France is suspending the police use of stun grenades at high-school demonstrations after a 15-year-old protester lost his hand in northern France, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced on Wednesday.
A Turning Point in Lens After Weeks of Unrest
The decision to halt the use of stun grenades came after a 15-year-old boy lost his hand and part of his arm during a protest in Lens on Monday. Authorities have not confirmed the exact circumstances of the incident, noting only that up to 200 protesters had been hurling projectiles at police when the riot squad intervened. Nuñez told RTL radio that he ordered a temporary halt to the use of the devices “in the context of the high-school students’ movement” and “until we know exactly what happened.”
The boy’s mother offered a starkly different account to BFMTV, stating that her son’s hand had been amputated and that he had not tried to pick up the grenade. “His life has been stolen,” she said. “He’s a 15-year-old kid, how can children be treated like that?” La Voix du Nord reported that the teenager lost his hand and part of his arm after picking up a police grenade during the demonstration.
The incident is one of 18 internal police investigations launched over allegations of brutality during the demonstrations. A 14-year-old student in northwest Paris was hit in the face with a tear gas grenade at close range and lost several teeth, an incident for which a policeman was charged on Tuesday. Other documented injuries include a young protester who lost the use of an eye, while at least 215 teenagers and 85 school staff have been injured since the protests began, alongside approximately 750 police officers.
Divergent Estimates and Nationwide Protests
The unrest reached a high point earlier in the week when hundreds of thousands of pupils, parents, teachers, and unionists took to the streets across French cities. The interior ministry put the national turnout at 256,000, while union organizers, including the Union Syndicale Lycéenne, claimed a much larger figure of 450,000 participants.
Most marches remained peaceful, but demonstrations in cities such as Paris, Marseille, Nantes, Lyon, Strasbourg, and Rennes devolved into sporadic vandalism and running skirmishes. Police fired tear gas and protesters lit fires in the streets and hurled projectiles. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced the cancellation of classes and added the move was aimed at empowering headteachers, teachers and pupils to pursue “internal democracy” to address concerns over school conditions.
The protests have exacted a heavy toll on public infrastructure and the justice system. Damage to schools in the greater Paris region alone is estimated at 7 million euros ($7.84 million), with 24 schools burned or ransacked across the country. The Ministry of Justice announced that more than 6,500 people have been taken into police custody, with more than 1,800 facing prosecution, nearly 1,500 of them minors.
Systemic Grievances and Fiscal Pressures
The movement began two weeks ago in Paris’s poorest suburbs as a localized reaction in support of striking teachers before snowballing into a national crisis. Students are demanding basic improvements to an under-resourced education system, citing dilapidated facilities, long school days, and a severe lack of replacement teachers. A fertility spike in France in 2010 has led to a rise in the number of high school students now attending schools that have seen years of real-terms funding cuts. Secondary schools now have fewer teachers than in 2008, despite an extra 250,000 students enrolled.
The French government faces severe constraints in addressing these demands due to a ballooning budget deficit. The administration is trying to pass a 2027 budget that narrows the deficit to around 5 percent of gross domestic product through painful belt-tightening measures, which recently pushed France’s 10-year bond yield to its highest level since 2002 amid mounting investor concern over the country’s fiscal outlook.
In response to the disruption, Prime Minister Lecornu suspended high school classes across France for the rest of the week. The education ministry stated that classes were wholly or partially suspended in 528 of the country’s 3,700 lycées on Wednesday.
Political Fallout Ahead of Presidential Elections
The unrest has intensified political tensions months before key presidential elections to choose a successor to President Emmanuel Macron. The government has accused the radical-left La France Insoumise party of encouraging and orchestrating the movement after numerous LFI members of parliament attended school blockades. Party leader and presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon has strongly supported the protests while urging non-violence.
Internationally, the protests drew commentary from United States President Donald Trump, who used the demonstrations to promote a right-wing narrative, blaming the unrest on mass migration and Islam without providing evidence.
As the government orders ministers to address student demands by the end of October, some student groups have called for fresh demonstrations to continue putting pressure on the administration.
