A November 13 telegram from Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez and Education Minister Édouard Geffray moves the French government’s response to high-school blockades from broad rhetoric to operational instructions. It asks prefects and education authorities to ensure a very early presence outside affected schools and to systematically apprehend troublemakers, franceinfo reported.
For students, the instructions cover calls for violence, property damage, blocking access to internal school spaces, and physical or verbal violence against staff. The ministers ask for such conduct to lead to a disciplinary council and possible sanctions. In the most serious cases, a student could be barred from the school while proceedings are under way.
The telegram also brings school staff into the framework. According to franceinfo, it recalls teachers’ and education assistants’ duties of exemplary conduct, restraint and neutrality, and says speech deemed contrary to that duty may lead to disciplinary proceedings. It also says staff can be suspended as a precaution in the most serious cases, including harm to people or endangerment.
The instruction could give school leaders and local authorities a more direct framework for dealing with damage and violence. But it also places policing, student discipline and potential action against staff within one tougher response. Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of the Snes-FSU union, said any conduct involving colleagues must be demonstrated and handled through existing procedures. She argued that publicly targeting staff risks worsening the situation.
Franceinfo reported that the document can also cover conduct outside a school when it is liable to seriously disrupt the school’s operation. The supplied material does not set out the detailed criteria for applying the instruction or the procedural safeguards. Those details will determine whether the new policy protects schools without extending disciplinary power too broadly.
Sources
- franceinfo Tous titres · Source date: 2026-11-13
Independent editorial content. WUA is not affiliated with any political party. 2026-11-14