lethal flash-ball guns. At least 200 pupils have been injured, along with dozens of teachers.

Notably, a 15-year-old boy's hand was blown off during a confrontation between police and demonstrators in the northern city of Lens.

Reports of how the teenager sustained the injury differ. A police union source cited by the AFP news agency remarked the boy appeared to have picked up a sting-ball grenade fired by riot police. It then exploded in his hand. Nevertheless, a witness informed local media that the teenager did not pick up the grenade.

In practice, a teacher at the boy's school, Bastien Riez. This person is additionally a union rep, believes that current police tactics could irrevocably damage the relationship with France's youth.

"For plenty of, this is their first experience of democracy and protest, and they are met with police and a sham of social dialogue and democracy. I fear that plenty of young residents will stop believing in this so-called democracy altogether."

Police have since been banned from using stun grenades at school protests.

But Parisian pupil Kaspar, 15, speaks of his fear when coming face-to-face with police in full riot gear. He notes he and his friends have been protesting peacefully, but strangers were hijacking their protests.

"These individuals are coming just to shoot fireworks at police officers and they run. This is not the message we want to send to the world."

Police chiefs say violence, directed by agitators who have no link to the schools, is making their job incredibly hard.

Michel Chaballier, deputy secretary-general of the National Police Commissioners' Union (SCPN), notes he fears the "political climate has been radicalised", and it was more and more challenging to have a calm, constructive public debate ahead of the national vote next spring.

"Police officers find themselves caught in the middle of this social tension, which is sometimes fuelled by irresponsible politicians, " he notes. "That's a shame, because I think this country deserves better."

Meanwhile, the protests have become another bruising battleground in France's culture wars, with leaders of the hard left and right seeking to capitalise.

But plenty of residents have a more profound and wider concern regarding just how dramatically the middle ground in France is eroding, leaving a chasm in the political landscape.

Meanwhile, the education crisis is symptomatic of this but additionally threatens to act as an accelerant.

In short, ' Everyone hates the police' – what France' s school protests reveal about a is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.