Lycée protests in France: 20 education staff injured as 35% of replacement teachers are assigned

Staff injured as violence intensifies

Education minister Édouard Geffray told France Inter on Tuesday 13 October that 20 education staff were injured on Monday 12 October during the student mobilisation, after the ministry had noted an "intensification" of violence that day. On Friday 9 October he had said that the threshold of 100 injured staff had been passed since the mobilisation began nationwide. The Snes-FSU teachers' union had already denounced "violence wherever it comes from" against staff and pupils in a statement at the end of September. Geffray said the injured staff were protecting pupils' right to keep attending class and to express themselves within a legal framework. He also said in his Friday remarks:

I once again salute the remarkable quality and dedication of the school leadership staff and of all the staff who were victims of attacks while protecting our most precious asset: the school.

The injuries sit within a sequence of events that began with a first blockade in mid-September, shown below.

Replacement teachers and recruitment

On Thursday 8 October Geffray announced the deployment of 3,000 replacement teachers to the lycées where the situation is most critical. On Tuesday he said that 35% of the available replacements had been assigned since Friday 9 October, after a review covering 25 of the 30 academies. He said the work had taken a year and coincided with the rollout of new allocation tools delivered at the end of September. He also said that about a thousand contract staff are being recruited, with around a hundred recruited since Friday. Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of the Snes-FSU, the largest union in colleges and lycées, called the measure "very ambitious" and "rather disconnected from the realities on the ground" on France 2 on Monday 12 October. She cited teachers asked to cover a subject outside their own, and she said:

The ministry tells us that in that case, these teachers will not do the replacement, they will perhaps do some support or something else, but the hour of class will remain lost.

Police response and custody figures

Tagesschau, citing the Interior Ministry, reports that more than 700 police officers have been injured during the protests. The same report says Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez directed police to use "all non-lethal weapons" if needed to end the disorder. Several pupils were seriously injured by stun and tear-gas grenades, according to tagesschau. Dozens of school heads and teachers have been attacked, and an entrance hall at a school in Nantes burned out. Tagesschau also reports that almost 7,000 people have been taken into police custody since the protests began, a number it says the months-long Yellow Vest protests did not come close to.

A movement in its third week

Geffray told France Inter that about 200 establishments remain closed on Tuesday 13 October, and that the movement is in a decline compared with last week. Tagesschau traces the first blockade to mid-September in Créteil, south of Paris, from where it spread to northern banlieues before reaching lycées in city centres. In Brest, about 200 pupils from the lycée de l'Iroise organised a blockade last week, and four of them told Ouest-France that pupils have almost never been heard in public debate. In Rennes the movement enters its third week, and pupils have been received by the rectorat and by the mayor. Le Figaro reports that some former May 1968 activists see parallels with the current protests, and that young demonstrators have posted slogans such as "Septembre 2026 is the new mai 68".

What the law allows on placards

Ouest-France, answering a reader's question after footage showed police seizing placards, reports that writing on a placard is covered by freedom of expression as long as the law is respected. Criticism of a minister or the police, caricature and satire are permitted. Banned content includes defamation of an identifiable person or profession, incitement to hatred or violence, direct calls to violence or destruction, and death threats. Paris criminal lawyer Hassan Kohen told the paper:

The law only sanctions specific abuses.

Certain symbols are also punishable when written on placards or displayed in public, according to the same explainer.