Eight more French education staff members have been injured amid the ongoing high school protests, according to a report circulating Monday, adding to a cumulative toll the education minister said last week had passed 100 since the unrest began.
I could not independently locate the underlying report for the figure of eight, so the number comes from the headline you supplied and is not confirmed.
Education Minister Edouard Geffray said on Friday that staff injuries had gone beyond 100 the day before. He condemned what he called unspeakable violence and said the count covered only education personnel, not police. Earlier tallies had been lower: 65 staff, including 40 headteachers, on Oct. 2, and 78 as of Oct. 4. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu told the National Assembly on Oct. 6 that 215 students and 85 education staff had been hurt, the heaviest toll for school personnel in decades.
The movement began on Sept. 21 at a high school in a Paris suburb, where pupils joined teachers to protest staff shortages and a lack of resources. The dispute there ended when extra staff were sent, but protests spread nationwide from Sept. 28 over understaffed, overcrowded and run-down schools. Planned budget cuts have added to the anger, and Macron’s government is deeply unpopular months before next year’s presidential election.
The Justice Ministry said 5,060 people had been arrested as of Oct. 6, 87% of them minors, with 790 cases dismissed. Geffray said 24 schools had been burned or ransacked, and that more than 100 had suffered severe damage. A teenager lost a hand in a blast near a vocational school in northern France; rights groups have accused police of heavy-handed tactics against minors, and authorities have opened investigations into the allegations.
More than 250,000 people marched on Oct. 6 as teachers, parents and unions joined the students. Geffray said participation had been falling in recent days, and the government plans an online platform for student grievances and school-by-school action plans.
