A large group of Kelowna students were nowhere to be found in the classroom as scheduled on Friday afternoon.
Instead, students gathered downtown at Kelowna’s Stuart Park in protest of what they consider to be “climate inaction” by global leaders.
“We want to show our leaders that the youth care about climate change because it’s our future,” said 17-year-old Okanagan Mission Secondary student Laura Moody.
“When our leaders aren't doing enough to make those changes happen, we need to show that we're willing to come out and fight for that change.”
The walkout was inspired by 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, a Swedish student and political and environmental activist, who has spent each Friday of the school year protesting outside the Swedish parliament buildings instead of sitting class.
Organizers estimate roughly 350 people attended Kelowna’s walkout, many of which were local students.
Politicians Loyal Wooldridge and Liberal MP Stephen Fuhr both spoke at the protest, along with former Kelowna city councillor and current CEO of Greensteps Angela Nagy.
“We’re demanding a science-based climate plan to limit global warming to 1.5°C degrees,” explained Aidan Kenny, a first-year student at UBCO.
“Right now the plan is only to limit our carbon emissions by 30% by 2030 and we need 45%.”
According to the young organizers, most parents supported their choice to miss a few hours of class for the cause, however the school district was unable to support the event.
"The school district is responsible for student safety from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., so legally they can't endorse something where no teachers or administrators are present to look after student safety," explained Moody.
"It was more of a liability factor than the actual purpose of the strike."
Friday’s rallies were one of the biggest international climate change actions yet, involving hundreds of thousands of students in more than 100 countries around the globe.
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