News : Students leave class to hold Climate Strike

This group of Vinton Shellsburg students participate in Climate strike on Friday

Friday morning, September 20, at 9:20 a.m. a group of 13 Vinton Shellburg High School students walked out as part of the "Global School Strike on Climate" movement.

One of the moms present at the event, Karen Stein a field consultant for the Iowa Moms Clean Air Force, drove 75 miles from Kellogg, Iowa to be there said, "If we don't reach our goal of 100% clean energy throughout the economy, by the year 2050, the consequences will put all life inevitably in danger."

Lauren Upmeyer a senior and one of the organizers of the event said that her reason for participating was because she felt like not enough was being done about climate change and that we should care about it because "it's been proven time and time again to destroy the earth in only a few years."

The strikers presented a list of demands during the strike:

• Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds needs to join 25 other governors in the U.S. Climate
  Alliance.
• The Iowa legislature needs to write and adopt its own Green New Deal—investing
  in sustainable agriculture, not agribusiness.
• All voices must be included in the fight against climate change, including
  Indigenous voices and those in frontline communities.

Coralee Bodeker, one of the organizers of the event and member of the Benton County Progressives, also believes that her future is in jeopardy. She plans to participate in other strikes and to do her part to help prevent it.

Zena Aragon, a 10th grader when asked what she knows about recent climate change, said she knows everything about it and feels that we need to change for future generations.

The group also put in a call to Governor Reynold's office leaving a message asking for help in the matter. Student organizers also worked with former students and mentors to organize the event.