Anger of high school students: high school organizations now want to discuss with Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu

The Minister of National Education Édouard Geffray and the high school organizations did not make any notable progress on Thursday, for their third exchange since the start of the movement, while blockades of establishments and demonstrations continued against the problems of school buildings, Parcoursup and timetables. The meeting between Édouard Geffray and the high school organizations, by videoconference, even seemed to freeze the positions, as the school holidays begin on Friday.

“We left the meeting (after an hour, Editor's note) because we were not listened to and we were told of a new meeting on Monday to which we will not go, quite simply because it is of no use (...) the mobilization will also continue during the holidays and at the start of the school year too,” explained Marius Mesnil, co-secretary general of the High School Union.

The USL also announced that it now wanted to communicate directly with Matignon, rather than the Ministry of Education. Same story for the union Les Lycéens!, which, like the USL, once again called on high school students to demonstrate alongside the various discontented (yellow vests, farmers) on Saturday October 17. “We didn't expect anything, and we're still disappointed,” said Louis Letoublon, vice-president of Les Lycéens!. “We will now address Matignon to the Prime Minister who has made a number of announcements on other important subjects,” he added.

Nathanaël Combary, president of Renouveau lycéen and member of the Renaissance party, wishes him “two very clear advances: States General for the complete overhaul of Parcoursup, and a national plan for school buildings”. For his part, Édouard Geffray highlighted the actions taken, notably with the 3,000 replacement teachers announced at the end of the previous meeting with the unions, which this Thursday evening only allowed “41 establishments” to be counted in great difficulty, compared to 114 last Thursday.

Concerning Parcoursup, concrete measures “will be communicated by the end of October”, recalled Édouard Geffray. In the morning, the minister went to the Les Iris high school in Lormont, near Bordeaux, which was partly ransacked on October 8, with damage estimated by the region at at least 250,000 euros. “The people who do this (...) are criminals. Hold on!”, said the minister, before thanking the staff who “saved young people”, but “also adults”.

The Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, denounced the transformation of the “high school movement” into “a movement of urban violence”, which is “insulting to high school students” who wanted to show their “angst” and “discontent”, or “to ask for things”. On Thursday, the mobilization continued almost everywhere, while student unions called to join the day of mobilization scheduled for Saturday, October 17.

Spontaneous demonstrations, bringing together several hundred people, started at the beginning of the afternoon, in Bordeaux, Lille and Aubervilliers in particular. Staff at the Paul-Eluard high school in Saint-Denis, one of the epicenters of the high school movement, denounced a “violent” intervention by plainclothes police officers within the premises of the establishment to arrest a student.

“There is a legal framework,” reacted Édouard Geffray. “We are witnessing extremely strong violence, particularly against school leaders. (...) There is a judicial institution which is responsible for discerning truth from falsehood.” “Our teachers are at their wits’ end,” a student from ENS Lyon, who wishes to remain anonymous, told AFP. “They are super pessimistic and are asking us to take some time to think among ourselves to see more clearly about how to teach. (...) they do not know how to manage the situation either in the short or long term.”

At the national level, principals were called by their main union to a “curtain operation” on Thursday afternoon, consisting of only managing emergencies, to show their “fed up”. Starting from a Parisian suburban establishment on September 17, the high school students' movement spread across France, supported by student and union organizations. Concerning universities, the Minister of Higher Education Philippe Baptiste spoke on Thursday of “around fifteen” interventions by law enforcement in universities so far.

Since the start of the protest, “nearly 900” police officers and gendarmes have been injured according to the Ministry of the Interior, as have more than 200 high school students and nearly 150 education personnel. Thirty-six investigations were opened by the police, four of which concern “mutilating injuries” and six “significant injuries”. The government is counting on school holidays to cause it to run out of steam in the country's 3,700 high schools, but youth organizations are calling to join the mobilization on Saturday with yellow vests against the high cost of living.