France: schools closed, attacks on teachers and police during student protests

Lessons will be suspended "totally or partially" tomorrow in "400-500" high schools where safety conditions do not exist. This was announced by the French Minister of Education, Édouard Geffray, also giving news of 24 schools "set on fire or devastated" on the sidelines of the student mobilization started at the beginning of the week. "Between 400 and 500 institutions suspended lessons" on Friday and "probably as many will do the same on Monday, albeit with a partial and gradual resumption of teaching activities", specified the minister to France 2 and France Inter, also reporting the injury of "78 members of school staff" since the beginning of the events.

16-year-old arrested for assaulting teacher doused with petrol

A 16-year-old minor was placed in custody this morning as part of the investigation into the attack in France on a teacher from La Ciotat, in the Bouches-du-Rhône: the teacher had been doused with petrol on Friday, on the sidelines of a student demonstration. Thierry Laurent, a physics and chemistry teacher at La Ciotat high school, told Bfmtv that he was trying to put out a burning tree when a student hit him with "a shower of petrol" while his feet were "very close to the fire". He was then shot before the young man fled. "What matters to me is that this boy doesn't repeat the same gesture." According to the teacher, it was a student from the high school where he works. Thierry Laurent does not know him personally, but school staff confirmed the boy's identity. "I went to file a complaint at the school's request. On a personal level, I wasn't enthusiastic about doing so, but I discussed it with the principal and he told me that it was necessary to do so for the good of the institution", explained the teacher, stating that he had not acted out of fear or anger, but simply out of "the desire to have an explanation and understand, together with the student, the genesis of his gesture". Thierry Laurent also stated that he had asked to meet the young man at the police station, a request which however was rejected. "I want to meet him as soon as possible and talk to him. What matters to me is that this boy does not repeat the same gesture," he said.

In-depth analysis

France, students take to the streets against the degradation of schools

Two arrests for the beating of a policeman in Belfort

Two people have been arrested on suspicion of participating in the lynching of an off-duty police officer in Belfort last Friday, during student protests that began in France last week. The fifteen-year-old and the seventeen-year-old, who had no criminal record, were placed in precautionary custody on charges of aggravated violence, according to what prosecutor Paul-Edouard Lallois declared at a press conference. The attack, which led to the opening of an attempted murder investigation, occurred when the officer, after a struggle to stop an alleged violent activist, was surrounded and kicked in the head until he lost consciousness. The incident was filmed on cell phones and the video circulated widely on social media, sparking a strong reaction from public opinion and the French political class.