Charging into battle against global warming at Lawrence Woodmere Academy

The school year has just begun, but Lawrence Woodmere Academy students have wasted no time in standing up for what they believe in. When the Global Climate strike was just days away, students prepared for battle by watching videos of the effects of global warming each morning before the school day began to remind ourselves of what it is we are fighting for. It became perfectly clear that only by standing together will our voices be heard. And as the rest of the world stepped outside to protect the future of our earth, LWA did too. 

Students in the service living class made posters that read “our earth is sick” and “I want to breathe clean” throughout the week, and on Sept. 20, every student in the upper and middle schools walked out of the building in unison, gathered in a circle and held the posters proudly in the air. Students prepared a human megaphone, and as upper school English curriculum coordinator Laura Maffei recited the following words, the student body repeated:

“While we were having dinner last night, students in East Asia and Australia were stepping outside. While we were sleeping, students in Central and South Asia were stepping outside. While we were waking up this morning, students in Europe and Africa were stepping outside. And now we have stepped outside. We join with them to say that those in power must take immediate and large-scale actions to address the climate emergency. Actions not words. There is no Planet B.”

After the chant, students and faculty stood together for 30 seconds of silence to think about our impact on this planet, and how it is now our job to clean up the mess we have made. As I stood there, a part of a grassroots movement that has come to life, I looked around at my fellow classmates and friends. I realized that it is the youth of the world that will have to combat the issues that those before us have left behind, and we cannot wait by remaining silent. We call action from the leaders of our world. It is us, and our children, whom climate change will affect. It is we who are making history. The seas are rising. But so are we.