At least 250,000 students, teachers and parents protested across France on Tuesday, supported by trade unions and rights groups.
asserted
students → protest → unions
The demonstrations have grown since students began blockading the entrances to their high schools on September 17, starting in the Paris suburb of Creteil.
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students → grow → Creteil
The movement quickly spread throughout the city’s suburbs, with high schoolers protesting against conditions, lamenting dilapidated buildings, shortages of teachers and staff and overcrowded classrooms.
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schoolers → spread → teachers
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blockades → suspend → France
The blockades were met by a muscular police response, with riot police sent to break up the student protests.
More than 6,000 protesters have been arrested, 85 percent of them aged under 18.
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percent → meet → 18
At least 10 investigations into police misconduct have been opened by France’s police watchdog IGPN.
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investigations → open → watchdog
On October 2, France’s Education Minister Edouard Geffray met with student leaders and the government announced a five-point plan to reform the public education system – an olive branch students agreed was insufficient to address the crisis.
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students → meet → crisis
Some 210 teenagers – including one who lost a hand – and 715 police officers have been wounded, according to officials.
Anne Savinel-Barras, president of Amnesty International France, called on authorities to “avoid unnecessary and excessive use of force”.
“Footage and testimonies widely reported over the last week raise alarming concerns about the dangerous use of tear gas, batons and restraint techniques by police.
uncertain
Footage → include → police
Tear gas grenades have been discharged recklessly, and rubber bullets have been fired causing serious injuries.”
Al Jazeera spoke to several protesters about their demands:
‘Macron’s government has to stop investing only in war’
Theo, 19, student: “This is my first demonstration.
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This → discharge → war
I’m here in solidarity with the high schoolers, after this week of blockades and police oppression.
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I → ’m → blockades
I’m also here for other demands: for universities, for more resources for schools, and not just schools but hospitals too.
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I → ’m → schools
We’re really short of resources.
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We → ’re → resources
“Macron’s government has to stop investing only in war.
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government → have → war
We’re fed up.
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We → ’re → ?
That’s why we’re all here together in this movement of solidarity, young and old.
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we → ’ → solidarity
We all have the same demands: a better future.
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We → have → demands
‘Teachers are absent, and compared with schools in Paris we don’t have the same resources’
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we → compare → resources
Olympe, 16, high school student: “We blockaded our school all week to demand our rights and to denounce what’s happening in our schools.
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what → blockade → schools
Teachers are absent, and compared with schools in Paris we don’t have the same resources.
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we → compare → resources
We’re given less money, and we don’t have the same privileges.”
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we → give → privileges
Rania, 15, high school student: “We don’t feel listened to at all.
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We → feel → ?
We feel inferior, especially considering that we’re the future.
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we → feel → ?
So when no one listens to us, we do all this, but in the end will it really change anything?
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it → listen → anything
We don’t know.”
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We → know → ?
Maissene, student: “We came to support our classmates, simply because if they’re blockading, we blockade too.
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we → come → classmates
It’s a general movement, and they can’t do it on their own.”
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they → ’ → own
‘We came to defend our youth’
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We → come → youth
Raphael, 17, high school student: “We came to defend our youth.
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We → come → youth
Because we’re young, the state doesn’t listen to us.
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state → ’re → us
They think we have no political awareness and don’t know what we’re defending.
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we → think → what
We’re here to show the opposite: we know exactly what we’re defending.
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we → ’re → what
We know our values.”
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We → know → values
Rose, 16, high school student: “If nothing changes, we’ll keep going for much longer.
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we → change → longer
Clemence, 30, maths teacher in Paris: “I support the high schoolers’ movement 100%.
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I → support → movement
Their demands are ones we’ve been making for years.
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we → make → years
Today, we’re taking the opportunity to march alongside them.
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we → take → them
They’re asking for more resources, more teachers, better teaching conditions.
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They → ask → resources
We’ve been asking for this for years, because the state badly neglects it …
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state → ask → it
You saw how the heatwave was handled: our classrooms were between 35 and 40°C.
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classrooms → see → ?
It’s unacceptable.”
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It → ’ → ?
…and 15 more, not listed.
The Aporia
