“We want to be listened to by the State”: in several large cities, high school students demonstrated peacefully on Tuesday morning and reiterated their demands

Youth shows up and makes itself heard. In the streets of Lyon (Rhône), Tuesday October 6 in the morning, there are thousands of high school students supported by students and teachers. The procession marches peacefully.

Many establishments are impacted by the movement, which has been widely followed for several days in the Rhône, with always the same demands. "[Some] have no ceiling. In winter, it's super cold in their classroom. The teachers, frankly, a third are not replaced. Even us in our high school which is not one of the worst, we already have two teachers who are missing this year. We want to be listened to by the State and measures to be able to build our future", explains a demonstrator. “We want to show that our demands do not only come through violence, that we are also here in a pacifist approach, that there is no point in breaking everything, that we must separate the thugs from the rest of the young people,” adds another.

Close-knit high schools, supportive students

In Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), high school students and students met in front of the castle of the Dukes of Brittany for a massive mobilization with the same slogans. “We are all united among high school students, to finally say that we are not taken seriously, that we must be taken seriously and that we are fed up, chants a student. There is a feeling of fed up that has been there for years.”

In Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine), a parade without any particular tension took place with a significant police presence in the streets. All the high schools had closed their doors in the morning. Several universities have joined the movement, such as in Grenoble (Isère). “The high school students showed us the way, and today there are 1,000 reasons to revolt and go on strike and demonstrate,” confides a student. Despite the mobilization, high school students preferred to return to their classrooms, as in Bordeaux (Gironde), where many police officers were deployed in front of the establishments.