Nearly 400 French High Schools Shut As Student Protests Spread Nationwide

Almost 400 high schools were closed across France on Friday over a week-long protest movement by pupils that has seen dozens of staff members wounded and some 2,000 people arrested, officials said. 

The movement, which began last week in the Paris region and rapidly spread nationwide, has seen teenage pupils at lycees in their final years of schooling block access to their establishments and clash with police.

The students



say their school hours are excessively long, conditions at schools inadequate including overheated classrooms, and that there are too many staff absences.

The government says the grievances are legitimate but violence is not. Education Minister Edouard Geffray said "the high school student movement is being held hostage by ultra-violent fringe groups," adding that nearly 400 high schools out of the 3,700 in the country were expected to be closed on Friday.