PARIS, France -- French high school students on Friday lit fires and hurled projectiles at police who responded by firing tear gas, as new clashes erupted nationwide in an escalating protest movement demanding better conditions in education. The government says that the pupils in their mid-to-late-teens studying in lycees have every right to air grievances but has condemned violence which has included a policeman being chased, kicked and beaten by a group of youths. The movement, which began in the Paris region in September and rapidly spread nationwide, has seen teenage pupils at lycees in their final years of schooling block access to buildings and clash with police. Almost 400 schools were shut on Friday with education disrupted at least 564 high schools out of the 3,700 in the country, according to the education ministry. The students say their school hours are excessively long, conditions inadequate including overheated classrooms, and that there are too many staff absences. “For a whole year, we didn’t have a science teacher. We don’t have any textbooks,” said Simon, a 15-year-old who declined to give his surname outside the Turgot high school in central Paris. “And still, we’re the lucky ones. It’s even worse in the suburbs.” ‘Intolerable’ In the western city of Brest, police used tear gas at the Kerichen high school as pupils hurled projectiles at security forces, an AFP photographer said. Meanwhile Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said images from the eastern city of Belfort showing a group of youths encircle a lone policeman and kick him to the ground were of a “rare violence and intolerable.” A 17-year-old high school student was arrested over the incident. The policeman lost consciousness but his condition was not a cause for concern, said Nunez. In Paris on Friday, fire damaged the entrances of two high schools -- Leonard de Vinci in the south of the city and Gaston-Bachelard in the southeast -- with the fire brigade called to extinguish the blazes, an AFP photographer said. Students have accused police of using excessive force and causing injuries by regularly firing tear gas canisters to disperse the protests. The police force has launched internal probes after accusations of brutality against three demonstrators. In the southern city of Toulouse, protesters administered eye drops to each other after police used tear gas, AFP images showed. In Aubervilliers, north of Paris, police used batons and riot shields to control protesters. ‘Held hostage’ The protests have also made a strong political echo just over half a year before presidential elections, with the government accusing the hard left France Unbowed (LFI) -- whose firebrand leader Jean-Luc Melenchon is again standing for the presidency -- of being behind the movement. But senior LFI official Manuel Bompard accused the government of “descending into conspiracy theories.” Education Minister Edouard Geffray said “the high school student movement is being held hostage by ultra-violent fringe groups.” He told BFMTV at least 65 staff members have been injured, including 40 high school principals, since the start of the movement. Some 170 students have been wounded while over 100 high schools have suffered “severe damage,” he said. “Parents must clearly step up and tell their children not to go” to the protests, he added. “What matters now is ensuring our children are no longer out on the streets, because they are in danger.” Outside the Claude Monet school in southern Paris, 53-year-old Anya stood on tiptoes, worried her teenage son might have come to join the protest with his classmates. “We banned him from coming. I hope he isn’t here, but he did leave the house, so... We’re afraid the situation might escalate,” she said, keeping a safe distance from a burning rubbish bin. Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said he has asked prosecutors to hold parents liable for damage caused by their children during the protests and “pay for repairs.” Since the start of the movement, around 2,000 people have been taken into police custody -- “90 per cent of whom were minors,” Darmanin told RTL. By Frederic Bourigault, Ulrike Koltermann and Stuart Williams, AFP
