Pupils Don Masks To Protest Over Classmate Arrests

Almost 150 students and alumni from a North Point secondary school donned face masks on Tuesday as they staged a march in support of two students they said had been arrested recently in relation to the ongoing protests.

The group marched to Cheung Chuk Shan College from Fortress Hill MTR Station, singing the school's anthem and chanting protest-related slogans.

Many said they weren't worried about a move by the Education Bureau to ask schools to report the number of students wearing face masks as they were not breaking the law in any way.

They said their college had been communicating well with students and hadn't stopped them from posting protest material on campus.

One pupil told RTHK that the school was private property and the government could not control what students did there.

Meanwhile, a public administration expert at Chinese University warned that the government's notice to schools regarding masks could "backfire" and lead to further protests by pupils and parents alike.

The Education Bureau says the move is simply to help it offer schools further support in relation to any protests such as class boycotts, and the names of pupils wearing masks won't be recorded.

But Chinese University professor Wilson Wong said the bureau ought to withdraw the notice that it sent out last week, when a ban on people covering their faces at protests was introduced under emergency powers.

"Many parents of the students in Hong Kong actually dislike the measure and they're going to do whatever they can to protest against it. So you will again put the government in a very bad situation," Wong said.

He added that the move is also likely to have provoked students at the city's schools.

"I think the students have been very creative in trying to protest against the government. They usually do what the government asks them not to do. So you will be able to see many students wearing masks to school, just to show that they disagree with the Education Bureau."

Wong also told RTHK's Janice Wong that the Education Bureau has contradicted itself by imposing political views on schools, after previously insisting that politics should be kept out of the SAR's classrooms.