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Paris, France — The march on the iconic Place de la République in the French capital had barely begun when riot police — known as the Compagnies républicaines de sécurité, or CRS — fired tear gas in the square. The demonstration on October 17, 2026, had been officially declared to the Paris prefecture, which banned the longer route organizers planned through the center of the city but allowed a march departing from the square. Even so, police launched tear gas that incapacitated the 400 musicians of the Orchestre du Nouveau Monde, an activist classical ensemble that had played at earlier high school protests and came to perform again.

The heavy police presence did not deter protesters who dressed the statue of Marianne, a figure personifying the French Republic, at the center of the square in a giant yellow vest — a reference to the “yellow vest” protest movement that began in 2018 over rising fuel prices and cost of living and has recently joined forces with the French high schoolers’ protests. An inscription on the statue read: “2026, the police mutilate high schoolers.”

Similar crowds filled cities and towns across France. Organizers counted about 800,000 people among the protesters while authorities reported 550,000. Officials had expected far fewer, about 200,000, and Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez later conceded the state had been caught off guard.

The movement began in early September with blockades at high schools in France’s overseas territories — where students denounced decaying buildings, unfilled teaching posts and shrinking budgets — and then spread to underserved Paris suburbs and the rest of the country, in part through social media.

The police sometimes used force to contain and arrest students who were protesting and blocking off their schools. By October 1, the Collectif d’action........

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