French school protests enter a fourth week as Thunberg joins pupils in Paris

France's school protest movement rolled into another day on Tuesday, with pupils blockading and marching outside schools across the country for a fourth week.

The protests began at a single high school and spread nationwide around a plain set of complaints: too few teachers, classrooms packed past capacity, and school buildings falling apart. On Tuesday pupils gathered outside school doors in Paris and other cities with placards and megaphones, with larger marches planned later in the day. Education Minister Edouard Geffray told France Inter radio that about 200 schools were closed, while suggesting some closures were precautions for schools sitting on march routes.

Greta Thunberg, the Swedish activist, joined the demonstration outside Lycee Paul Eluard in Saint Denis, a working class suburb north of Paris where the movement first gained traction. She told reporters the French pupils deserved support from around the world and were demanding their basic rights, and she linked their complaints about school funding to the climate and social justice causes she campaigns on.

The police response has become a story of its own. Riot police have used tear gas and charged crowds in repeated incidents over four weeks, injuring hundreds of protesters and arresting thousands. Last week the government suspended the use of stun grenades after one teenager lost a hand. Thunberg called the response extremely violent. Whether the movement can force money and staffing out of a government already strained on both is the open question as the protests enter their second month.