Hong Kong Unrest: Secondary school students return to classes

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It's the second day of a new school year in Hong Kong. But protesters have called for a massive school boycott. Are Hong Kong students going back to class? Our Reporter Ge Yunfei went to a secondary school in Hong Kong to find out.

When September arrives, students in Hong Kong are all supposed to be returning to schools for a new semester.

This is the opening ceremony of Heung To Secondary School in Tseung Kwan O.

HUANG XIAOTONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENT "Now, I want to improve my English and prepare for the college entrance examination."

Protesters organized several rallies on Monday to call for a city-wide strike.

GE YUNFEI HONG KONG "Though protesters are calling for the city's students to go on strike, most of the secondary school pupils still returned to classrooms as scheduled."

TANG FEI, PRINCIPAL HEUNG TO SECONDARY SCHOOL "Indeed there are some students in some schools who refuse to attend classes. But a massive and long-lasting school-boycott is very unlikely to take place. That's basically a consensus in our educational circles."

But with Hong Kong gripped by the three-month-long protests, Tang said schools are also affected.

TANG FEI, PRINCIPAL HEUNG TO SECONDARY SCHOOL "School is a miniature of the whole society. When the society is so torn apart, it'll definitely cast a shadow on schools. Different political views among the students might lead to school bullying, especially for those students whose parents are in a certain profession. So now we focus on how to prevent school bullying."

For the students, a violent summer may bring some psychological damage and emotional turbulence.

ROGER NG PIK-KIN, TEACHER HEUNG TO SECONDARY SCHOOL "We now feel that we need to pay special attention to the students' mental state because maybe some students participated in the protests and their psychology might be affected. So we need to help them through their tutors and the social workers."

NG hopes his students can leave the burden behind and focus on their studies again after this troubled summer. Ge Yunfei, CGTN, Hong Kong.