Thousands of French High Schoolers Sing Anthem at Bastille as Student Protests Spread
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Oct 9
Thousands of French High Schoolers Sing Anthem at Bastille as Student Protests Spread
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Oct 9
Summary
Thousands of protesters — many of them high school students — gathered at Paris’s Place de la Bastille on Thursday and broke into the French national anthem.
Bastille carried deliberate symbolic weight: the square marks the 1789 prison storming that ignited the French Revolution, a touchstone repeatedly invoked in French protest movements.
Historians said the unrest stands out because high schoolers moved first — a rarity in recent decades — while social media helped the movement spread rapidly beyond Paris.
The demonstrations build on a broader student revolt over school funding, overcrowding and teacher shortages that has already drawn 71,500 people nationwide, with clashes, 504 arrests and more protests planned.