On Thursday 15 October 2026, the Paul-Éluard lycée in Saint-Denis, “one of the epicentres of the high-school student movement” (translated) (franceinfo), is blockaded again. According to the police prefecture, “nearly 300 students were gathered” (translated) near the lycée in the morning and “several offences were committed against the police officers” (translated): insults, violence against persons holding public authority, possession of an incendiary device (actu.fr). A seconde student tells RTL that, around noon, outside the lycée, a police officer snatches the placard he is holding up (“We want to build our future, not endure it” (translated)) and throws it away; he acknowledges that he then lost his temper and insulted the officer. Police officers try to arrest him; he takes refuge in the lycée. According to him, the headteacher grabs him by the arm, takes him to his office, locks the door and calls the police; BAC police officers arrive, “at first, they were nice to me. They didn’t hit me or anything” (translated), and ask him to open his bag, which he does (RTL).
According to the police prefecture, the BAC officers enter the lycée “with the agreement of the head of the school” (translated), to “arrest the perpetrator of an insult who had taken refuge within the school grounds” (translated) (franceinfo). The Créteil rectorat says that the police “asked the headteacher to enter” (translated), which he “cannot refuse” (translated), and that it was planned “to isolate the student” (translated) (franceinfo). Staff members write in a statement that the headteacher “let the police in to have him arrested” (translated) (actu.fr). Outside the door of the office, teachers and supervisors gather, then interpose themselves (La Clé républicaine); Off Investigation writes that teachers and students protest “for at least ten minutes or so” (translated) and that when the door opens, teachers interpose themselves to get the student back. In the videos that are circulating, plainclothes police officers, one of whom wears an armband reading “police”, face staff members who shout “Free our student!” (translated) (franceinfo).
According to the France 2 news report, “jostling takes place on the stairs. Teachers and police officers come to blows” (translated). The student describes a violent scene to France 2: “He was holding me from behind, at the level of the nape of the neck. He pushes me down the stairs while holding me, squeezing me tight against the teachers. Yes, if I hadn’t cooperated, if I had tried to run away, I understand, but here, at no point did I try anything at all.” (translated) Staff members denounce a “violent” (translated) intervention: the CGT Educ’action 93 describes the scene as “extremely brutal” (translated) and states “that a colleague was strangled and that several received blows” (translated) (franceinfo); Off Investigation, which viewed videos, writes that “the police officers attack several teachers, pushing them and delivering blows to them” (translated). Staff members cited by the AFP also accuse the police officers of having begun “to charge, to gas, to insult, to hit” (translated) high-school students as well as adults who had come to interpose themselves (Actu17): a general accusation, which is not retained as a fact.
The police prefecture describes the opposite: the police officers were “prevented by teachers” (translated) and preferred to “withdraw in order to restore calm” (translated) (franceinfo); it counts four people arrested in total and two injured police officers, one by a punch to the face, the other by a kick to the head, who have filed a complaint (actu.fr, Actu17). According to the Bobigny public prosecutor’s office, “on leaving the office, the police officers were set upon and jostled by about fifty teachers and staff members who prevented them from leaving the lycée with the arrested minor” (translated); they decided to release him in order to “be able to leave safely” (translated) (actu.fr). The boy went home and was not arrested (franceinfo).
Follow-up
The Bobigny public prosecutor’s office opens a flagrante delicto investigation for “violence against persons holding public authority” (translated): “the police officers denounce the commission of violence against them by the teachers present and have filed a complaint. They will shortly be examined by a doctor” (translated); according to the prosecutor, “three suspects” (translated) were arrested and a fourth “fled inside the establishment” (translated); the prefecture had first announced four arrests (franceinfo, actu.fr). This investigation concerns the facts denounced by the police officers; no source read mentions a complaint from the staff or an investigation into their accusations. The lycée is closed on Thursday afternoon and remains so on Friday, with classes held remotely (rectorat, franceinfo); the staff demand the departure of the headteacher (actu.fr, La Clé républicaine).