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Nearly 2,000 French high schools are blockaded or closed today amid massive student-led protests over school funding and inequality. The demonstrations began in September at a single school in the economically deprived suburbs of Paris, where students protested teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms and dilapidated school buildings beset by rats, falling debris and more. But the scope of the protests has widened amid a violent crackdown by French police. French authorities have arrested more than 5,000 people, largely underage students, since the movement began. Violent police tactics have led to serious injuries. One protester lost an eye after being hit by a rubber bullet, while another lost a hand when he picked up a police stun grenade.

We hear from an anonymous protester who describes the violence meted out on students, who “aren’t even adults yet,” and from Claire Vigneau, general secretary of Fédération Syndicale Étudiante, the French student union, who reports from a protest in Rennes, Brittany, “where we are trying to escape from the policemen that are chasing us with tear gas and with water cannon[s].”

“The amount of spending that France has done on education has stagnated, if not declined,” explains French American journalist Cole Stangler. “The critiques that high school students are making are actually very similar to what teachers’ unions have been saying for quite some time.”

“Everyone is deeply, deeply angry. We are completely fed up [with] the living conditions, the school conditions, the work conditions that we have,” says Alys Rowlands, a university student in Lille and also a member of Fédération Syndicale Étudiante. “The true violence is the violence of the state that we are being faced with all day, every day, all year. That’s the true violence: having no money, having difficulty finishing the month, having less and less help from the state, having to choose between eating and putting your heating on during the winter.”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

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AMY GOODMAN: Nearly 2,000 French high schools are blockaded or closed today as massive student-led protests spread over France over school funding and inequality. The demonstration began in September at a single school outside Paris, where students protested teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms and crumbling school buildings. But the scope of the protests has widened amidst a violent crackdown by French police. French authorities have arrested more than 5,000 people since the movement began, about 85% of them high schoolers.

These are the voices of two students protesting in Paris earlier today.

HUGO VETZEL: [translated] For us, it’s, first of all, in support of the high school students who started blockades a few days ago. I think we all have a role to play in this movement, and the more we are, the more we will be heard. And I think this is not a fight of a few handful of people, but a more global fight for the youth. … We feel despised, because when the answer is violence, that means, in a way, democracy is no longer working. But we feel especially that there is such a gap between the elites and us, and we feel we are creating unease, because we are disrupting so much that they are using force to shut us up. MONA FALLACARA: [translated] I am quite happy because, for once, we see a real movement of the youth everywhere, and we hear about it. But then, what I deplore is that the media is showing more of the violence done by the students before their demands, which are vital. And yes, there is a bit of violence, but it’s not everywhere. … France’s budget will come to a vote soon, so we hope there will be a higher budget for education. And for the presidential election next year, as well, we hope for a bit of change after 10 years of President Macron heading the country.

HUGO VETZEL: [translated] For us, it’s, first of all, in support of the high school students who started blockades a few days ago. I think we all have a role to play in this movement, and the more we are, the more we will be heard. And I think this is not a fight of a few handful of people, but a more global fight for the youth. …

We feel despised, because when the answer is violence, that means, in a way, democracy is no longer working. But we feel especially that there is such a gap between the elites and us, and we feel we are creating unease, because we are disrupting so much that they are using force to shut us up.

MONA FALLACARA: [translated] I am quite happy because, for once, we see a real movement of the youth everywhere, and we hear about it. But then, what I deplore is that the media is showing more of the violence done by the students before their demands, which are vital. And yes, there is a bit of violence, but it’s not everywhere. …

France’s budget will come to a vote soon, so we hope there will be a higher budget for education. And for the presidential election next year, as well, we hope for a bit of change after 10 years of President Macron heading the country.

AMY GOODMAN: France’s official independent national human rights body has expressed deep concern over what it called the state’s disproportionate use of force in response to the protests. On Monday, Democracy Now! reached a French student who described the violent police crackdown. For her safety, she asked not to be identified.

PROTESTER: During the protests, people, students receive tear gas, receive — like, get hit, get attacked, get charged by policemen, by the CRS, which is a police institution. And yes, basically it has been really violent. Many people have been wounded. Many people have been arrested. Someone lost an eye. Someone lost a hand. And this is happening to literal teens, literal children. We even — most of us aren’t even adults yet. And this is terrible, because literal adult people, adult policemen, adult policewomen, with weapons and tear gas and shields and helmets, are attacking literal........

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