Students Are Being Terrified Into Activism

Commentary On Nov. 17, School Strike 4 Climate organised walkouts by Australian high school students to protest against the government’s climate response. Participating students had a “Climate Doctors Certificate” signed by climate activists, teachers, and retired academics. The Certificates are readily available on the School Strike 4 Climate website. The website also tries to leverage Aboriginal sovereignty claims to achieve its climate-related objectives. “We meet, organise, and strike on stolen Country, and that sovereignty has never been ceded. First Nations peoples are disproportionately on the frontlines of the climate crisis and therefore must be enshrined at the forefront of the climate movement.” The participation of school children in these protest activities requires and condones school truancy. But the protest organisers sought to justify the truancy on the ground that the students suffered from a virulent form of a specious illness—climate sickness....