Author: Heidi Sandoval

The Conference of the Parties Meeting (COP) 27 was held in Egypt from November 16 to 18, and as delegates discussed courses of action for climate change, youth made their own voices heard in the negotiating rooms as they emphasized the importance of youth voices. COP 27 highlighted events can be found on the UN’s and Children & Youth Pavillion’s official Youtube Channels. 

COP’s global summit meetings brings together numerous countries around the world in hopes to take monumental steps toward confronting climate change. This year’s climate agenda at COP 27 consists of finding who is paying for the consequences of climate change, issues involving loss of damage, and urging country’s governments to go through with their climate pledges prior in COP 26. 

Among the many programs that have happened so far, on November 10, a Youth and Future Generation Day was held. This gave young people the opportunity to share their stories, urge the COP 27 presidency to take action, and urge youth to be a part of their climate initiative. 

A tweet by World Youth Forum spokesperson Sarah Badr said, “Young people are the cornerstone in every nation’s developments and only through their perspectives can the transformation of each journey be achieved.” Badr puts into perspective the importance of youth voices in the fight of climate change, but also other issues that are affecting the world.

Youth will be the most affected by climate change, making them the most important allies in the fight against it. Their climate actions have become more prominent in media than ever, through local protests and projects. Climate activists here at the Poly Green Schools campaign (PGC) have put in their own efforts in the climate crisis, urging LBUSD to transition into renewable energy and for city leaders to act previously in May 2021.

Many other young activists have spoken out on climate change, and some, like 15-year-old Sophia Mathur and 14-year-old Leah Namwugera, shared speeches at COP 27.

Namwugera had first hand experience on the consequences of climate change in Uganda, and said during COP 27’s opening that, “At 14 years old, I saw landslides killing so many people because of harsh weather conditions. These images have disturbed me, and not allow me to rest until something has been done about the change in climate.”

Irregular weather patterns and temperatures have caused many people to suffer as Namwugera did. Long Beach residents have had a glimpse of what this feels like through the record-high temperatures earlier in October – a heatwave that Poly students had to endure in primarily non-air conditioned classrooms. 

Besides this heat, flooding and rising water levels may also become more common in Long Beach if climate change becomes critical, but youth here at Poly and Long Beach have the opportunity to change this.

Through local programs like the recently implemented Youth Climate Corps, students can support the Long Beach Climate Action and Adaption Plan through public service positions and projects.Those who are passionate about speaking out about climate change can get involved directly by registering on the official website of the World Youth Forum, an interactive platform opened to youth all around the world. 

As youth involvement continues to grow, it shows that our voices can be used to fight climate change, but also other causes we’re passionate about. Even when it seems pointless, youth at COP 27 reminds us that we can be the change. 

Government officials were the primary stakeholders in creating new climate policies, but now youth have been recognized as stakeholders in “implementing climate policies,” making our role more powerful than before.

The current urgency of climate change acts as a reminder that we all have to work together to mitigate the consequences of climate change.

If you have an older sibling then you’ve known since an early age that high school students typically have one or more unscheduled period(s). Sometimes your sibling might get out earlier on one day than the other; or they might go in earlier one day than the next. Students are always asking each other when they are unscheduled, but the real question is which unscheduled period is the best to have?

Poly PAC RIM freshman Emery Escobedo said “I think first because you sort of get a break every other day,” Escobedo is referring to the Green and Gold days at Poly High School. She continued on by saying it would be effortless for students to not have to maintain waking up early every day to get ready for school.

Wilson WAVE ninth grader Emily Oropeza delivered a contrary opinion. “The best period to have unscheduled is seventh or eighth period because you get to go home early”, she said.

“If you go home earlier, then you get more time to do homework,” Oropeza said, “and you’ll be able to go to bed at an earlier time.”

Hypothetically, if you’re able to go to bed at an earlier time that means waking up early should be easier for you, although you would have to do it every day. If you have your first period unscheduled, then you don’t have to wake up as early every day but you never have the chance to get out of school early. Both opinions have their pros and cons. 

Even kids who aren’t in high school yet can have an opinion on the topic. Nelson student James Solares said, “I think the best one is last period because then your day ends quicker.”

His words were similar to Oropezas’. “You have more time to do your assignments and stuff.” Geometry and algebra teacher Chay Tachaong has first and eighth periods as her conference (unscheduled) periods. This means she experiences both sides of the expressed opinions stated earlier, but she still prefers one over the other.

“I like having either 7th or 8th conference so I can help students after school,” said Tachaong. 

Out of all the students and teachers interviewed, 75% said they typically prefer having seventh or eighth period as their unscheduled period. So it’s safe to reasonably believe the last two periods are the best unscheduled periods.

Here at Polytechnic High School, many students that have attended over the past years or months have had to run to their class in seven minutes or less. Poly only gives their students about seven minutes to get to class, which seems fair until you look at the campus itself, walking up three flights of stairs, or shoving through students in hallways to get to class on time, but still end up being late? Could longer passing periods improve Poly’s tardy rates?

If students had longer passing periods, they would be able to focus better and it would all in all benefit both teacher and student.

Students, not only at Poly, but at many other schools have thoughts on their passing periods. Since passing periods are so short, it causes a frantic rush in the halls and all around campus which leads to problems, Jazlyn Dizon said, “…so we can use the bathroom during passing periods.” When you get to class and ask to use the bathroom, what do teachers always say? ¨Why didn’t you use it during passing.” The simple answer is because it is just too short. A longer passing period should be a simple fix to this problem. A longer passing period would give students more time to come into class prepared.

Another problem students have to face against time is the size of the buildings, especially in high schools. There are three story buildings, huge halls and complicated room numbers. Some classes may be on one side of the school while the next class can be on the other side. Students have to rush to class and even then, this may cause them to be tardy or late. But a simple two or maybe even three minute longer passing period can help with tardies. Aya Yasumura said, “…They [longer passing periods] allow students to take their time and not rush to class.” Now I know what you may be thinking, “who cares if they rush to class?” If you rush someone over, they’re not going to be as prepared or calmed down as they would if they got to take their time to class.

Poly student Belinda Bojorquez said, “Yes, many times I gotta use the bathroom and the lines are too long so I’m late.” When teachers say we should have used the bathroom during passing, we (students) can’t or we’ll end up late to class. A longer passing period would give students the chance to finish all their business before coming to class. Whether it’s gossiping, seeing someone, using the bathroom or anything else, it would let students get out all their extra energy. Teachers would get more focused students and would have to deal with less, “Can I go to the bathroom?”

Passing periods could be as long as nutrition is and maybe we could even switch the time between nutrition and passing periods. Giving students a chance to relax before class. Since nutrition is a chance to take a break before class, if we switched the lengths of times it would still give students time to eat, and relax but now it would give students a chance to relax after each class period.

New changes to the Poly High School tardy policy announced on November 3 reveals big changes. Students arriving to campus after 8:50 will still be welcomed onto campus and sent directly to class instead of the Solutions Center. Regardless if students arrive with or without a tardy note, teachers will be forced to allow the student to enter.

The tardy policy states the Jackrabbit Lane gate will remain open even after the school bell has rung until third or fourth period. This change has caused a major separation between teachers and staff members if this was a change for the better or the worse.  

Dulce Padilla, a 9th grade PARTS student, said, “I think it’s a good idea that they did that. I’ve known people who have been able to improve because of it so they are able to do their work instead of being sent to solutions.”

Shannon Mulvaney, an engineering teacher in the BEACH pathway, was upset over the new changes. When asked, she said, “I feel were going backwards by putting a policy in place which is totally respectable for someone who tries to prepare my students for the real world and college, their needs to be accountability for being on time and there should be consequences if not and changing that 11 to 12 weeks into school is doing our students a disservice.” She said if the new changes had impacted her students’ grades. She said, “It has, I have had kids who were not tardy before now coming in tardy, which unfortunately means that they lose the instruction at the beginning of class, often there’s work that they didn’t complete the class before that is due before the bell and now they are not getting it done and turned it so unfortunately I have a lot more kids that are doing book work versus actual projects and computer work. Yes it has impacted their grades already.” Mulvaney said, “I feel that the district made the change to try to increase students’ attendance without regards to what it would do to students’ grades and behavior and to them it might be necessary. To me as a teacher in the classroom where it’s directly affecting my class, I think it was ridiculous to make a change.”

Danielle Sawyer, a Health teacher as well as the MEDS pathway lead teacher, said, “My thoughts as a teacher are two-fold: it’s hard to get kids to follow rules if there aren’t any, and the new rule is there’s no rules you can come in whenever you want. So with that being said, when you start off a school year with certain rules and remove them, it creates some anarchy. Not a fan. But on the other hand”. Sawyer said she allowed students to enter the classroom after the bell rang even before the policy had been changed. “I always had an open door policy. So this policy didn’t affect me because I always had the same rule before the policy. But I can understand how some students can take advantage of that. I think that is the minority versus the majority.” Sawyer said, most kids would go to class before the policy and the students beforehand who weren’t going to class are taking advantage of the new policy. “Since it has gone into effect I haven’t noticed any changes.” Sawyer said the change to the tardy policy was necessary  due to there not being a law that allows for school and teachers to reject students entering a classroom. So parents told the school that they were forced to allow students to enter the classroom no matter how late they are.

According to findlaw.com keeping out a student from class is completely legal as long as the parent or guardian of the student is aware and usually the student is notified from the school or district with some type of message or slip notifying some sort of restriction against entering a class or being kept after class. The California district ED code does not directly speak of this situation so there is no sure answer for the change of the tardy policy according to the California state ED code as of now.