As hundreds of students filed into the streets across the world for the Youth Climate Strike, many Montgomery County School students sat in class wishing to join in on the protest. Despite directions from the County Executive to allow students to participate in the Climate Strike, Montgomery County Public schools refused to excuse students from school to participate in the demonstration against climate change.
The county executive proposed the addition of a new absence rule in response to the overwhelming student pressure to allow them to participate in social advocacy. The prospective rule allowed students to excuse up to three absences per semester for civic action, such as walkouts for protests.
If this proposed ruling was set into place, Montgomery County would be one of the few counties to allow their students to skip school to participate in social advocacy events.
The Montgomery County School Board denied this proposed rule, stating, “ We believe that students who wish to engage in the civic process during school hours should do so while at school, in a supportive and safe learning environment. Leaving school property not only disrupts instruction for other students, it poses a significant safety risk.”
While safety is a valid excuse for not wanting to sponsor an excursion outside of the school, by excusing an absence, the school allows the student to leave the building with their consent, but once they step outside of the building, students are no longer under the jurisdiction of the school.
There is also so much education a person can gain from participating in global rally’s such as the Youth Climate Strike that can’t be taught in the classroom.
“I have learned that participating, protesting and collaborating as young people is impactful” Walter Johnson senior Lila Byer said, “I have seen the first amendment in action and how important it actually is to our society and calling out things that need to be changed”
There is a large portion of the student body that is itching to exercise their freedom of speech and feels the school board is taking this ability away from them.
“There is a whole community of social advocates but many could not join the protest because they knew they would not be able to make up work that was done during the Strike” senior Yerim Kone, a self claimed social justice advocate said.
In contrast to the Montgomery County School Board’s decision, New York City’s public school system announced that they would excuse the absence of anyone who wanted to participate in the Climate Strike. This decision allowed around 1.1 million students to express themselves freely without consequence.
In the climate strike this year, 4 million students skipped school around the world according to an environmental advocacy group, 350.org, but Kone states that he and his fellow advocates are hungry for more.
“I think there is power in numbers, the more the merrier, especially when it comes to civil action,” Kone said. If Montgomery County had allowed their students to freely participate around 160,000 more kids could have the potential to be present at the protest.
“Not being able to excuse my absence definitely played a part of not being able to go the climate strike” Byers said, “Hopefully in the future the school board can figure out a way to allow students to participate in these events without sacrificing their education”
Furthermore, inside our schools, we see a major issue with waste, almost making it seem to students that our school system hardly cares about the environment.
This is seen most obviously in recycling, a huge problem in schools. Personally, in my school, recycling bins are scattered around the building making it seem like recycling is hardly enforced from administrators and staff and that they don’t want to make it easy for students to participate in.
In a recent poll from Walter Johnson High School, only 29 percent of students said they recycled properly and those that did recycle properly, did not know that when they leave food residue on their plastics or paper, it becomes unrecyclable.
Montgomery County Schools needs to begin educating students on how to properly dispose of their trash. The introduction of convenience in disposal, could also vastly help to improve the current conditions. Students don’t want to have to think about where they need to go in order to find a recycling bin. There should be an adequate amount throughout the school in order to make proper disposal easy and accessible.
Recycling bins and excused absences may not seem like they have much in common but it is the accessibility that they give to students which changes the game in terms of climate change. If students have the ability to recycle properly they will participate in it, if they have the opportunity to take part in civil action that benefits the whole world, they will. These decisions are about giving the Montgomery County student body the ability to rehabilitate our environment, inside and outside of the school.
Article by Lily Salvatore of Walter Johnson High School
Graphic by Claire Yang of Winston Churchill High School