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| Europe |
| Injuries and arrests as 'high school students' keep up blockade of French schools |
| 2026-09-30 |
| SAINT-DENIS, France, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Dozens of people have been injured and hundreds arrested, most of them children, officials said, in a wave of student demonstrations against teacher shortages and dilapidated buildings which on Wednesday impacted high schools nationwide. The demonstrations and blockades, which began last week and coincided on Tuesday with a broader public-sector strike, have become a political flashpoint at a sensitive moment for France. On Thursday, the government will unveil the country's 2027 budget, which is expected to involve spending cuts aimed at easing pressure on government finances. In Saint-Denis, a large suburb north of Paris, students stood outside the gates of their school near a fire that had been set as police looked on, while in Lyon and Lille television images showed people throwing projectiles at lines of police officers. "There are cockroaches and rats everywhere in the school," Fadila, a 17-year-old student, told Reuters. She said temperatures in classrooms could swing from sweltering to below freezing, depending on the weather. "We can't work in those conditions," she said. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #1 |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2026-09-30 11:15 |