Ashland High School students walk out for climate change - KDRV

Ashland High School students walk out for climate change | Top Stories | kdrv.com
Ashland High School students held a rally at the plaza on Friday.

ASHLAND, Ore. -- Hundreds of Ashland High School students walked out of class and down to the plaza for a climate change rally.

Students took turns speaking and performing during Friday's rally, hoping to bring attention to the ongoing global issue.

Students also called for their local elected officials to take action against the growing climate crisis -- and the youth-led Rogue Climate Action Team announced its Ashland Youth for Electrification Campaign.

"It impacts our future more than the people who are currently creating the laws and in charge of the policies that affect us," said Nadia Pettengell, a senior at AHS. "This is our fight and it affects everyone but it affects us the most."

As young people, students say the rally was an opportunity to come together as a generation and call for change on both a local and global level.

"I think that we're all we've got and ultimately, this is a world that we're stepping into and that we're going to take care of," said Eden Thompson, a senior at AHS. "If we can't be there for each other and with each other and stand together as young people, how are we supposed to know how to stand together once we are in those positions of power and control?"

"In 50 years, if all goes according to plan, we're the ones who are going to be here and we're the ones who are going to have to deal with whatever was left behind," said Annie Siegel, a senior at AHS. "I don't believe it should be our responsibility but I do believe that we should be taking action because like Eden said, we are all we got."

The Rogue Climate Action Team and AHS students plan to bring their concerns directly to their local government at the Ashland City Council meeting on March 21.