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A French high school protest movement has degenerated into violence with young people clashing with police. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: France has a tradition of student protests, and the latest are about overcrowded classrooms and rundown facilities. But the country was shocked at how quickly this nationwide protest movement, which started late last month, morphed into what looks more like urban riots.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Non-English language spoken).
BEARDSLEY: For the past few days, TV news footage has shown lines of riot police with shields and tear gas charging young people, hooded youths chasing and kicking a downed officer, all while vehicles, trash cans and schools burn. Sarah Knafo, a member of Parliament from the extreme-right party Reconquete, denounced the students on news channel LCI.
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SARAH KNAFO: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: "We see young rioters, savages who are supposed to be protesting a lack of material, destroying what the state has given them," she said. Knafo said what's needed is authority. More than 5,000 people have been arrested, according to the interior ministry.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: But people also pointed to what they saw as police aggression.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: "Stop this," a woman wails at police as she watches from the street in a news broadcast from France, too. "These are just kids. You don't need to use all this force."
SONIA BENAMEUR: Yes, yes. I am in the train.
BEARDSLEY: I call longtime educator Sonia Benameur, who teaches in a poor Paris suburb. She's on her way home after her high school and hundreds of others were closed Friday.
BENAMEUR: The students are very serious, and they want to protest about their rights. (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: Switching to French, she tells me how stifling their un-air-conditioned classrooms are and how they can go weeks without a substitute if a teacher is sick.
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LOUIS BOYARD: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: Young France Unbowed Parliamentarian Louis Boyard made an Instagram video with the students before the violence started.
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BOYARD: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: "You are legitimate," he tells them. "High schools have everything in the rich neighborhoods of Paris, but in the suburbs and countryside, you have nothing."
Teacher Benameur says she hopes the tensions cool over the weekend.
BENAMEUR: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: But what's most upsetting, she says, is how politicians on the left and right are using the students' plight to campaign for next year's presidential election. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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