Student climate strike: NSW teachers promote truancy
Hardline green activists are inciting NSW schoolchildren to illegally ditch school next week, with professionally run “crowd marshal” training evenings being hosted within the NSW Teachers Federation.
NSW
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Hardline green activists are inciting NSW schoolchildren to ditch school next week and are running “crowd marshal” training sessions for teachers wanting to assist.
The NSW Teachers Federation has lent its support to the mass day of truancy planned for next Friday and is urging members to wear “green for the climate” in advance, sign petitions and “take photos pledging their support for the student action”.
Environmental groups around the world are promoting a series of rallies on September 20 while claiming children are spontaneously rising up over the issue.
But behind the scenes a number of hardcore activist groups are organising events, including the Australian Youth Climate Coalition which has raised $43,452 through crowd-funding for equipment.
And last night radical 350.org activists ran a training session at the NSW Teachers Federation conference centre in Surry Hills, giving tips to budding volunteers about crowd control.
The room was packed with more than 200 students, teachers and retirees and hosted by a Greenpeace employee.
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An earlier call to action “authorised by Lucy Manne from 350 Australia” said: “Right now, our top priority is making sure we have enough crowd marshalls on the day to keep up with this huge capacity.”
Friends of the Earth Australia also helped to promote the training session with an email invite that featured a photograph of so-called “strike organiser”, 14-year-old Sydney schoolboy Ambrose Hayes, and a message that said: “It’s going to be so much fun.”
NSW Teachers Federation president Maurie Mulheron did not respond to a request for comment on the union backing the truanting.
But previous bulletins by the union to the state’s 65,000 public teachers have urged them to sign an open letter of support for “the widest possible stoppage of work and study” and attend demos.
“Federation acknowledges that the global student climate protest movement has been generated from the determined activism of students,” one union bulletin said. “Members are encouraged to take photos pledging their support for the student action and share them on social media.”
NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said schoolchildren should not miss lessons. “Students need to be at school on school days; their education must come first,” she said.