CHULA VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) — Friday, hundreds of San Diego County students took part in school strikes ahead of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference in November to demand public action on the climate crisis.
Alexa Castruita, a senior at Hilltop High School, is one of the students leading the youth advocacy on climate change in Chula Vista.
“It’s our world that we’re inheriting,” Castruita said.
Friday morning, she and dozens of students a part of the Sweetwater Unified School District met at Friendship Park and marched to Chula Vista City Hall.
There, community leaders joined the students as they voiced the actions they wanted to see taken to protect the environment.
Castruita said their main demand is calling on Governor Gavin Newsom to stop the issuance of oil drilling and fracking permits in California.
So far, the San Diego Unified School District and the San Diego County Board of Education have passed resolutions supporting the demand.
Castruita said they’re working to do the same in the Sweetwater Unified School District.
“We’re able to recognize both how past generations have supported us but have also failed us and I believe or we all believe that it’s really important that we’re able to take these paths that have been paved for us and further see them through and further progress,” she said.
Meanwhile, students in the San Diego Unified School District held a “climate strike walkout” Friday afternoon to demand change.
At the county level, they’re calling for the officials to set a goal for net-zero emissions by 2030 and center equity in their climate action plan.
Students from San Diego State University and the University of California San Diego also joined in on the effort.
A student climate change walkout was previously held in 2019. Castruita said demonstrations planned last year were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
