A protest movement launched in France by high school students on September 17 has taken off throughout the country, with great violence, and is now out of control. Many casualties are reported nationwide: high school students, professors, school masters, and police wounded, with physical fights, high school entrances on fire, and hundreds of minors arrested.

While the potential for such an explosion has been brewing for several years, the question at this point is if this movement is being manipulated for ulterior motives. France will be electing a new president in 2027, and the climate is very tense already, propitious to manipulation by the different groups fighting for power.

The movement started in the high schools of poor suburbs, where the physical conditions in which they have to study and work are abominable; typical of what is commonplace in poor Third World countries but shameful for a so-called advanced sector country: teachers missing en masse, dirty bathrooms, no toilet paper, students in technical-type classes being forced to bring their own materials, which are normally provided by the State.

The movement started on September 17 at a high school in the Seine Saint-Denis (Lycée Saint-Exupéry), where the movement was supporting teachers on strike, fighting for more personnel and resources. The students were calling for the replacement of all absent teachers. Progressively the demands were enlarged to better conditions for study, less heavy schedules, and better student restaurants.