'Gen Z has risen up': Tens of thousands mass for tense France school protests

A quarter of a million demonstrators took to the streets across France Tuesday as unions and teachers joined high school students demanding better learning conditions in protests that later descended into sporadic clashes with security forces.

Students have blocked the entrances to hundreds of high schools for 15- to 17-year-olds since late September, complaining of missing teachers, overloaded timetables, dilapidated classrooms and buildings that cannot cope with rising temperatures.

Rights groups, unions and the students have accused authorities of using disproportionate force. A teenager lost a hand on Monday after police fired a stun grenade, while another student reportedly lost several teeth last week after being struck by a police launcher round.

At Paris's Place de la Republique, protesters gathered beneath banners demanding better-funded schools, including one reading "Neglected schools, sacrificed youth."

"Gen Z has risen up and wants to be heard," 19-year-old Lilia told Agence France-Presse at a massive march in central Paris, adding she hoped President Emmanuel Macron would listen.

The unrest comes ahead of a 2027 election to choose Macron's successor, with far-right candidate Marine Le Pen riding high in the polls despite a graft conviction.

An AFP reporter described the Paris march as largely peaceful, but tensions flared near its endpoint in the east of the capital as police fired tear gas and some demonstrators threw rocks at a line of officers carrying riot shields.

Police officials said that "300 hostile individuals" were attempting to confront officers.

Another AFP reporter saw a young man bleeding from a head wound.

Yanis, 16, said students felt ignored until the demonstrations turned violent. "It makes us feel like everything gets solved through violence," he said.

The Interior Ministry said 256,000 people had joined demonstrations nationwide, while union organizers put the figure at 450,000.

Macron was expected to meet with top officials including the interior and education ministers in response to the unrest, a government source said. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu condemned violence linked to the protests, telling lawmakers there was "no room for tolerance of violence."

"Burning down a high school does not improve the state of high school buildings," he told parliament, rejecting accusations the government had ordered "police repression" against protesters.

While many protests have been peaceful, some demonstrators have started fires, destroyed bus shelters or clashed with riot police.

Police have responded with batons, tear gas and riot-control rounds.

The government says 215 students and 715 police officers have been injured since the start of the movement. A 15-year-old lost a hand to a sting-ball grenade fired by riot officers in the northern town of Lens on Monday.

A policeman was charged Tuesday over the firing of a tear gas grenade at close range that left a 14-year-old northwest of Paris without most of his teeth and with facial wounds. In Metz, prosecutors requested a police inquiry after video footage circulated appearing to show a plainclothes officer inappropriately touching a detained female pupil younger than 15.

The government has sought to address the students' grievances, while accusing the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party of encouraging the movement.

Veteran LFI presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon has strongly supported the protests, while calling for non-violent methods.

Thomas, a 17-year-old student from the Paris suburb of Val-de-Marne, said some of the classrooms at his school were short of desks and chairs while the bathrooms lacked doors, toilet paper and soap.

"We just want better conditions for studying," he told AFP. Teachers and parents joined demonstrations across France.

In Lyon, parents organized to support the youngsters, while teacher Rindala Younes said she wanted to help students "convey their message peacefully."

"The high school students' demands are legitimate," she said.

Amnesty International on Monday said the French authorities should "put an end to the disproportionate police repression seen in recent days during student protests."

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said police had opened 10 internal investigations into allegations of misconduct.

Since the start of the movement, 24 schools have been burned or ransacked, according to the Education Ministry.

More than 5,000 people, 87 percent of them minors, have been arrested. The prime minister's office said 85 teaching staff have also been injured.