On September 10, Laurent (whose first name has been changed) only had to walk a few more meters to reach one of the side entrances of Paris' prestigious Lycée Henri IV, a high school located on Rue Clovis in the city's 5th arrondissement. Despite the fact that a blockade of his school had been announced as part of the "Block Everything" movement, the second-year preparatory class student had planned to attend his classes: "There's too much work, and it's impossible to miss even an hour," he said, speaking a week later.
Yet, when he arrived at 7:30 am, he discovered heavily equipped police officers, clad in helmets and riot gear, dispersing the blockade by force. The young man pulled out his mobile phone to film the scene. That proved to be a mistake: An officer seized his device, ordered him to be quiet and pushed him among what he believed to be his fellow "blockers." His protests, like those of the other high school pupils who blockaded his school, could be heard in a video recording that Le Monde reviewed and authenticated. Yet they were for naught: Like the other students, he was pressed up against a wall and forced to face it for half an hour. When he asked for an explanation, he was met with only repeated orders to "shut up."
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