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# Paris, France | "We support the sixth-formers." Gen Z's revolt grows across Europe as majority of French public support protests
- URL: https://www.ilesanglo-normandes.com/france-what-society-attacks-its-children-messages-from-the-historic-march-to-support-schoolchildren-in-biggest-student-protests-and-most-severe-government-repression-since-may-68/
- Published: 2026-10-13T07:09:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-15T17:58:41.000Z
- Description: Undeterred by government repression, France's schoolchildren march again today, Tuesday 13th Oct, while students in Italy, Germany and Belgium have also begun protesting. Here, the movement explained through the signs school students, parents and teachers are carrying on the streets of Paris.
- Author: îles
- Tags: Gen Z student protests

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_155543-2.jpg) 

## The **Mai 6-7* movement

****Poster reads: "May 6-7, the struggle continues.**" ****Explainer:** May 1968 was the month of France's biggest student protests in history - until the ***six-seven** generation closed down 2000 schools and 90% of universities on 6th Oct. 2026\. May '68 also saw the most severe government repression on students until now. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_174455-1-1.jpg) 

## "Revolted & in solidarity." 

****Explainer:** "**Révoltée"* means either "revolted" or "in revolt." Since they began protesting for more teachers, almost 7000 of France's Year 11s and sixth-formers have been arrested, as part of a government mass arrest strategy. An estimated 400 schoolchildren have been injured by police during their school blockades, according to Stop State Violence association SAVE. With each arrest an assault on children's physical and psychological integrity, SAVE warned schoolchildren from working-class neighbourhoods are being treated more harshly: "another act of state violence."

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_171728-1.jpg) 

## "This is not just a story. This is our future." 

"This is not just a teenage crisis. This is not just a story, this is our future. This is crucial for us. We ourselves are at a fairly privileged private school, we staged our first blockade this morning - to show our support for the schools in the suburbs." **sixth-former*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/Generation-sacrifi--e-1.jpg) 

## Generation Z Sacrified

 "We need funding for buildings' energy renovation, for teaching posts. Yet the budget goes to the army, *c'est nulle.* \[it's terrible\] Our school is against the war. We just want wars to stop and to have resources in our schools."  
**sixth-former*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_164902.jpg) 

## ****“THE KIDS TELL** É****DOUARD GEFFRAY (& the FN) WHERE TO GO.”**

****Explainer:** The chant **"La jeunesse emmerde le Front national"* by the 80s punk act, Bérurier Noir is the protest anthem for youngsters against the far right. The Front National is France's fascist party founded by former SS members, today renamed National Rally. This sign also targets Édouard Geffray, who is the current Education Minister. Under Macron, there have been nine different Education ministers. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_155755.jpg) 

## ****"WHAT SOCIETY ATTACKS ITS CHILDREN?** 

****Poster reads:** GENTLEMEN OF LAW ENFORCEMENT. DON'T HURT OUR CHILDREN. THE CHOICE IS YOURS. Article 434-5 of the Internal Security Code. “The subordinate can refuse to execute an order if it is manifestly illegal and likely to compromise public order.” WHAT SOCIETY ATTACKS ITS CHILDREN? if your children find out what you are doing to our children, then you will see the shame and disgust in their eyes. Be the example, you are the adults." an angry and shocked mum.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_172350-1.jpg) 

## "Prof en colère." Enraged teacher.

"We are here as teachers to support the students. The police response is disproportionate. We were in front of our school yesterday to protect the students, we were trying to intervene. The riot police used tear gas, they even used mounted police. It's shameful. They're children! Seeing them mutilated is just not possible." **teacher, Paris suburbs.* 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_160830-2.jpg) 

## Liberty, Equality, Fraternity for the children of Marianne

****Explainer**: This sign lists the three values of France as declared in the 1789 declaration of human rights. Marianne is the official symbol of France. Her statue is in every town hall. She was chosen during the French Revolution to portray the Goddess of Liberty and the Republic. Her “Phrygian cap” was the type worn by slaves who had been set free. Supporters of the French Revolution, the “sans culottes” also wore the cap.   

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_160734-1.jpg) 

## 2026 is the new 1789\. 

****Explainer:** Thousands filled the place de la Bastille on Oct 8th. This storming of this east of Paris site started the French revolution in 1789\. By early evening Thursday, the square was stormed by riot police, with schoolchildren and students who had been blocked in by riot police, [gassed, and beaten with batons](https://www.instagram.com/p/DePp2g7tf4X/?hl=fr&ref=ilesanglo-normandes.com). A number of hospitalisations and injuries included seizures after exposure to gas - whose use on dense crowds, unable to disperse, is illegal under France's own laws. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_151917.jpg) 

## "We want teachers, not guns."

****Explainer:** A recurring message from marchers, "schools not guns," funding for education, not war. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_154446-1.jpg) 

##  "Angry mother in solidarity."

"My daughter is here, I'm happy that she's getting politically awake, that she's interested in society's issues. I'm a bit scared too, everything we see is frightening, but I've given her some advice. But even if we protest calmly, we are not safe from police violence." **Mother to Year 11 student*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_165355-1.jpg) 

## "Beating up kids. That's the French Touch."

****Explainer:** With video evidence of schoolchildren strangled, gassed, beaten, sexually assaulted, shot, the breadth of civil society has condemned the government's "brutal repression" of France's schoolchildren. The League of Human Rights declared it as "contrary to the principles of a democratic state." 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_153912-1.jpg) 

## "This generation is right to rise up."

****Poster reads:** **"Don't Touch the children."*"I am here because I am horrified by the brutality of the repression school students are experiencing. What is at stake is quite simply the freedom to protest. These students demands are legitimate, and we send the riot police to gas them, to mutilate them, it's not normal. This generation is right to rise up." **Floriane, mother, Paris.* 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_153708-1.jpg) 

## "We do not want grenades at break time."

****Explainer:** This poster is a play on words between 'grenade' - and 'pomegranate' - **grenadine* in French, a popular drink for children's *goûter*, afternoon snack. France's government authorises its' police force to use all "intermediary weapons," which include stun grenades and [LBD ](https://www.ldh-france.org/la-ldh-reclame-le-retrait-du-lbd-40-dans-le-maintien-de-lordre/?ref=ilesanglo-normandes.com)guns - category A2 "**armes de guerre" -* literally "weapons of war" under French law on schoolchildren. And has given no order for "restraint," on policing of protests. It took a police officer firing a stun grenade at Evan, a 15-year-old schoolboy in Lens, shredding off his forearm and hand, for such grenades to be banned for policing this movement. But independent media [Mediapart](https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/071026/mouvement-lyceen-la-suspension-en-trompe-l-oeil-d-un-modele-de-grenade?ref=ilesanglo-normandes.com) has since revealed the government has only banned them from being launched, not thrown. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_163357.jpg) 

## "Ma****ë**l, 16, partially-blinded, Eden, 14, fractured jaw, Aina, 14, strangled"

****Explainer**: Ma****ë**l, a 16-year-old was shot in the eye by a police officer with a LBD gun in Tours, in the Loire. Despite surgeons efforts to save his sight, the schoolboy is now partially-blinded. Eden was shot at point-blank range by a police officer with a tear gas grenade, fracturing his jaw and shattering his entire upper teeth. He will need years of reconstruction. Aina, 14-years-old was choked in a stranglehold by a police officer. While in a second video, the teenager was mocked by officers from whom she sought aid after the original assault. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_162227-1-3.jpg) 

## "Solidarity with schoolchildren mutilated by the police state."

 "We are here for the school students. They are minors, they get gassed, they get hit in the face. They are just defending their rights. They deserve better learning conditions. They can't even vote." **student, Paris.* 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_173141-1.jpg) 

## "The worst part is that it comes from on high, to let riot police beat up kids" **student*

****Explainer:** In rhetoric that violates UN conventions, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, suggested those involved in what the government is discrediting as 'urban riots" are not considered children. "We forgot that they are school students, they are simply thugs, delinquents," he told TF1\. "And the internal security forces are doing their job remarkably well and apprehending them." Victims' associations and members of Parliament have called for Nuñez to resign over the extremity of police violence and mutilations of children. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_171126-1.jpg) 

## "Listen to the school students!' 

The *Union Syndicale Lycéenne* demands: "The abolition of **Parcoursup"* 150 000 new places in higher education, a €10 billion emergency renovation plan for school buildings, massive teacher recruitment, the end of repression and the abandonment of the "**loi-casseurs."*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261001_131034-2.jpg) 

## Abolish Parcoursup for university applications 

****Banner reads: "** *Parcoursuppository.*"Parcoursup is an algorithm that decides, not humans. We submit our applications, and either you get in or you don't. It puts pressure on us, puts us in competition. The slightest mistake could penalise us. It's super stressful."  
**final-year school student.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_180238-3.jpg) 

## ****“Justice for the dead & the mutilated**"

****Explainer:** Adama, Rayana, Aly, Eden, Nahel, Zyed, Bouna, Maël... this sign calls for justice for the schoolboys, Maël and Eden, maimed in these education protests and for France's citizens before that, killed or injured by police. 

****JUSTICE FOR THE DEAD & THE MUTILATED** 

****Zyed. 17\.** Electocuted after police chase. Clichy-sous-bois, 1 hour from Paris. 2005

****Bouna. 15.** Electocuted after police chase. Clichy-sous-bois. 2005

****Adama. 24**. Killed by police. Persan, 1 hour from Paris. 2016

****Rayana. 21\.** Killed by police. Paris. 2022

****Nahel. 17\.** Killed by police. Nanterre. 15 minutes outside Paris. 2023

****Aly. 17.** Beaten by police. Garges-Lès-Gonesse. 45 minutes outside Paris. 2025.

****Eden. 15\.** Shot by police. Shattering his jaw. Saint-Ouen-l'Aumone. 1 hour from Paris. Schoolchildren protests for education rights. 2026.

****Maël. 16\.** Shot by police, losing his right eye. Tours, Loire. Schoolchildren protests for education rights. 2026.

## "Condolences to the families of the bins." 

### Marchers criticised media bias - as analysed by Acrimed. The media observatory found greater coverage over burning wheelie bins than police violence that has maimed at least five teenage bodies and injured more than 400 schoolchildren. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_154742.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_152109-1.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/Acrimed-2.png)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_170642-1.jpg) 

## ****"Macron, can you still look at yourself??? Murderer."** 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_165416-2.jpg) 

## "Money for school, not for the army"

****Explainer:** Under 10 years of Macron, France's army budget has doubled. €32 billion in 2017 to €63.5 billion in the proposed 2027 budget. Education meanwhile has declined from €68.4 in 2017 to a planned €65.53 billion in 2027.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_152653-3.jpg) 

## "Fewer billionaires. More billions for our Public Services and the Ecological Transition

****Explainer**: Under Macron, who came to power in 2017, the wealth of French billionaires has doubled. In France, the ultra-rich are now more than €220 billion euros richer - the equivalent to paying more than 10,000 teachers for some 400 years, according to [Oxfam France.](https://www.oxfamfrance.org/communiques-de-presse/en-2025-la-fortune-des-milliardaires-a-progresse-trois-fois-plus-vite-que-les-5-annees-precedentes-et-a-atteint-un-sommet-historique-alimentant-des-inegalites-politiques/?ref=ilesanglo-normandes.com)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_155011-1.jpg) 

## "Everyone needs to rise up for the climate."

"It's time to turn the page on this power that is leaning towards increasingly violent fascism destroying public services. This protest is huge. Everyone needs to rise up for the climate, for people's rights, for public services, for peace in Palestine, for fiscal and social justice. Rise up." **Joel, teacher & artist - drawing represents Bally Bagayoko, mayor of Saint-Denis who went viral after protecting school students from charging riot police on the 6th Oct.* 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_160842.jpg) 

## "Public money evaporates in tear gas"

****Explainer:** Numerous students have been hospitalised after suffering seizures after massive gassing of packed crowds, both at Nation on 6th Oct. and, as reported by Blast journalist Jose Rexach, at Bastille on 8th Oct. France's abuse of "tear gas" has been the subject of repeated alerts by [Amnesty International](https://www.amnesty.org/fr/latest/news/2023/05/global-misuse-of-tear-gas-killing-and-injuring-protesters-worldwide-updated-interactive-website/?ref=ilesanglo-normandes.com). Younger people's lungs are particularly susceptible to its suffocating, choking effects. "Gassing young people is an act of violence against children," declared the **Mouvement des mères isolés,* mothers campaign. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_182309-2.jpg) 

## "There's gas. We're waiting for the riot police to let us out." 

"We were with our teachers at the protest that started at Place de la République and now we've arrived at Nation, we're stuck.   
The CRS \[riot police\] said: 'it's that way, it's that way.'  
  
First exit - 'no we can't go out.' Second, 'no.' Third, fourth. We went around and around the square. The CRS are blocking all the exits, we can't get out for now. There's gas, and we're waiting for them to let us out." **sixth-former, place de la Nation, 6th Oct.* 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/20261006_165435-3.jpg) 

## "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children." 

**Nelson Mandela*

---

[Supporting independent media – democratic urgency in France“This is censorship; it is the worst, the most despicable of all forms of censorship; it is the kind that strikes at the writer’s most precious possession in the world — his very dignity — and leaves him to grope in the dark without shielding him from coups d’état. That![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/icon/ILES-ANGLO-NORMANDES-UPDATED-4-3e9c0810-0d61-4bc5-b740-8ec80f038a44.png)îles anglo-normandesîles![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/thumbnail/M--dia-fran--ais---qui-possede-quoi-a6d95276-ec8f-48a2-b7bc-4e8a899c4279.png)](https://www.ilesanglo-normandes.com/co-the-french-dig-independent-bilingual-coverage-of-the-islands-and-france/)

[Gen Z’s French revolution | France’s police force injure 400, mutilate four & mass arrest 5000 schoolchildren protesting for their education.France’s government is turning military-grade weaponry on its own schoolchildren, and arresting teenagers as young as 13\. Students protesting for their education rights have become the new frontline for the movement to defend France’s democracy itself.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/icon/ILES-ANGLO-NORMANDES-UPDATED-4-4228fdb8-3904-490c-8bf4-77e3bca041fd.png)îles anglo-normandesîles![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/thumbnail/20261001_191027-44cb36c5-f614-4f8c-b10a-3f7dac9b26fd.jpg)](https://www.ilesanglo-normandes.com/gen-zs-french-revolution-french-police-injure-400-school-children-mutilate-three-mass-arrest-5000-as-they-protest-for-their-right-to-education/)

*Editor: Almost 7000 schoolchildren have now been arrested, by police officers issued instructions by Interior Minister, Laurent Nuñez, that "proportionate force should not inhibit re-establishing order." Legal teams and victims associations are reporting what seems to be a systemic pattern of assault for teenagers arrested. Sociologist Sébastien Roche, expert in police violence, told France Culture the French police have shifted, in just a few years, from crowd management "to a mass arrest strategy, serving a political communication strategy."*

*Nuñez, who authorised his police force to use the full arsenal of "intermediary weapons" which include military-grade weapons of war with the potential to blind and maim schoolchildren, with no order for "restraint," has declared 215 schoolchildren have been injured along with more than 700 police officers. It is not clear how the Ministry is tracking these numbers and evidence of police officers injured has not been provided to media.* 

#### Petition to National Assembly : "prohibit mutilating weapons and lethal immobilisation techniques in school protests" - read full text

Raphaël PRADEAU

Teacher and parent of a school student, I am alarmed by the "law enforcement" techniques deployed in response to the high school movement.  
  
The demands of school students to have the right to study in dignified conditions are perfectly legitimate, after so many years of dismantling the public education service and while the 2027 budget proposal plans to continue cutting the budgetary resources of public services.  
  
Faced with this, the government's response is to criminalise our students, our children.   
The Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nunez, said it as clearly as possible: "We have forgotten that they are high school students; they are simply thugs, delinquents."  
  
This discourse legitimises a completely disproportionate security response: massive and violent arrests (strangulations, being thrown to the ground), shooting tear gas at point-blank range, shooting LBDs including at the face, cars charging into the crowd, over-armed police officers making massive use of gas and blows...  
  
Laurent Nunez also states that he gives "no orders for restraint and no orders not to use all available intermediate weapons."  
  
This includes the prohibition of immobilisation techniques that pose a risk of asphyxiation: prone restraint (holding someone on their stomach with chest compression), choke holds (grips on the neck blocking breathing or blood circulation), and body folding (compression of the torso towards the knees).  
  
This also involves the withdrawal of mutilating weapons such as LBD 40s, explosive and de-encirclement grenades (GM2L, DMP causing amputations and random shrapnel), and electric shock pistols (Taser).  
  
Let us recall that, in the context of previous social movements in France, the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights called on France to "quickly" review the doctrine of using intermediate weapons and requested the cessation of the use of LBDs in order to ensure the respect of fundamental rights. The UN has expressed its concern regarding the serious restrictions on rights and the disproportionate use of force by the French authorities.  
  
We cannot wait for new tragedies to occur and for a young person to die as was the case with Malik Oussekine. It is urgent to protect our children, our students, and their right to protest and express their demands. 

#### "Only in situations of generalised violence." Amnesty guidelines re chemical gas use - read more

It should be used only in situations of generalized violence in order to disperse a crowd or when the level of violence has reached such a degree that the threat cannot be contained by focusing solely on violent individuals. It may only be used when people have the opportunity to disperse; clearly audible warnings must be issued prior to its use and people must be allowed sufficient time to leave the area.

#### "The state must stop its war on youth." SAVE Stop State Violence - Read more

  
More than 900 high schools mobilised across the country. More than 5,000 arrests in 5 days, 90% of whom were minors. More than 400 students injured, three mutilated by LBD shots or tear gas grenades. Never seen since May 68.  
  
High school girls and boys are asking for resources to study in dignified conditions. The State responds with chokeholds, police custody, and the "confinement" of more than 400 establishments. It is a collective punishment inflicted on an entire generation.  
  
Stop aux violences d'État stands with the mobilised school girls and boys. We demand: → the immediate cessation of violence committed by law enforcement → the prompt release of all young people in custody → the definitive abandonment of all prosecutions  
  
We will always protect the children and youth of this country.

[SAVE ](https://www.instagram.com/p/DeEcE3KjYyF/?img%5Findex=1&ref=ilesanglo-normandes.com)  

###