Students across Oregon plan to join global climate walkouts on Sept. 20

Students across Oregon will walk out of class on Sept. 20 as part of a global climate strike, this time to demand the state adopt its own Green New Deal.

The event, much like a similar effort in May that drew hundreds of youth to downtown Portland, will begin at city hall with a rally that begins at 10:30 a.m.

Around noon, students will march through the city and over the Hawthorne Bridge and onto the Eastbank Esplanade, according to an event page. A rally at OMSI is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.

The Friday rally is the first of a week of action that includes a protest for immigrant rights on Saturday, leafleting campaigns and demonstrations in the days that follow.

Cities across the state, from Medford to Eugene and Bend to Seaside, will also host a series of events starting with their own school walkouts Sept. 20. It’s unknown how school districts across the state will handle student absences.

Most of the demonstrations align with objectives set forth in a so-called Oregon Green New Deal outlined by various environmental groups from across the state earlier this year. Some of their goals and demands include requiring the state to phase out its fossil fuel infrastructure over the next 12 years and a ban on trash incinerators.

The student climate demonstrations come just as the 2020 campaign season kicks off in earnest.

In fact, climate change has been a major part of the Democratic primary contest for the presidential race. Earlier this month, CNN hosted a seven-hour town hall on the subject featuring 10 candidates, an event devised in part to satiate the demand for discussions on climate change throughout the primaries so far.

The Portland event, as was the case in May, will likely be the largest in the state. Earlier this year, hundreds of students and activists rallied in front of city hall, followed by a march through downtown that culminated in a rally in front of the Portland Public Schools district offices.

Hundreds of Portland students stage school walk-out, join international climate protests

At least 1,000 students from across the city gathered at City Hall and marched to the waterfront to protest what they say is legislative inaction on climate policy.

Youth activists lobbied the district to adopt a climate change curriculum the school board had promised in 2016.

Students later filled a board meeting to protest the lack of movement on that pledge and, weeks later, the school board approved $200,000 in the current budget to implement the curriculum.

Here are the climate walkouts scheduled for Sept. 20 in Oregon: