{"id":2449692,"date":"2019-10-09T21:04:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T03:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/some-aspen-parents-are-hot-about-schools-climate-change-talk\/"},"modified":"2019-10-10T11:32:24","modified_gmt":"2019-10-10T17:32:24","slug":"some-aspen-parents-are-hot-about-schools-climate-change-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/some-aspen-parents-are-hot-about-schools-climate-change-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Aspen parents are hot about schools\u2019 climate change talk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/p>

Students gather on Paepcke Park to listen to speeches for the Global Climate Strike event in Aspen on Friday, September 20, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong>
Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

A group of parents contend Pitkin County\u2019s left-leaning political views are seeping into the halls and classrooms of the Aspen School District and their children have felt ridiculed because of their conservative beliefs and upbringing.<\/p>\n

Three parents Monday at the Aspen School District Board of Education\u2019s meeting said some teachers are espousing liberal doctrines and discussing the perils of climate change in settings that should be politically neutral. The parents also said that on multiple instances teachers have shown students climate-change videos with apocalyptic undertones.<\/p>\n

Teachers normally don\u2019t volunteer their political views in the classroom setting, but they can\u2019t avoid addressing current events and issues that oftentimes shape classroom discourse and even curriculum, interim Superintendent Tom Heald said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people felt like evolution shouldn\u2019t be taught in schools,\u201d he said, noting that discussing the AIDS epidemic in the classroom also once touched off debates at school board meetings throughout America. \u201cWe\u2019ve had some polarizing conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

While evolution is considered a settled science, that doesn\u2019t mean the debate over teaching it in public schools is.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s landmark decision in 1968 paved the way for evolution to be taught in public schools, yet today 1 in 5 American adults reject the basic idea of evolution on Earth, according to Pew Research Center.<\/a><\/p>\n

The subject of climate change is being widely discussed in Aspen schools at a time when 2 out of every 3 Americans believe immediate action should be taken to address global warming trends \u2014 which they consider is either a serious challenge or a crisis, according to a recent CBS News poll.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the topic of climate change, said the parents, that prompted them to air their grievances to the board. While the parents said their households engage in environmentally conscious practices such as recycling, they don\u2019t subscribe to what they consider to be climate change histrionics the schools have introduced to their children. The parents cited last month\u2019s Global Climate Strike march, which enticed hundreds of Aspen students to skip school<\/a> so they could march in lockstep with the international cause, as a source of their frustrations.<\/p>\n

The Aspen School District was not associated with the Sept. 20 event. The school district said 321 high school students and 80 middle school students participated in the Friday march and demonstration held in downtown Aspen. Students not attending class that day so they could march were given an unexcused absence if their parents did not contact school officials explaining their whereabouts.<\/p>\n

Despite the district\u2019s detachment from the event, during the days and weeks leading to the march, students made banners for the demonstration and also participated in a group photo shoot depicting them all in the shape of a snowflake. Some students who didn\u2019t participate were bullied, one parent said, while others were made to feel uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust last week the mother of a high schooler told me her son had rocks thrown at him and was called a fascist for not participating in the walkout,\u201d the parent said. \u201cMy (child) came to me in tears the night before the climate event because (the child) didn\u2019t know how to feel or what to do because the school had made the picture sound so \u2018fun.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Heald, as well as middle school interim Principal Elizabeth Meador and high school Principal Tharyn Mulberry, said not until Monday\u2019s board meeting were they aware of any teasing, harassing or bullying of students because of their lack of participation in the climate action march.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t had any direct reports of that,\u201d Meador said Wednesday. \u201cThat was the first I\u2019d heard of it (at Monday\u2019s meeting), and we always encourage kids to come to us if they are feeling unsafe or threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meador, however, noted she detected \u201cheightened drama around the walkout and the march. That may have created a since of urgency among the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

No middle school teachers participated in the march, said Meador, and Mulberry said he was not aware of any high school teachers in the march. The parents, however, said some Aspen teachers were marching and leading political chants.<\/p>\n

Aspen schools have an environmental history dating back to 1967 when the district launched Outdoor Education and Experimental Education for eighth-graders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a school that is very environmentally conscious,\u201d Mulberry said. \u201cWe have composting in the cafeteria, we are avid recyclers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heald said open-minded discussions about climate change should be happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy observation of seeing teachers over the years in this district is most people have a Socratic dialogue approach to various differences in opinions, and they\u2019re good at crafting those kind of conversations \u2014 whether you can disagree and agree to disagree,\u201d he said, noting he believed the march and demonstration fit in with the Aspen community\u2019s overall philosophy toward climate action.<\/p>\n

The ongoing climate change discussion at Aspen schools is one of many ways students are learning about the environment, said Travis Moore, a high school science teacher and Aspen native.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk about leaving no trace behind and being responsible and being respectful,\u201d he said. \u201cOur hope is to protect these lands so our kids and their kids and grandkids can enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore said he and other instructors worked at school the day the march was held. Some teachers, in the days leading to and of the march, showed students the National Geographic film \u201cExplorer: Bill Nye\u2019s Global Meltdown,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the film, outspoken scientist Guy McPherson claims the world will end by 2030 because of a warming climate. Moore said McPherson\u2019s apocalyptic statement was presented as his opinion and not as fact; students discussed the film afterward.<\/p>\n

The parents said the schools\u2019 championing environmental stewardship is one thing, but the doomsday prognostication created a stir with their children, who were upset and distraught.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anybody here can or will say the Earth is going to end in 12 years,\u201d one parent said. \u201cSo why in the hell are we telling these kids that, and basically giving them no reason to live? Why did we have a College Fair last weekend? If that\u2019s the case, there\u2019s no reason to go. We shouldn\u2019t even be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meador said the parents have a point when it comes to making the climate change discussions more open-ended as opposed to having a viewpoint that can be dominated by rhetoric.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy advice to our community is to figure out how to have a dialogue and how do we teach our kids to dialogue and disagree respectfully,\u201d she said. \u201cI thought for the most part the parents at the board meeting were asking for that, and I respect that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The parents \u2014 whose names The Aspen Times is not identifying because they said their children have been distraught and in some cases bullied because of their differing opinions \u2014 said the climate change viewpoints have been extreme and don\u2019t belong in a school setting when a counterpoint is not offered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat drives this agenda?\u201d one parent asked. \u201cWhat is the true agenda? Is the agenda really climate change? I\u2019d say no. The agenda is against capitalism. Climate change is a way to get there, to fight capitalism and get to the socialist narrative. Why are the teachers driving this? What is their agenda?\u201d<\/p>\n

Another parent accused the school of engaging in hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re telling them the world is going to end in 12 years, but they\u2019re teaching on iPads, which are made out of fossil fuels. My (child) doesn\u2019t bring home any books. He doesn\u2019t use a book but in one class. Everything that we use is made of fossil fuels.\u201d<\/p>\n

rcarroll@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students gather on Paepcke Park to listen to speeches for the Global Climate Strike event in Aspen on Friday, September 20, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times A group of parents contend Pitkin County\u2019s left-leaning political views are seeping into the halls and classrooms of the Aspen School District and their children have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2449692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-28 01:27:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2449692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2449717,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449692\/revisions\/2449717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2449692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2449692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2449692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}