Council member Kaizer Lau Ping-cheung backed the university’s decision on Friday to expel a graduate student and suspend another for their participation in a protest against school authorities taking back control of the message board after pro-independence messages were posted. Two other students were told to do community service.

Lau said the students who arrived at school management offices in October seeking a meeting with then president Timothy Tong Wai-cheung about the message board had acted arrogantly.

“This is a delayed judgment. I think it is very appropriate. It gives a correct message to students. I hope other teaching staff and students will learn that it is not allowed to promote Hong Kong independence on campus,” he said.

PolyU expels graduate student over ‘Democracy Wall’ protests

The university’s student discipline committee ruled to expel graduate student Gerald Ho Jun-him and suspend former student union president Lam Wing-hang for a year.

Owan Li, a student representative on PolyU’s governing council, was given 120 hours of community service, while Hazel Cheng Yuet-ting, former student union external vice-president, got 60 hours.

The group prevented vice-president Geoffrey Shen Qiping and dean of students Esmond Mok Chi-ming from leaving the office.

Lau slammed the students for being disrespectful to their teachers and said those who stopped the staff from leaving acted as though they were detaining the pair.

“They shouted and knocked on each door, asking the president to come out. This gave me a feeling, a bit like triad members seeking people,” he said.

Tong said he had no questions about the ruling. He believed staff made the decision after careful consideration and he had confidence in his former colleagues.

Lam, the suspended student, hit back at Lau. He said students’ welfare should be a priority for a university but suggested Lau wanted to create a chilling effect, deterring any protests.

“They are not trying to educate us but to execute students,” he said.

PolyU assistant professor Chung Kim-wah agreed some students were impolite and radical but he said the school had overreacted first by covering the bulletin board.

“When you overact, then the students will overact,” he said.

Meanwhile, 14 pro-democracy lawmakers released a statement calling for the punishments to be reversed and saying PolyU also had a hand in the original incident.

“Even though the four have made mistakes, their original intention was to safeguard freedom of expression for the democracy wall. The school tried to suppress it,” they said. “It can’t claim it has no responsibility in the incident.”

About 20 student groups in the higher education sector, including student unions of the University of Hong Kong and Chinese University, also issued a joint statement to express their dissatisfaction at the punishments. They said the rulings deprived the affected students of their rights and suppressed freedom of speech and expression in the education sector.

University chief defends move to not include word ‘national’ in Taiwan title

They called on PolyU to review its judgment and hearing system to give the students justice.

The Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union said the punishments for the four were too harsh and urged the school to reconsider.

“[A university] should tolerate diversified views with an open attitude, to cultivate students’ independent thinking skills,” the union said.

It urged the school to further explain its rulings to allay public concerns.

Former chief executive Leung Chun-ying also made his feelings on the incident known, taking aim at expelled student Ho.

On his Facebook page, Leung wrote that students protesting in support of Chinese sovereignty over the disputed Diaoyu Islands – which Japan calls the Senkaku Islands – were beaten by non-Chinese police officers in colonial times.

There were student protests over the islands in the early 1970s.

“Police officers were neither charged nor punished. There were no lawmakers tabling an inquiry or a condemnation of the colonial government. You, please read the old newspapers. You, please call for justice for senior police officer Frankly Chu!” he said, referring to the former superintendent jailed for striking a bystander during the Occupy protests in 2014.