Hong Kong police caution against rise in arrests of students over anti-government protests
- Chief Superintendent John Tse says it is worrying to see the youths breaking the law and risking themselves to face criminal convictions at a young age
- Education minister Kevin Yeung urges teachers and parents to be careful of children’s activities ahead of National Day celebrations on October 1
Hong Kong police have cautioned against an alarming surge in the number of students arrested during the anti-government protests since the start of the school year, as the education chief appealed to headmasters and parents to urge the youngsters not to join potentially dangerous protests.
Police sources said among the 1,046 people arrested during the anti-extradition bill protests between June 9 and August 31, a quarter or 257 were secondary school and university students.
But of the 550 people arrested over the protests since September 1, about 207 were students, accounting for about 38 per cent.
Chief Superintendent John Tse Chun-chung from the force’s public relations branch said: “It’s an alarming trend. It is worrying to see the youths breaking the law and risking themselves to face criminal convictions at such a young age.
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“They may act under peer pressure or may be manipulated by others in committing such serious crimes.”
He appealed to the city’s youngsters to rethink their actions.
On Friday, education minister Kevin Yeung Yun-hung also urged school principals, teachers and parents in a letter to remind students not to take part in “potentially chaotic and dangerous” protests over the coming weekend and on the National Day on October 1.
He said the risks faced by the students joining protests in recent months could “no longer be ignored” as peaceful rallies had turned violent several times.
Principals, teachers and parents should “take concrete actions” and defend their schools from “external political forces”, he said.
Yeung added the students should also be educated to respect the national flag.
On Tuesday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said schools cancelling National Day flag-raising ceremonies would send out an “incorrect message”.
On Monday, Yeung made similar comments after some schools had announced they would scrap the ritual amid concerns.
But students or teachers from at least four schools the Post contacted said they were considering to cancel the flag raising ceremony for various reasons, while some elite schools said they never followed the tradition.
As the National Day is a public holiday, most schools that plan to go ahead with the ceremony will hold it before or after October 1.
Among the schools that held the flag-raising ceremony on campus on Friday include Pentecostal Holiness Church Wing Kwong College in Wong Tai Sin, where some activist students alleged they were warned of disciplinary actions if they disrupted the event.
A school spokesman told the Post several students held up umbrellas and turned their backs to the flagpole during the ritual, while a few also chanted slogans after the ceremony ended.
But the spokesman said the ceremony was held “successfully”, and no students were punished.
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In Yau Ma Tei, ELCHK Lutheran Secondary School chose to broadcast the ceremony live in the classrooms. But the school’s student concern group said at least 10 of them went to the washroom to protest against the event during the live broadcast.
Ng Wang-yip, vice-principal of the school, said “some students” did head to the washroom during the process, but he insisted arranging the ceremony indoors “had nothing to do with the students’ actions or the current social situation”.
The Education Bureau said on Friday it had already contacted some schools that expressed concerns over flag-raising ceremony arrangements to understand their worries and provide “professional advice”.
Meanwhile, a citywide class boycott has been planned on September 30 as secondary school students are expected to attend a rally at Chater Garden in Central. The student’s unions from 13 tertiary institutions have also called for a one-week class boycott starting from October 1.
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On Friday, more than 200 students from 12 schools on the Hong Kong Island, all wearing masks and school uniform, lined up for an hour from 4.30pm to form the phrase “FREE HK” in an open space near the General Post Office. They also displayed a banner, which read “Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our times”.
One of the organisers of the event, who only gave his surname as Chan, said their programme was special as it was held on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the pro-democracy Occupy movement that took place in 2014.
Jenny Ho, a Form Three student who took part in the event, said Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s dialogue with the city residents on Thursday did little to ease her frustrations.
“She did not seem sincere at all,” Ho said, adding Lam must respond to all the protesters’ demands to assuage people’s anger.
Additional reporting by Victor Ting and Yujing Liu
