Students at a Paris secondary school were confined inside their building for two hours on Monday after masked individuals fired mortar fireworks and set fires outside the premises, as a wave of lycée blockades swept across France.
Morning Attack Forced Emergency Lockdown
At Lycée Vauquelin in the 13th arrondissement, students were in the process of entering the building shortly before 8:00 a.m. when mortar projectiles were launched toward the school entrance. Fires broke out in front of the school’s metal door, prompting staff to usher all students inside for their safety.
Two further waves of mortar fire followed, and heavy objects were thrown against the school’s windows, leaving them “completely cracked,” according to witnesses at the scene. Among the debris outside the entrance, several half-burned shared bicycles, a sofa, and melted rubbish bins were visible.
Students remained confined until police and firefighters arrived. They were able to evacuate the premises around 10:00 a.m. and return home. No injuries have been reported.
Headteacher Condemns Unprecedented Violence
Carole Zerbib, the school’s headteacher and a member of the SNPDEN headteachers’ union, witnessed the events from inside the building while approximately one hundred students were under her care.
“I have been a headteacher for 20 years. I have lived through episodes of violence and student movements, but here it feels as though every lock has been broken,” Zerbib said. “We saw the provocations by these young people toward the police, this defiance toward the institution and representatives of the state that is extremely strong. I had never experienced anything to this degree.”
Zerbib stated that the masked individuals present on Monday morning were not students of her school — an account confirmed by multiple students at the scene.
Nationwide School Blockade Movement
The incident occurred on the margins of a broader mobilization of lycée students across France. According to the Ministry of National Education, 413 establishments “have been or are currently subject to actions or disruptions.”
A call to blockade Lycée Vauquelin had been issued — the first such action at the school since the movement began.
The protests have drawn responses from political figures across the spectrum, with regional officials and party leaders weighing in on the escalating tensions between students, law enforcement, and state institutions.
