Paris, October 7, 2026 – The Europe Today: More than 1,000 people have been injured and around 30,000 high school students are currently unable to attend classes in person as protests over learning conditions continue across France, according to figures released Wednesday.
Education Minister Edouard Geffray told the National Assembly that 215 students and 88 education staff members had been injured since demonstrations began in mid-September.
Geffray said most student injuries had resulted from what he described as “reckless behavior or mortar fire.” He added that slightly fewer than half of the injured education staff were school principals or deputy principals, who in many cases had been deliberately targeted.
“We have never seen this before,” Geffray told lawmakers.
According to figures from Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s office, cited by Le Figaro, 715 police officers and gendarmes have also been injured during the protests.
Geffray said 24 high schools had been set on fire or sustained damage so severe that they could not immediately reopen. As a result, approximately 30,000 high school students are unable to attend classes in person, creating what he described as “enormous harm” to their education.
Several hundred other schools have also sustained serious damage, with the total cost estimated at between €20 million and €30 million ($22 million-$33 million).
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said police would suspend the use of stun grenades during student mobilizations, following an incident in which a 15-year-old protester reportedly lost a hand.
“I asked yesterday that these grenades no longer be used as part of the high school students’ movement,” Nunez told broadcaster RTL.
Nunez also said that France’s police oversight body, the IGPN, had opened 18 investigations into alleged acts of violence committed on the sidelines of the demonstrations.
“These judicial investigations are ongoing and will determine whether or not these actions were proportionate,” he said.
While maintaining that a police response was necessary during the protests, Nunez emphasized that the response must remain proportionate.
“You do not manage a high school students’ movement in the same way as you manage a movement of adults,” he said.
