France's heavy-handed policing of school protests is an illegitimate response to legitimate grievances about failing schools
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/rokhaya-diallo. "French schoolchildren have been treated like violent criminals – for telling the truth | Rokhaya Diallo | The Guardian." October 17, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
Students in France are protesting about run-down, understaffed schools, and they have good reasons to. Instead of listening, the government has sent in police who have seriously injured children and arrested thousands, which Diallo argues is shameful and has no place in a democracy.
Conclusion
The French government's coercive, violent police response to student protests over deteriorating school conditions is unjustified and shameful, because the protesters' grievances are legitimate and such treatment of young dissenters has no place in a democracy.
Premises
- Police have inflicted severe injuries on child protesters (a fractured jaw, a lost eye, a blown-off hand) and allegedly threatened them, and children in custody report traumatic treatment.
- Human rights bodies (Ligue des droits de l'Homme, the UN special rapporteur, the UN human rights office, Amnesty International) have condemned the force used and the threat to children's safety and freedom of expression.
- The pupils' grievances are well documented and long-standing: about 20m teaching hours lost in 2024-25, unfilled school doctor, nurse and social worker posts, dilapidated and unsanitary buildings, severe overcrowding, and 126,000 applicants left without a place through Parcoursup.
- The argument that France cannot afford more education spending does not invalidate the grievances or justify a law-and-order response, since spending is a political choice and credible funding proposals exist (e.g. an inheritance tax on the wealthiest 1% of heirs raising about €12.7bn).
- The government treated pupils as internal enemies under its Operational Guide to Urban Violence, with record arrests (about 80% of those in custody were children) and an interior minister who gave no instruction to restrain police, rather than seeking constructive resolution.
- An arrest-focused, forceful approach escalates confrontation and disorder, whereas police restraint is a recognised principle of protest policing and is shown toward other groups such as protesting farmers.
Assumptions
- Reported injuries and allegations (many framed as 'alleged') are accurate and attributable to police actions rather than to the protesters' own conduct.
- Poor school conditions and Parcoursup failures are sufficient grounds for protest, and the protests are fundamentally peaceful or at least do not justify the force used.
- Children and teenagers deserve special protection and a higher standard of police restraint than adult protesters.
- The comparison with how farmers' protests are policed shows discriminatory or unjustifiably harsh treatment of students rather than differing circumstances.
- International human rights organisations' assessments are reliable and relevant to judging proportionality.
- The government has the fiscal and political means to address the grievances, so repression is a choice rather than a necessity.