Alarming To See Teens Joining Rallies, Say Parents

A group called Umbrella Parents has urged Chief Executive Carrie Lam to respond to protesters' demands, saying it is alarming to see students as young as 12 taking to the streets to fight for their freedoms.

Dorothy Wong, a spokeswoman for the group which was formed after the 2014 civil disobedience movement, said children joining protests is something that parents cannot control as long the teens are not doing anything bad.

"At the same time we are worried about their safety. Because we are not talking about gas bombs or whatever. We are talking about bullets and it could be life-threatening," she said.

"As parents we are getting very helpless and we are getting very frustrated," Wong told RTHK's Richard Pyne. "It's time for us and the students to stand together and tell Carrie Lam that this is not what we want for Hong Kong."

The group was among an alliance of parent, teacher, religious and cultural groups that held a demonstration outside the Chief Executive's Office asking her to respond to protesters' demands. The demonstrators held up banners depicting police violence and chanted "don't shoot our kids".

In a related development, five councillors staged a protest at a Central and Western District Council meeting to condemn the Chief Executive for refusing to withdraw the extradition bill. Lam has only said that the government will suspend the bill.

At the start of the meeting, the five Democratic Party councillors also held a minute’s silence to remember a protester who fell to his death last Saturday.