Sixth formers skip lessons to
MORE than 60 students quit classes yesterday to join an international movement against climate change.
Teenagers at Gosforth Academy Sixth Form, Newcastle, refused to go to school, instead joining tens of thousands of young people across the planet taking part in a ‘climate strike’ to demand action to save the planet.
The students, aged 16 to 18, protested outside their school with placards and banners, before rallying at Monument, in Newcastle city centre.
Abel Harvie-Clark, 17, was among those who organised the protest. He said that, for his classmates, the threat of climate change was more important that a day’s lessons – or the risk of getting in trouble for playing truant.
“A lot of people see this as a lot more important than any school sanctions,” he said.
“It’s good to see that as students, we have our own conscience, our own priorities, and we know how important this is. This is about a global movement, being in solidarity with people our age worldwide. These are the most important years of human civilisation – our last chance to halt climate change – and it’s very clear to young people that what the government are doing doesn’t reflect the urgency needed to tackle the problem.”
Abel said that while party politics, or the bickering between Brexiteers and