Omar Sy judges the authorities’ response to the mobilization of high school students “lamentable”

The authorities' response to the high school students' movement is "lamentable", judged star actor Omar Sy on Wednesday, who believes that young people are being "reprimanded" without listening to what they have to say.

“It’s our kids, it’s the future of our country who is telling a country which is completely adrift “I have a direction”,” the actor, who came to promote the new season of Lupine on Netflix, explained on France Inter.

“When I see that we don't react to that, and that the reflex is to prevent them from speaking, or to hit them in the face or even to put them in front of each other to have childish fights, I find that lamentable,” he continued.

Since mid-September, high school students have been mobilized throughout France to demand more resources for education, a movement which resulted in five days of national demonstrations sometimes punctuated by violence. At this stage, the government has reported 147 National Education personnel injured since the start of the protest and 36 investigations have been opened for alleged acts of violence committed by law enforcement against demonstrators.

“Before we start to reprimand, punish (...), we don’t listen to them at all. But worse than that, we ask them to keep quiet and then we ask them to come to an agreement (while) we don’t even know what they have to say,” continued Omar Sy. “Oh but oh! They have something to say,” he said. “Come, let’s calm down, we’ll listen to them and then we’ll see.”