Paris Students Attack Police in National Protest

Youths wrecked stores and stoned riot police Monday as more than 100,000 high school students nationwide joined marches demanding more teachers, better facilities and improved security on campus.

Authorities said that most of the marchers in more than a dozen cities were orderly. But scores of youths threw stones, bottles and barricades at riot police deployed near the National Assembly building in Paris, where lawmakers opened debate on the 1991 education budget.

At least five police officers and eight journalists were injured.

Police responded to the bombardment by pushing back some of the youths with clubs, but they generally avoided confrontations. March organizers urged the protesters to remain peaceful and blamed the violence on provocateurs.

Youths damaged several stores, telephone booths and newsstands during a rampage that lasted about an hour. Some students were seen trying to limit the damage by passing potential projectiles to police deployed behind barricades.

Police Chief Pierre Verbrugghe said an unspecified number of youths were arrested for looting a store along the route of the march.

Other marches involving at least 3,000 students each were reported in Lyon, Grenoble, Toulouse, Rennes, Brest, Clermont-Ferrand, Strasbourg, Lille, Lens, Nancy, Marseilles and Bordeaux. At least two cars were damaged in Lyon, where an estimated 6,000 students marched.

The students’ main demand is the adoption of a long-term plan to improve the national school system through hiring of additional staff members and replacement of substandard or temporary facilities.

In the National Assembly, lawmakers debated the Socialist government’s proposal to boost education spending by 9% in 1991, to the equivalent of $49.3 billion. Student leaders have criticized this as inadequate, although the increase for education outpaces the overall budget increase of 4.8%.