Students staged a silent protest on Monday.About 30 masked students from three secondary schools in Shau Kei Wan staged a silent protest before school as a show of solidarity for the citywide strike on Monday.
The activity, named “Walk with you”, was organised by the anti-extradition bill concern groups at Shau Kei Wan Government Secondary School, Shau Kei Wan East Government Secondary and Salesian English School.
Students first gathered at Sai Wan Ho MTR station slightly after 7am. They then paid a silent tribute to Alex Chow Tsz-lok, the HKUST student who died last Friday, at the Lennon wall next to the station. The students began to march towards their adjacent schools on Chai Wan Road at 7.15 am. The entire route was about 1.6 kilometres.
As they arrived at Chai Wan Road, they started chanting protest slogans like “HongKongers, revenge!” and “Five demands, not one less”.
Lam, a 17-year-old student at Shau Kei Wan Government Secondary School, also a concern group member, said he would still go to school after the march because there wasn’t a joint-school student rally today and he thought the effectiveness of an on-campus class boycott wasn’t high enough.
“About 20 to 30 students joined the class boycott activity last time and I just think we didn’t get much attention ... plus I’m a Form 6 student, I think I should prepare for my DSE,” he said.
Lam said he was sad when he heard that police live rounds were shot where they were gathered earlier in Sai Wan Ho.
“According to the video on Telegram, the protesters didn’t attack the police but they still fired at them. My emotions are affected by this news and I probably can’t concentrate the whole day,” he added.
Another student from Shau Kei Wan Government Secondary School said, “My parents are against the act of boycotting class, so I chose to use a relatively acceptable means to express my opinions.”
“If I go on strike, the school will notify my parents, and they don’t like my name being recorded in reports ... So I’m also not allowed to join the mass rallies as they’re afraid I’ll be leaving traces behind if someone takes photos of me,” she added.