Tuition fee riots - The aftermath - Students claim police conduct was ‘inhuman and disgraceful’ - Met condemns ‘wanton vandalism’

Published: 16 December 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM

SCHOOLCHILDREN have spoken of their “horror” at being contained in a police “kettle” for hours and criticised heavy-handed tactics during the protests against the coalition government’s university funding reforms.

Hundreds of pupils from Camden schools, most of them sixth-formers, walked out of lessons last Thursday to join the rally against proposals to treble tuition fees to £9,000 a year and scrap the education maintenance allowance (EMA), which were voted through by a narrow majority.

Many reported shock at what they say was excessive police force, with claims that one pupil from Camden School for Girls received medical treatment after being hit on the arm with a baton and another was caught in the melée when mounted police charged with horses.

This year, the government paid 1,781 of the poorest students in Camden aged 16 to 19 up to £30 a week in EMA – a lifeline which many say keeps them in education.

The New Journal witnessed the demonstrations which, with the exception of a handful of flare-ups and incidents where fireworks were thrown, were peaceful until violent clashes escalated after the result of the vote in the Commons was announced at 5.30pm.

Tasha Bell, 16, a pupil at Camden School for Girls said: “It was very frightening. The police were hitting out at anyone. They attacked me and my friends for no other reason than that we were there in front of them. 

“One policeman told me that I’d known it was gonna be like this and if I didn’t like it I shouldn’t have come. Surely that’s not respecting our right to protest? 

“They [the police] are like robots and very intimidating in their black uniforms. It’s one thing to kettle us, another to use violence to control us, but it is completely disgraceful and inhumane to do both.”

Another pupil, Alaia El-Akabi from Hampstead School, said she had to plead with police for half an hour before they let her out, as temperatures dropped to freezing. 

Teachers from Acland Burghley School  are also understood to have joined the march following a sit-in occupation by pupils from the La Swap consortium at the school the previous day.

So far the Met has arrested 36 people following the day of action, the majority for violent disorder. It is not believed that any of them are pupils at Camden schools.

Speaking during the march before demonstrators were “kettled” in Parliament Square and Whitehall, Alan Aber­deen, a sixth-form student at Camden School for Girls said pupils had grown in their convictions over the last month.

He said: “I’d say half of the sixth form are here today – about 200 people. Everyone always talks about people my age not caring but that’s clearly complete rubbish. 

“To see all of us talking passionately about it is amazing.”

Over the past month, in contrast to some of the high profile images of violence, thousands of students in Camden have occupied buildings and taken to the streets. This week students at SOAS and University College London ended their actions, but vowed that it is not the end of their protests.

The Metropolitan Police has issued a number of statements defending their tactics. 

Superintendent Julia Pendry said: “Police condemn the outrageous and increasing levels of violence that some protesters are now involved in. 

“Students are involved in wanton vandalism, including smashing windows in Oxford and Regent streets.”