Berkshire Students Will Join In Climate Strike

The Berkshire Eagle   reports Aviva Skoblow and her fellow Pittsfield High School students want to be heard on the subject of climate change.

So, at 10:15 a.m. Friday, they will take to the front steps of the school on East Street to make some noise.

"We'll be out there screaming at the cars driving by," she said. "We'll be trying to put into perspective how dangerous climate change is getting."

They also will be waving signs, chanting slogans, and reciting some of the impacts and naming refugees and victims of climate change. At noon, they will head to Park Square to join a number of other groups participating in the strike.

Students across the Berkshires, the commonwealth and the world will be walking out of schools Friday and speaking out for more dramatic action to counter the dangerous global effects of climate change.

Actions also are planned at other local schools, including Taconic, Wahconah and Mount Greylock high schools and even Williamstown Elementary School.More than 10,000 adults and young people are expected join the Boston Climate Strike, marching from City Hall Plaza to the Massachusetts Statehouse. Strike organizers anticipate that it will be the largest climate strike in Boston history.

Mary Stucklen, program manager for the Berkshire Zero-Waste Initiative, part of the Berkshire Environmental Action Team, organized a couple of buses to carry about 80 student activists to join the strike in Boston. Joining them will be students from local high schools and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. They will leave from the Lee Big Y at 8:30 a.m. Friday.

In Williamstown, Mount Greylock students will be joined by students from Williamstown Elementary School and Williams College on Friday afternoon, after school, at the front of the First Congregational Church of Williamstown on Main Street to demand action on the climate.