In the cities of Tours and Orleans, local officials have reported experiencing harassment, verbal abuse, and even physical violence while trying to mediate between protesters and police during demonstrations. On October 1st, city council member Jonathan Bruneau was at Voltaire High School in Orleans to address a student-organized blockage. The students were protesting for better school conditions, teacher replacements, and less crowded classrooms—demands supported by teachers' unions. Bruneau and other officials had split up across several schools to manage the situation. He noted that people not involved in the demonstrations, whom he called "disruptive elements," came masked, overturned trash cans, and threw objects. Under tear gas, officials, teachers, and mediators tried to de-escalate the situation by collecting potential weapons. A trash can caught fire, and Bruneau said they asked the school for a fire extinguisher but couldn't get one. They called firefighters, but the police did not move. Firefighters needed the path cleared, so Bruneau and teachers tried to communicate with police units (likely from CDI or CSI) stationed near the blockage to ensure the students could leave safely. However, the police decided to charge without waiting. In a video shared on Instagram, a police officer approached Bruneau, grabbed him by the shoulder, and said, "You may be an elected official, but you're just as much of a piece of trash as the rest of them." Bruneau reminded the officer of his duties and asked to see his RIO, a required identification badge, to file a report. The officer responded with a middle finger. At least two videos captured the charge and footage taken by the Ici Centre-Val de Loire TV team. Several police officers shoved Bruneau and the group he was with. Surrounded by law enforcement, he was thrown to the ground. On footage taken by the Ici Centre-Val de Loire team, the same officer who had given the middle finger earlier clearly placed his leg behind Bruneau's leg, halfway up the calf, causing him to fall. Bruneau was also struck in the back with a baton, and just after he got up, he was hit by a projectile from the protesters. On October 2nd, a doctor prescribed him two days of sick leave, and Bruneau confirmed that a formal complaint is in progress. "We should be able to manage order in a different way," he said. The incident, although particularly chaotic, is not unique. Throughout October 1st, videos and testimonies showed that elected officials who tried to calm tensions between protesters and police faced the consequences of their efforts. In Tours, mayor Emmanuel Denis and deputy Charles Fournier (both members of the party Les Écologistes) found themselves "sandwiched" by a police charge, as reported by Ici Touraine. The two officials had gone to a blockage site to try to calm the situation after a young person had been seriously injured in the face the previous day, on September 30, and four police officers had been injured in the morning of October 1st near the Grandmont High School. At the time of the charge, Charles Fournier said the two officials were in the middle of discussions with the students and a police commander. "We were in the middle of discussing with them and with the police commander, trying to get them through," the elected official told Ici Touraine. The commander briefly left to get orders. "Unfortunately, at the same time, there was an order to charge. They charged the students and they charged us as well, and it went badly," Fournier said. The situation, fears the deputy, "is beginning to spiral out of control." "I think we should be able to manage order in a different way," he added. In a statement published on September 30, the mayor reiterated calls for calm, while questioning "the French doctrine of maintaining order" and its evolution, which he says contrasts with "that pursued in several European countries, which have favored more de-escalation, dialogue, and communication with the protesters." Contacted by email by Ici Centre-Val de Loire (France 3), the prefecture of the Loiret has not yet been able to explain the reasons for the ordered charge at the Voltaire High School, nor the events that led to the violence against Jonathan Bruneau.