Reports circulated online this morning of police carrying out stop-and-searches on — and in some cases arresting — high school students returning to school today after days of cancelled classes, as other students gathered to occupy roads in Kwun Tong.
Photos and videos were shared on apps like Telegram this morning showing police apprehending students on their way to school. While Coconuts HK haven’t been able to verify every video, the images purported to show students in school uniforms being taken into a police van in Kwun Tong and lined up on the platform at Tin Shui Wai MTR station.
2 schoolboys arrested by riot police near Kwun Tong swimming pool 8:15am. Unknown why. Today's the 1st day back at school & there've been several reports of police stopping & searching schoolkids. When things like this occur, it's a sign of how deeply the crackdown's penetrating. pic.twitter.com/FtdETiAOU1
— Kong Tsung-gan / 江松澗 (@KongTsungGan) November 20, 2019
Another photo posted to Facebook purports to show riot police at the steps of Po Leung Kuk Lee Shing Pik College in Tsuen Wan.
News of the reported stop-and-searches come as thousands of high school students returned to school this morning. The Education Bureau announced on Sunday that classes would be suspended owing to transportation chaos and unrest around the city as the siege at the Polytechnic University raged.
The authorities announced yesterday that classes would resume, with reports this morning suggesting that the occupation of the university is drawing to an end as the number of protesters left inside dwindles.
As students prepared to go back to school, some high school students in Kwun Tong heeded a call online to take part in a “back to school with you” assembly, in which students marched and chanted slogans while heading to school. The protest is a riff on the “lunch with you” protests in which office workers gather in Central for a short protest on their lunch break before going back to work.
Video filmed by RTHK shows hundreds of students at one point causing traffic to grind to a halt in the area. They were also joined by protesters dressed in black and wearing face masks building makeshift barricades to block roads.
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