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Published: 25th November, 2010
by JOSIE HINTON

 

CLASSROOMS were left empty yesterday (Wednesday) as pupils from Camden’s secondary schools marched to Whitehall in protest at tuition fee hikes and cuts to government grants.

Hundreds walked out of lessons intent on a peaceful protest but many found themselves trapped in police pens late into the evening as riot squad officers “kettled” thousands of youngsters.

Children as young as 13 were trapped for hours with no food or anywhere to go to the toilet. Hundreds of students chanted “let us out”. As the mood turned tense, there were skirmishes on both sides of police bar­ricades. Eleven members of the public are believed to have been injured.

Jazzi Driessen, a Year 12 pupil at Camden School for Girls, said: “It’s stupid. By keeping us here it just makes everyone want to rebel.”

School’s out as students fight the fees

 

THE threat of after-school detentions proved a toothless deterrent as pupils from across Camden’s secondary schools simply got up and walked out of lessons.

In a day of drama in central London yesterday (Wednesday), students from Hampstead, Haverstock, William Ellis, Camden School for Girls and Parliament Hill were in the thick of the mass demonstration against the Coalition government’s plans for a hike in university tuition fees and the removal of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) – £30 payments made to sixth-form students from low-income families.

The government’s strategy, students shouted, was “an onslaught on their future”.

The walkout began at 10am when students, from Year 9 to the sixth form, started making their way to Trafalgar Square. 

They were met by thousands of other protesters from schools in the capital and students already at university.

At Hampstead School, parents joined in the protest when they learned teachers had locked the gates and were preventing students from leaving. 

Virginie Papantoniou, a parent who went to demonstrate at the Westbere Road school in West Hampstead, said: “We are outraged that Hampstead School initially refused to let students leave the premises to join the protests today. 

“The school should be supporting their initiative, not locking them in. We’ve heard nothing from the teachers or governors about what they are doing to stop the cuts, or what discussions they will be having with pupils who are staying in school.”

But not all parents supported the march. Gary Boorman, whose 15-year-old daughter walked out of Parliament Hill School, said: “It’s unbelievable. The school has just caved in to pressure. My daughter just texted me to tell me she was going down to the protest, and I told her to get back to school. It’s like mob rule. I rang the school and they said they asked the kids to come back. They shouldn’t ask, they should tell them.”

Yet many pupils – although no school would admit it publicly – suggested some teachers had been quietly supportive of their decision to exercise their right to protest. Jack Dunleavy, a sixth-former from Camden School for Girls, said: “Obviously they can’t condone it but we spoke to one member of staff who told us it was our right and to be careful and stay away from any violence.”

Eliza Gimson, from Parliament Hill School, said: “Some of them [teachers] supported us. They said, ‘be safe’. The police said they wanted a peaceful protest but it wasn’t exactly safe.”

Although it was feared pupils would use the march as an excuse to get away from their lessons, the young people who attended seemed resolute about their reasons for protesting.

Year 11 Haverstock pupil Mohammed Sheikh said: “These cuts will affect our future. It’s not just us we’re marching for but all the younger generations of students who will lose their EMA or have to pay raised fees.”

And Year 12 Camden School for Girls pupil Jackson Caines said: “The government needs to know that a lot of people think they’ve got their priorities wrong. It’s about equality of opportunity.”

As darkness fell, the mood became more agitated as hundreds of pupils remained trapped behind rows of riot police. 

The tactic of kettling – holding large groups in a police pen and only letting them leave in ones or twos – was deployed.

Some who said they had planned to return to the school day huddled around fires to keep warm late into the evening as the police line stood firm.

A group of Hampstead School pupils waited anxiously at Trafalgar Square for their friends to be released. Alaia El-Akabi, in Year 10, said: “The police are trapping people as a way of controlling the protest but they should let people out. I think they’re trying to compensate for the earlier protest that got out of hand.”

High Court judge gives his backing to sit-in at SOAS

by JOSH LOEB

 

STUDENTS staging an anti-cuts “sit in” yesterday (Wednesday) saw off an attempt to evict them while at another university a famous function room was invaded by protesters.  

The Brunei Gallery at the Bloomsbury-based School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) has been occupied since Monday by students who are demanding that the university’s principal, Paul Webley, issues a statement ­condemning any rise in tuition fees. 

Yesterday SOAS bosses sent security staff to evict the students but were forced into an embarrassing climbdown after a High Court judge refused to grant them an injunction against the protest.

In a witness statement provided to the court, Richard Poulson, SOAS director of estates and faculties, said the university was concerned “that the current protest may escalate further and may lead to confrontation from the protesters”.

But Mr Justice Henderson said the students should have more time to prepare a defence against claims by the university authorities that they “have no right to conduct a ‘sit in’” and constitute a “risk to the building”. He added: “Everything that I have heard this afternoon has given me the impression that this is not an unruly demonstration.” 

The hearing will reopen at 2pm today (Thursday).

Bernard Goyder, a 19-year-old history undergraduate, said they were speaking to solicitors.  

He added: “Their case is full of holes and it has been done hastily.” 

Last night at least 15 people bedded down in the Brunei Gallery, which was built with money donated by the Sultan of Brunei and is regularly rented out for private corporate events.

Student activist Elly Badcock said: “There is a financial pressure on the management. That’s one of the reasons we chose this building.”

At University College London (UCL), a similar occupation began yesterday with students taking over the Jeremy Bentham Room and demanding the institution’s management condemn tuition fee rises.

The UCL branch of the University College Union issued a statement calling on management to allow the protest to proceed “without the use of physical force or disciplinary threats against participants”.

UCL’s press office did not respond to a request from the New Journal for a statement. 

A spokeswoman for SOAS said: “SOAS does not enter into discussions with anyone occupying school premises. 

“By choosing to occupy one of the school’s rooms, the group has effectively made it impossible for the school to discuss their demands. 

“The school remains committed to open discussions with the Students’ Union and we will continue to work with them to resolve this matter.”