France suspended classes at between 400 and 500 high schools on Monday as a student protest movement over teacher shortages and deteriorating school buildings turned violent nationwide. Education Minister Edouard Geffray announced lessons would be "totally or partly suspended" after demonstrations that began in Paris suburbs spread to Marseille, Lille and Nantes.
The unrest has left 24 school grounds burned or ransacked and 78 education staff injured, according to Le Monde, with more than 5,000 people arrested since the trouble began - 85 percent of them minors. The students' grievances center on teacher cuts, classes of up to 40 pupils, and dilapidated buildings plagued by leaks, cockroaches and collapsed ceilings.
Several incidents shocked the country. In Marseille, a 15-year-old was detained after a woman suffered facial burns from a makeshift flamethrower, while in La Ciotat a 16-year-old was detained for allegedly dousing a 59-year-old teacher with gasoline. A student union called a national action day for October 6, and Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu convened emergency ministerial talks.
Paris police chief Patrice Faure acknowledged that the original student organizers no longer control parts of the movement, as the protests have drawn in outside agitators. What began as a school-policy revolt has become France's most serious bout of civil disorder in months, with the government now weighing a broader response to both the violence and the underlying school-funding crisis.
