The 15-year-old was jumpy and agitated as the police van drove past the authorised and legal rally on Monday. The medics reached for their saline - a frontline treatment for tear gas. Loading “They are beating people, everyone, citizens walking on the street or after dinner,” said Louie, the volunteer medic who presented his St Johns Ambulance card as qualification for the burden he had borne over summer. He said his parents knew he went to protests. “They support me, but say don’t tell us what you did and don’t get home late,” he said. They consider 2am a suitable curfew. But he says it has become more dangerous in recent weeks as riot police make mass arrests.

“On Saturday two of my first aiders got caught at Causeway Bay. They were just picking up patients and they ran - they only ran because they wanted to escape from the police. They had medicals on them but police caught them and we have no news about them since,” he said gravely. Ezoe and Brittany, 15, at a student strike in Hong Kong, wear eye patches to remember a woman who was hit in the eye by what was believed to be a police bean bag round. They say they are protesting because they "love Hong Kong". Credit:Kirsty Needham Riot police had earlier searched children who donned masks and hard hats to protest outside school gates on Monday morning as secondary school and university students embarked on a strike on the first day of class. Hundreds of students started the day forming protest lines outside their schools. At the prestigious Queens College, the statue of Chinese revolutionary and founding president of modern China, Dr Sun Yat-sen, briefly wore a hard hat and goggles. He was a former student. At Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam’s school, St Francis Canossian College, girls in uniform stood outside with hard hats and held signs asking Lam to listen.

Loading But riot police arrived outside La Salle College and uniformed police arrived at Queen Elizabeth School to search some students who were standing on the footpath wearing black t-shirts. Education minister Kevin Yeung said the police presence was not “white terror” - a term used in Hong Kong to refer to a growing crackdown by police - and that they were there to ensure public safety. At Edinburgh Place in Central, uniformed children braved the rain, many wearing masks, for the rally. Tommy, 18, said he had been going to protests over the summer and “sometimes” told his parents.

“We tried to do it in a peaceful way," he said. "The teenagers discuss this a lot because it really affects our future.” Pro-democracy leader Agnes Chow leaves a Hong Kong district court on Friday. Credit:AP Win for protest leaders On the same day, the school student movement that organised the strike, Demosistō, had a big win in the High Court which ruled it was wrong for the group’s co-founder Agnes Chow to have been disqualified from running for election in Hong Kong's legislative council last year. Chow was arrested by Hong Kong police on Friday in a sweep up of democracy activists and politicians. The exclusion of young activists from the political system has been seen as a major factor fuelling this year’s street protests which have continued for 13 weeks and grown increasingly violent.

On Monday the High Court ruled that an electoral officer was technically wrong to disqualify Ms Chow from standing for the Hong Kong Island by-election because he believed she wouldn’t pledge allegiance to Hong Kong. The electoral officer had disqualified her because she was a founder of Demosistō and publicly available material had shown the group had a doctrine of “democratic self-determination” which the officer considered to be inconsistent with Hong Kong’s Basic Law which recognises Hong Kong as part of China. The ruling said the officer didn’t give Ms Chow an opportunity to respond and explain her position and this was a serious deprivation of her right to stand for election. It appeared she only supported a “watered down” version of self determination, the ruling said. Even though the High Court declared the by-election result invalid, Chow told reporters it was a bitter victory because candidates' political views would continue to be vetted under Hong Kong’s electoral system.

Chinese state media has demonised Chow and on Saturday criticised Hong Kong judges for allowing Chow and Joshua Wong to be released on bail after their arrest. After a weekend in which protesters disrupted travel to the airport which saw 25 flights cancelled, and vandalised 32 MTR (Mass Transit Railway) stations, Chinese state news agency Xinhua on Sunday warned “the end is coming for those attempting to disrupt Hong Kong and antagonise China”. Hong Kong's South China Morning Post used language critical of the protesters in its Monday edition. Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam stayed out of public view on Monday but thanked railway staff for restoring train services on Monday on her Facebook page. At a press conference security minister John Lee said: “Radical protesters have escalated their violence and there are now signs of terror.”