Hong Kong teens protest with school boycott

Tens of thousands of students skipped the first day of classes Monday and rallied for democracy in Hong Kong instead. The student protests followed weekend demonstrations that shut down city transportation routes. The unrest flared up for another weekend despite the arrests Friday of key leaders in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.

How young are the protesters? High school students showed up at their schools and around the city wearing gas masks and holding signs that said, “Strike.” At one public square, teenagers addressed a rally in front of a backdrop that read, “With no future, there’s no need to go to class.” The walkout even reached St. Francis’ Canossian College, the elite girls school that Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam attended.

Dig deeper: Read Erica Kwong’s timeline of the summer protest movement.