France has suspended police use of stun grenades against student protesters after a 15-year-old boy lost his hand in a blast in the northern city of Lens. The government announced the pause on Wednesday as demonstrations over dilapidated schools entered their third week — and as President Donald Trump weighed in by blaming the unrest on immigration, a claim presented without evidence.
The Lens injury that forced the U-turn
The teenager was seriously injured on Monday near the Auguste-Behal vocational high school in Lens when a stun grenade fired by riot police exploded. His hand had to be amputated. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told broadcaster RTL there was a "strong possibility" the police grenade caused the injury, and the officer who fired it has been suspended.
The boy's mother told BFMTV his future was ruined: "He was hit with a weapon of war; it's not normal to use that against young people." In a separate incident, a 14-year-old student was hit in the face by a tear gas grenade at close range in Paris and lost several teeth; a policeman was charged on Tuesday over that incident. Nunez said 18 internal investigations have been opened into allegations of police misconduct since the protests began.
A movement that won't ease
Students began blockading school entrances in late September over teacher shortages, dilapidated infrastructure, overloaded schedules, and underfunding — conditions they blame for France's worsening PISA scores, which have fallen faster than the OECD average. Around 250,000 people took part in protests on Tuesday, and more than 500 schools closed on Wednesday.
The toll has been heavy on both sides. More than 6,600 people have been arrested since the protests began, the majority of them minors; some 715 police officers and 215 teenagers have been injured. Education minister Édouard Geffray said 24 schools were so badly burned they cannot reopen for several weeks, and 89 teachers have been injured. President Emmanuel Macron called an emergency meeting with Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, who acknowledged the students' "legitimate" demands but described the unrest as the most violent student demonstrations in decades.
Trump weighs in, sides trade accusations
On Tuesday, President Trump posted on Truth Social that the protests were driven by "out of control mass migration," writing: "This isn't about schools, this is about Islam wanting to take over a once great Country!" He provided no evidence for the claim. Amnesty International France has criticized what it called disproportionate force against minors, citing reports of students hit with batons and exposed to tear gas and rubber bullets.
The government, for its part, says the protest movement has been hijacked by outsiders and morphed into urban violence. One senior minister said the police response had been "too harsh and lacking empathy." Unions have called for another day of street marches later in the week, and the crisis shows no sign of easing.
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