Bally Bagayoko French Protests
Students are protesting in France over shortage of teachers, overcrowded classrooms and ill-maintained school buildings X/ManesNadel

For more than two weeks, French students have taken to the streets to protest teacher shortages and poor school conditions. It started in the middle of September when teachers at Saint-Exupéry high school in Créteil, a Parisian suburb, went on strike. The students empathised and walked out of their classes.

Their demands were heard and additional staffing was provided at the school. However, other schools across the nation have similar issues and started their own protests, with some calling it one of the biggest student protests in France in decades.

@france24_en

🇫🇷 🪧 #France braced on Tuesday for a day of nationwide high-school blockades and trade union-led street #protests in support of #students demanding that President Emmanuel Macron's cash-strapped government tackle the issue of understaffed and dilapidated schools.

♬ son original - FRANCE 24 English

Bally Bagayoko Joins Protests, Gets Tear-Gassed

Some protests were peaceful while others turned violent. Saint-Denis Mayor Bally Bagayoko intervened when a major march through Paris turned ugly and confrontation between police and demonstrators became heated.

Photos and videos from the protests show Bagayoko standing between students and police during a demonstration on Tuesday, 6 October 2026. On social media, Bagayoko said: 'Today, at the heart of the demonstration, I was where a mayor must be: alongside our youth, to protect them and ease the tensions. And it was these young people who formed a human shield around me.'

The protests got the attention of US President Donald Trump, who blamed them on mass migration. 'What's happening in France is nothing less than out of control mass migration. This isn't about schools, this is about Islam wanting to take over a once great Country!' he said on Truth Social.

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'No One Needs His Opinion'

'Who rang Trump's bell on the high school mobilizations? No one needs his opinion, given his dismal record in the USA,' Bagayoko said in response to Trump's statement.

'While a new France emerges to finally confront the challenges of the century, the right and the far right keep droning on about their neuroses and dream of a French ICE,' Bagayoko, a left-wing politician, also said.

According to reports, hundreds of schools have been disrupted in the last couple of weeks as students continued to walk out and protest. More than 6,500 people have reportedly been arrested since the movement began, most of whom were minors.

Most of the student complaints range from shortages of educators, dilapidated school buildings that are sometimes infested with rodents, and even inadequate tables and chairs.

Report: Student Loses Hand

According to local reports, a protesting student in Lens lost his hand after picking up a police grenade. In Tours, another student injured their eye as the protest turned ugly.

According to the French Interior Ministry, there were 266,000 protesters nationwide, including 56,000 in Paris. Organisers claim there were around 450,000 students, teachers, parents and delegates from trade unions.

Student leader Manès Nadel has become one of the leading voices in the protest. In a recent interview, he said the movement will continue.

'Fed up with empty words, we want the "10 mesures d'urgence." Starting tomorrow, we are going to intensify the fight,' Nadel said on social media. He was referring to the 10 demands of the students, which include massive hiring of educational, health, support and guidance staff, and an end to violence against the high school and student movement.

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