Farmington students set climate change walkout

FARMINGTON – Dozens of Farmington teens will walk out of school today to protest inaction on climate change and demand that adult politicians take the threat more seriously.

Led by juniors Sia Goel and Amanda Rodrigues, the walkout will be a local component of the Fridays for Future campaign that started last fall when Swedish 15-year-old Greta Thunberg sat outside the parliament building in that country to protest leaders’ inaction on the issue.

Rodrigues, 17, follows Thunberg on social media and realized that Friday would be the second worldwide day of walkouts in support of the Fridays for Future, so she tapped her friend, 16-year-old Goel, to try to pull together an event for their friends.

“The world is our home, right?” Rodrigues said. “So we have to do the best we can to preserve it. If the adults in our politics aren’t making a change, then we have to take a stand.”

The girls expect about 75 students to walk out of the school at noon Friday to gather near the campus’ fields to chant and listen to speeches about the importance of addressing climate issues before 2030, when international climate experts believe the world might hit a critical threshold in temperature rise that would cause catastrophic effects around the world.

“We understand that doing a climate strike right here isn’t going to immediately change any big corporations’ ways and ethics,” Goel said. “We feel it’s more of a message or symbol, that it’s gotten to such a horrible state that it’s to the kids to take charge. It doesn’t matter what ideology or party you believe in, we all live on one earth.

“Adults are always saying our kids are what matter most,” she said. “What’s the point if our future is going to be in jeopardy?”

Goel and Rodrigues were involved in last year’s March For Our Lives walkouts, during which students across the state and country held rallies or left school to protest gun violence in the wake of the deadly shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla.

That event sparked dozens’ of students in social activism and sowed the seeds for even more student participation in similar events or the high school’s Social Justice Week, which Goel has helped organize.

Unlike the March For Our Lives walkout at Farmington High School, though, Friday’s event has been more closely arranged with school leaders to avoid any would-be disciplinary issues.

Next year both girls will be in student council leadership roles and plan to host more activist events.

Rodrigues was elected to be an executive vice president of the council that represents that entire school and Goel was elected to be the senior class president.

“With our track record, we’ll definitely cook up something next year,” Goel said.

Zach Murdock can be reached at zmurdock@ courant.com.