Protests by high school students have rattled France in recent weeks, with hundreds of school blockages, large demonstrations and violent clashes with the police.
The students are protesting overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and decrepit buildings. The French government is scrambling to address their frustrations, which erupted amid a heated political climate ahead of a presidential election in April and have threatened to swell into a broader wave of grievances.
More than 700 police officers and more than 300 students and school staff members have been injured, some of them seriously, according to the government. Some high schools were set on fire or ransacked, and hundreds more were damaged, according to the education ministry.
The government has tried to assuage students’ anger, in part by pledging to create emergency plans to address school staffing shortages. But deteriorating public finances have left officials without much wiggle room to address the students’ complaints, and concessions have done little to calm the protesters.
The post The Wave of Student Protests Roiling France appeared first on New York Times.
