Maya McFadden Photo
Don’t go breaking their hearts.
A group of students celebrated Valentine’s Day early by demanding that New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) spread the love and hire three coordinators to oversee the district’s climate change-combatting efforts.
Eight student members of the New Haven Climate Movement spoke up at the latest Board of Education meeting about the heartbreak of attending a school district that has promised to take climate change action through its Climate Emergency Resolution, passed over two years ago, but has not yet followed through on that promise.
The students gathered at last Monday’s Board of Education meeting at John C. Daniels with large heart-shaped banners that were each signed by students from eight different high schools.
The students signed their names to push for the district to meet one of the resolution’s many promises, which is to hire climate staff. In just a week, the student activists collected dozens of signatures and testimonials from their classmates in response to the prompt, “What climate impact breaks your hearts?”
The heart-shaped banners presented a larger message to the school board members: “Don’t break hearts again. Hire climate staff.”
“Isn’t it tragic that we’ve been able to fill eight entire banners worth of anxiety and heartbreak about our futures simply by walking through hallways, cafeterias, and classrooms with a sharpie?” Wilbur Cross junior Manxi Han said.
The climate staff students referred to throughout their testimony last Monday include an energy coordinator to develop district proposals, seek funding, and support sustainable energy project implementation; a climate education coordinator to incorporate climate and public health into K‑12 curriculums across all subjects, manage funds to arrange staff trainings, and expand the current Climate Justice Schools program; and a transportation and sustainability coordinator to support climate and public health initiatives like healthy transportation options, better food choices and a food donation program, and waste reduction initiatives like recycling and composting.
“What shatters my heart is that New Haven, a coastal community struggling with high poverty rates, underfunding from the state, and underfunded resources, will only struggle more as climate change tightens its grip on our community,” Han said.
Han concluded that while a quarter of NHPS families already struggle to put food on their tables, those numbers will go up as food prices increase due to the weather disasters.
“Without decisive action, the students you serve will suffer immeasurable heartbreak. All we ask you to do is to fund and hire three climate staff to help our school district contribute its part in the fight against climate change,” she said.
Bahati Mulungula: “New Haven students deserve better."
Career High School senior Bahati Mulungula also spoke up last Monday about the heartbreak of seeing the city she grew up in change before her eyes despite the opportunities leaders have to save it.
“Right now my heart is breaking for New Haven. I see the place that shaped me — the Green where I run to catch the bus, East Rock park where family gather, and a school district that gives so many young people hope for their future. But I also see something else. I see the flood waters rising at City Point, I see Fair Haven where polluted air makes it harder for kids to breathe, I see Newhallville where a lack of tree cover turn summer heat waves into something dangerous. These threats are not just coming, they’re already here,” Mulungula said.
She said that heat waves will only get longer and deadlier and that worse air quality will only make asthma more common.
She and her fellow students demanded urgent action for climate change. “Love alone is not enough, promises alone are not enough. New Haven students deserve better. They deserve action and the start could be by hiring three climate staff members,” she concluded.
Click here to watch additional student testimonies at last week’s Board of Education meeting.
