Police clash with students once more as Valencia protests swell

Police detained 19 students, some of them minors, during clashes on the streets of Valencia Monday as protests against cuts in the education sector in the region entered a fourth day.

Some 50 police vehicles were deployed to disrupt the demonstration, with running battles ensuing across the city center.

The protests began outside the Lluís Vives public school last week, when a student at the center, a minor, was detained.

An ad-hoc negotiation between Alberto Ordóñez, the president of the Valencia Federation of High School Students, and a police chief ended with the latter saying the 19 would be released if the protest dispersed “in five minutes.”

Ordóñez was held by police himself last Thursday and reported that he had been struck in the face “three or four times.”

He spent 30 hours at the Zapadores police station in the city, where parents of those arrested in Monday’s confrontation gathered to demand the release of their children.

“Agent 97754 grabbed my daughter by the throat and threw her to the floor,” said one mother. Hundreds of parents have since joined the protest.