Teens Fight For New Climate Change Curriculum in Massachusetts Schools

Members of the Massachusetts Climate Education Organization talk during a recent meeting. From left, Zoe Nagasawa, 18, Nico Gentile, 17, Anna Wilcox, 17, Emma Williamson, 17, Sofia Martins, 16, Soleei Guasp, 17. (Eve Zuckoff/WCAI)

Every week, more than a dozen student activists from around Massachusetts call into a Zoom meeting. Behind them are glimpses into their lives – superhero posters and hot pink bedroom walls.

“OK. So do we want to start off today’s meeting with an agenda?” asked Nico Gentile, the 17-year-old climate organizer running today’s meeting.

The Sandwich teen isn’t new to managing groups. Last year, Gentile helped bring together 100 students from 10 schools for the first-ever Cape and Islands Youth Climate Action Summit.

“Through that, I was able to see how beneficial and how important learning about climate change is, mostly because it kind of sparks a fuse to create action within your community,” Gentile said in an interview. “And I asked myself the question, ‘Why don’t we do this more in our own schools?’”

In April, this question pushed Gentile to launch the Massachusetts Climate Education Organization (MCEO). He’s recruited students statewide, from urban areas to suburbs, from public schools and private schools.
They’re now working together to convince Massachusetts lawmakers to pass legislation that would require all of the state’s schoolchildren, from kindergarteners through 12th grade, to learn about climate change, climate justice, and environmental racism.

“I see a bit of myself in some of these high school students. There’s a real passion,” said state Sen. Julian Cyr, who represents the Cape and Islands. This fall, Cyr agreed to sponsor MCEO’s climate education bill in the Massachusetts Legislature.

Read the rest of this story at WCAI’s website.