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World

Paris Unrest: A Plea for Better Schools, a City Living With the Damage

Students spoke of missing teachers and neglected classrooms. After days of protest and a weekend of violence, residents are describing fear, loss and streets they scarcely recognize.

By Joshua Kaplan · Published October 18, 2026 at 5:45 PM EDT

Burning street barricade, damaged bicycles and debris on Rue Beaubourg in Paris on October 17, 2026. — Paris · Rue Beaubourg, 3rd arrondissement · October 17, 2026. Photograph: Lechat / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Unmodified photograph; not a photograph of Sunday’s renewed clashes. Photo source · CC BY-SA 3.0

On Sunday, residents in central Paris were looking at what remained of the streets around them: burned barricades, damaged bicycles, broken shopfronts and the debris of a night of violence. Mehmet Ozeden, 78, reached for a comparison that conveyed how unfamiliar his surroundings had become.

“It’s like we had a war,” he told Agence France-Presse.

Nearby, the damage was becoming part of the day’s work. Municipal crews cleared streets and pavements. Local residents joined them, including at Place de la République, where people helped clean the square. Paris City Hall said nearly 1,000 sanitation workers had been mobilized overnight and into Sunday morning.

The cleanup followed October 17 protests that brought peaceful marchers into the streets alongside groups responsible for fires, looting and attacks. By Sunday, the pictures of smoke and smashed windows had traveled far beyond France. For people living in the affected neighborhoods, however, the destruction was close to home.

Anita Gras, a Paris resident who told AFP she had seen young men looting a sports shoe shop, described fear that extended into the early hours. They remained until one in the morning, she said. “We were afraid they were going to throw things at us.”

Cecile Rogue, 57, described the scene as “appalling, terrifying.” Speaking to AFP beside a pile of charred bicycles, she said groups had looted and smashed the neighborhood with apparent impunity.

In the France 24 report, a person interviewed about the aftermath struggled to describe what had happened. “I have never seen anything like this,” the interviewee said. The report moved between the damage in Paris and scenes from other French cities, where public buildings and businesses had also been attacked.

Their fear now sits beside another story, one that had been unfolding in classrooms and outside school gates for weeks.

What the students were asking for

At Hélène Boucher high school, former pupil Emma Khelil described insulation problems, water leaks and occasional rats to Associated Press reporters Jade Le Deley and Lorne Cook. Other students said they had seen rats too. She had returned to support the protest at her old school.

Across France, students were raising complaints about absent teachers, demanding schedules and buildings in poor condition. AFP reported that school entrances had been blocked since late September as pupils called for better learning conditions.

Thomas, a 17-year-old from the Paris suburb of Val-de-Marne, told AFP that some classrooms at his school lacked desks and chairs. Bathrooms were missing basic supplies and doors.

“We just want better conditions for studying,” he said.

His words describe a demand far removed from the destruction now dominating the coverage. They also give a sense of what was at stake for pupils: the conditions of an ordinary school day, the availability of a teacher, somewhere to sit and work.

Parents and teachers joined demonstrations. In Lyon, teacher Rindala Younes told AFP she wanted to help students convey their demands peacefully. At the October 6 Paris march, an AFP reporter described a largely peaceful procession before clashes broke out near its endpoint.

The weeks of confrontation brought fear for students as well. Khelil told AP that she worried about police violence and the possibility of demonstrators suffering serious injuries. Her concern was for people standing at the barricades where she had come to offer support.

For some young protesters, the relationship between being heard and the violence around them had become troubling. Yanis, 16, told AFP this month that students felt ignored until demonstrations turned violent. He said it left them feeling that violence was how things got resolved.

A wider protest, and a violent turn

By October 17, the demonstrations had grown beyond school conditions. Rising living costs, wages, pensions and the state of public services were also bringing people out. Students shared the streets with workers, retirees and supporters of the Yellow Vest movement.

The widening had been called for openly. In an October 15 statement, CGT-Culture urged students, public employees, private sector workers and pensioners to join the mobilization. The Education Ministry, meanwhile, had been holding talks with student associations, including Renouveau lycéen, Les Lycéens! and the Union syndicale lycéenne.

But the people who assembled did not all act alike. Alongside peaceful marches, groups attacked buildings, clashed with police and looted businesses. In Paris, the effects spread through shopping streets and neighborhoods where residents and visitors found themselves caught near the disorder.

France 24’s Sunday report showed burned vehicles, damaged storefronts and the aftermath of looting at Galeries Lafayette. Beyond the capital, the destruction included a fire at the historic town hall in Limoges and a gutted tourist office in Lyon.

For businesses, the morning after brought damage to assess and the question of how to reopen. Paris announced an emergency assistance unit to help affected traders record their losses, deal with administrative and insurance procedures, and resume their activity.

The city’s account also described residents helping municipal workers clear public spaces. In a weekend marked by destruction, neighbors were taking part in the work of making those places usable again.

Some of the sanitation workers had interrupted their holidays to return, according to City Hall. Their work continued through the morning, removing debris and restoring damaged public spaces while officials assessed the full extent of the destruction.

Questions about who carried out and coordinated the attacks remain with investigators. In his Sunday evening address, President Emmanuel Macron blamed ultraleft groups joined by criminals. He also distinguished those responsible for destruction from the many demonstrators whose demands he described as legitimate.

Investigations are continuing into who planned and carried out particular attacks. Macron called for offenders to face the courts. He also promised support for businesses whose owners were now confronting the damage, while publicly acknowledging the grievances of those who had gone into the streets to demonstrate peacefully.

The work still ahead

Officials are facing the aftermath on two fronts: the immediate damage in the streets and the school complaints that helped bring students outside in the first place.

The Education Ministry announced more than 3,000 replacement teachers earlier this month, along with additional recruitment authorizations. It has opened a consultation for high school students through October 23 and identified work on teacher absences, school buildings, timetables, guidance and student participation.

Students have also been invited to describe their daily difficulties in their own words through Agora.

At the end of October, the ministry plans to review what students have submitted. Its consultation asks pupils about the daily difficulties they face and what would help them learn and live better at school, gathering their experiences beyond the demonstrations.

Macron said the government would assist businesses affected by the violence and demanded answers about failures of intelligence and anticipation. City Hall said damage assessments were continuing while borough mayors coordinated help for residents and traders.

Even as the cleanup proceeded, the unrest was not over. AFP journalists reported renewed clashes and looting around Place de la République on Sunday, with police again using tear gas and stun grenades.

The weekend has left students’ demands, residents’ fears and the damage to their neighborhoods occupying the same streets. Some people marched for better conditions; others returned to find destruction. Between those experiences are the classrooms still needing attention, the businesses trying to recover and the people helping clear what was left behind.

Sources and photograph credit

- Ville de Paris. Manifestations du 17 octobre : près de 1000 agents mobilisés, une cellule d’aide pour les commerçants. 2026-10-18. - Jade Le Deley and Lorne Cook, Associated Press; contributions by Masha Macpherson and Giada Zampano. Police fire tear gas at barricaded Paris high school as student protests show no sign of ending. 2026-10-08. - Agence France-Presse (AFP). “Gen Z has risen up”: Tens of thousands mass for tense France school protests. 2026-10-06. - Ministère de l’Éducation nationale. Construire des solutions avec les lycéens. 2026-10-09; current page includes October 15 meeting. - CGT-Culture. Mobilisations du samedi 17 octobre : la CGT-Culture appelle à la convergence !. 2026-10-15. - Emmanuel Macron / Présidence de la République. Adresse aux Français. 2026-10-18, 20:00 Europe/Paris. - FRANCE 24 English. “Like we had a war”: France counts cost of violent protests. 2026-10-18. - Agence France-Presse (AFP). Macron denounces “unbridled” violence as France hit by new clashes. 2026-10-18, published 21:24 as displayed by AFP. - Agence France-Presse (AFP), published by The Peninsula. “Like we had a war”: France counts cost of violent protests. 2026-10-18.

A burning barricade on Rue Beaubourg in Paris’s 3rd arrondissement, October 17, 2026. Photograph: Lechat / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Unmodified photograph.