{"id":22445,"date":"2025-10-25T02:51:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T02:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/22445\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T02:51:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T02:51:10","slug":"la-jolla-high-school-students-walk-out-of-class-in-climate-rally-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/22445\/","title":{"rendered":"La Jolla High School students walk out of class in climate rally \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

About 30 La Jolla High School students stepped out of their sixth-period classes the afternoon of Oct. 24 to support legislation they say would hold polluters accountable for climate damage.<\/p>\n

The event, called the Polluters Pay Youth Walkout, was one of 20 such demonstrations at schools across San Diego County, including The Preuss School at UC San Diego in La Jolla and UCSD itself.<\/p>\n

The La Jolla High rally was organized by the school\u2019s Environmental Action Club, led by junior Victoria Olivares, and co-organized by Youth v. Oil<\/a>, a campaign tied to environmental advocacy organization SanDiego350<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"StudentsStudents gather at the corner of Nautilus Street and Fay Avenue in La Jolla during the Polluters Pay Youth Walkout. (Noah Lyons)<\/p>\n

The walkout urged passage of the California Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act, introduced in February as SB 684<\/a> by state Sen. Caroline Menjivar (D-San Fernando Valley) and AB 1243<\/a> by Assemblywoman Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay).<\/p>\n

The legislation would \u201crequire fossil-fuel polluters to pay their fair share of the damage caused by greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere\u201d between 1990 and 2024.<\/p>\n

It lists climate-resilient schools, electric buses and more as things that could be covered by a superfund administered by the California Environmental Protection Agency.<\/p>\n

La Jolla High students participating in the walkout heard remarks from San Diego City Council President Joe LaCava, whose District 1 includes La Jolla, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography climate scientist Ian Campbell, as well as Olivares and student Annika Park.<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Diego City Council President Joe LaCava speaks at the Polluters Pay Youth Walkout at La Jolla High School. (Noah Lyons)<\/p>\n

The City Council previously offered unanimous support for the state legislation, and LaCava spoke of the importance of students getting involved in the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese bills do indeed have widespread support, but they haven\u2019t been adopted yet,\u201d he told the students. \u201cSo your assignment is to join in, not just at moments like this, but greater activism opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake,\u201d he continued. \u201cYour voice has power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students then made their way to the corner of Nautilus Street and Fay Avenue, carrying signs with messages such as \u201cYouth demand climate action\u201d and \u201cMake polluters pay.\u201d Olivares led the way with a megaphone as some passing motorists honked their car horns in support.<\/p>\n

Cindy Ueckert, a La Jolla High associate principal, said Olivares and Park told school administrators, including Principal Chuck Podhorsky, about the event as early as August.<\/p>\n

Ueckert praised the students\u2019 efforts in putting the walkout together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I really like is the student voice and that we had so many students gather,\u201d she said. \u201cOur environmental clubs [have] also become very active on campus, so I\u2019m really excited to help provide a safe space for students to speak their voice.\u201d \u2666<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About 30 La Jolla High School students stepped out of their sixth-period classes the afternoon of Oct. 24…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,930,5184,6804,74,84,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-22445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-la-jolla","10":"tag-la-jolla-light","11":"tag-la-jolla-light-news","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-county","14":"tag-san-diego-headlines","15":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}