High school students at Beauvau: when facing minors, the State must rethink its policing doctrine

This Thursday afternoon, high school student organisations have an appointment at Place Beauvau. According to AFP, quoted by Europe 1, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez is receiving their representatives at 3 p.m., two days before a new day of protest planned for Saturday and a few days before the return from the All Saints' holidays, which no one yet knows will happen calmly. At the heart of the discussion: the way the State has policed a movement made up largely of minors.

The facts

The movement started on 21 September at the Saint-Exupéry high school in Créteil, Amnesty International recalls, before spreading across the country. The demands concern the shortage of teachers, overcrowded classes, the state of buildings, the lack of school nurses and social workers, and Parcoursup. On this last point, the government has already moved: Sébastien Lecornu confirmed on Wednesday before the Assemblée that the platform will be replaced for the 2028 admissions cycle, according to Europe 1.

The human toll remains heavy. On 7 October, before the law committee, Laurent Nuñez reported 6,629 arrests, 761 police officers and gendarmes injured, and 215 pupils and 89 Éducation nationale staff injured, as LCP reports. According to Amnesty, drawing on ministry figures, around 85% of those arrested at the start of the movement were minors.

Several serious injuries have struck public opinion. In Lens, on 5 October, a 15-year-old pupil had his hand torn off by a grenade thrown by CRS riot police, according to the Béthune prosecutor quoted by LCP, who said he could not establish whether the teenager had picked it up. Amnesty also documents the case of a 16-year-old pupil in Tours who reportedly lost the use of an eye, probably after an LBD shot, and whose family has filed a complaint. According to AFP, quoted by Europe 1, nearly fifty investigations have now been opened by the IGPN, 36 of them in connection with the high school movement.

The positions

The government stands by its police. Before MPs, Sébastien Lecornu refused, according to Public Sénat, to « cast opprobrium on the police of the Republic », while acknowledging that « accidents » can happen and must be investigated. Laurent Nuñez says he gave instructions of proportionality. After Lens, he suspended the use of stun grenades, but he is keeping LBDs, which he considers « absolutely indispensable », according to LCP. In Lens, the prefect of Pas-de-Calais argued that a group of 200 to 250 pupils had thrown stones, fireworks and mortars at police officers. Elected officials on the right and in the centre stress the responsibility of rioters, and some denounce a politicisation of the movement by the far left.

Opposite them, the student organisations arrive with precise demands. Les Lycéens! is calling, according to Europe 1, for a ban on sting-ball grenades, tear gas, pepper spray and LBDs during high school protests. The Union syndicale lycéenne is demanding a change of doctrine and an amnesty for pupils prosecuted or sanctioned, and opposes the so-called « casseurs-payeurs » law. On the left, the Socialist Party, the Greens, the Communists and La France insoumise have been calling since Lens for a review of the policing doctrine. Amnesty International, for its part, advocates de-escalation, a permanent ban on stun grenades and the suspension of the LBD.

Analysis

Both ends must be held. The State has a duty to protect schools, staff and pupils who want to study, and the hundreds of injured police officers are not an abstraction. No one can excuse the violence committed by protesters.

But a State that respects itself does not treat a fifteen-year-old as a hardened rioter. The Gaullist tradition of public order policing, that of prefect Grimaud who managed to avoid the worst in May 68, rested on a simple idea: the police draw their legitimacy from their restraint. Facing minors, this requirement should be even stronger. The fact that the IGPN has been seized nearly fifty times in no way prejudges the conclusions, but it shows the scale of the unease.

The suspension of stun grenades shows, moreover, that the government itself admits that a weapon can be unsuited to the context. The same logic should lead to a review of the use of the LBD near high schools. This is not disarming the police, it is adapting the means to the public in front of them.

Then there is the substance. High school students did not take to the streets to confront the police, but to obtain teachers, nurses and decent buildings. That is where the way out of the crisis will be decided. A purely security-based response will only postpone the anger, while the 2027 budget is being examined in the Assemblée nationale.

What now?

The Beauvau meeting only makes sense if it leads to written commitments: a specific doctrine for gatherings of minors, regular publication of the follow-up given to IGPN investigations, and a dialogue that finally brings together the Éducation nationale and the Interior Ministry. Will the government manage to turn this meeting into a contract of trust with a generation that doubts its institutions?

Article written with the help of artificial intelligence.