Notebook Hardware and Upgrade Questions

So about 2 weeks ago I got this new laptop partially for my studies, put if down in my room and plugged an ethernet cable into the port on the side. At first I could not figure out how to plug it in, but then I noticed that there was for some reason a little plastic bar that you had to push down wile inserting the cable. Now I actually want to take the laptop to my first class, but the ehternet cable is completely stuck. The piece of plastic won't budge and the little nudge you have to press while pulling out the cable is on the downside, so it's physically impossible to pull both nudges at the same time. Nowhere in the manual or on the internet does it even mention this dumb useless plastic bar  (like seriously, why is it there?), and I can find no information on how to remove the cable. Obviously I tried pulling it pretty hard, but quickly stopped because I shouldn't be having to do that. Please explain how in gods name I am supposed to take out this cable to actually use my laptop like a laptop.