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Shannon Carlson

On Friday, September 20, 37 SHS students, along with a few SIS students, joined millions of youth around the globe by participating in their local climate strike.

“Internationally, the climate strike is a global movement of mainly youth coming out and protesting in their streets to demand climate action and to demand a change in how we view our environment, and how we’re treating it,” said Juliet Peterka, sophomore.

Peterka and Sophie Diliberti, sophomore, organized Shorewood members’ participation in the Milwaukee Climate Strike. Participants met up with the Milwaukee rally at City Hall, which included youth from Rufus King High School, North Division High School, Ronald Reagan High School and Grant Elementary, as well as other community members and area climate groups.

Ayanna Lee, a senior at Rufus King High School, organized the Milwaukee Climate Strike. 

“Everyone, everywhere is having a climate strike to demand action on this issue and having politicians speak about vulnerable communities and how we’re affected by what’s going on,” Lee said. 

Lee is an executive director of the Youth Climate Action Team in Wisconsin, an climate activism group. 

“We started maybe at the end of last school year… talking about what our goals were for this strike. And then we, after getting the basics done, went into what’s best for our individual communities because what’s going on here is not the same as what’s going on in Madison,” Lee said.

In planning the Milwaukee Climate Strike, she experienced a few difficulties.

“We had a lot of trouble getting permits. To keep people safe, unfortunately we have to go through the city and get permits for these types of things,” Lee said. 

After the initial plans had been laid out, Peterka and Diliberti organized Shorewood’s contribution to the strike.

“I decided I wanted to organize one at Shorewood because I really wanted to participate, and I knew that there would be other students at Shorewood who also wanted to join in,” Peterka said.

Ian Vailliencourt, senior, was one of these students.

“I participated because I [think] it’s extremely important to show awareness of this issue,” Vailliencourt said. 

Shorewood students took the bus to the rally.

“Mass transit is a really important part of reducing fossil fuels and fossil fuel emissions so I wanted to encourage people to use the Milwaukee County bus system because it’s more of an environmental choice for transit,” Peterka said.

According to Lee, the turnout satisfied the expected numbers with a substantial crowd. Lee was impressed.

“It’s awesome to see this many people,” she said.

Peterka agreed.

 “I think the whole thing was really well organized and it was great to see a good turnout from the community,” Peterka said.

People attending the strike listened to speeches and learned from the various activities and informational booths available.

“Everyone here is just level headed, ready to work. They know what a big undertaking it is,” Vailliencourt said.

Moving forward, Peterka and fellow student activists believe that it is important to not forget about this issue.

“I think it’s important that we keep up the pressure, so that it’s not just one big strike and then everyone forgets about it, that’s not how we’re going to solve the climate crisis. Continuing other ways, writing letters to politicians and keeping up the pressure on different platforms and different areas of the community,” Peterka said.