The LedeWhat’s Driving the French Student ProtestsProtesters gathered at Paris’s Place de la République, on October 6th.Photograph by Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt / AFP / GettySave this storySave this storySave this storySave this storyAmong the hundreds of thousands of people who took to the streets in France on Tuesday were Paolina and Violette, eighteen and seventeen years old, arguing politely with a white-haired man sucking apple juice from a juice box. The two young women carried signs: “EVEN PEDOPHILES don’t FUCK US as much as THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT” declared one, handwritten in ink a few shades darker than Paolina’s blueberry-colored...