Student protests: school's out across the UK as children take to the streets

[Joanne98]

• Tens of thousands of students protest around country
• Only significant violence occurs in central London
• Capital's police 'kettle' children late into evening

Tens of thousands of students and school pupils walked out of class, marched, and occupied buildings around the country in the second day of mass action within a fortnight to protest at education cuts and higher tuition fees.

Amid more than a dozen protests, estimated by some to involve up to 130,000 students, the only significant violence came in central London. Late in the evening a crowd rampaged near Trafalgar Square, smashing windows on buses, shops and offices, including the Treasury.

Earlier a small group of young protesters, many of school age, tried to break through police lines. Others seized on an unattended police van, smashing windows and scrawling graffiti along its side.

The coalition government condemned the protests, saying they were being hijacked by extremist groups. The education secretary, Michael Gove, gave a notably combative response, urging the media not to give the violent minority "the oxygen of publicity", a resonant phrase associated closely with Margaret Thatcher's efforts in the 1980s to deny the IRA television coverage.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/nov/24/student-protests-school-children-streets