French police clash with high school protesters demanding change

Hundreds of thousands of people joined France's third major student protest, with demonstrators demanding fixes for understaffed, overcrowded, and crumbling schools, plus overhaul of the glitchy Parcoursup university placement system. Roughly 5,000 people have been arrested since the protests began on September 17, the vast majority of them minors, and a 15-year-old's hand was mutilated by a police grenade in Lens under disputed circumstances.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu wrote to the education minister demanding an action plan covering class cancellations, teaching conditions, and career guidance, saying trust will return when people see changes in their schools. Students and parent groups say they simply want to be heard, while acknowledging it is ultimately up to the students themselves to decide when the protests end.

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