FVHS students gather at the offices of Dana Rohrabacher with the support of 314 Action. Photo provided by Vian Nguyen.by Kaitlyn Ngo, Staff Writer
A group of Fountain Valley High School [FVHS] students delivered two textbooks on climate change to the office of California Representative Dana Rohrabacher only to be turned away.
The group of students collaborated with an organization called 314 Action, a nonprofit dedicated to getting STEM-trained candidates to office, to help enact their protest. Student Serena Chau (‘17) contacted 314 Action to help coordinate the protest and the textbooks were donated by the publishers.
The young constituents had hoped that their efforts would bring pressure to influence and educate Rohrabacher about climate change.
“[We wanted] to illustrate that we care about the reality of climate change. After all we are some of his youngest constituents and we’d appreciate it if he took our views into consideration too,” said Vian Nguyen (‘17), one of organizers of the protest.
Rep. Rohrabacher, a member of the House Science Committee, has questioned the science behind climate change in the past. With the textbooks and a petition of 12,000 signatures, the group of students hoped that they would get the opportunity to speak and discuss their stance on climate change with Rohrabacher.
However, the students were faced with silence after leaving a message. Miles Anderson, an undergraduate student from Orange Coast College, was allowed entry alone eventually.
The protest was a demonstration by the students to express their opinions and to fight for their stance on climate change. In doing so, they hoped to influence others to stand up for their beliefs and to fight for them.
“We wanted to share with our peers that our voices truly have an impact on our community and that it is important to stand up for issues you care about,” said Nguyen.
With the growing amount of lawmakers’ position against climate change, the students felt it was important to be active and to do something to make a change.
Nguyen reiterated how important it is for young people to get involved with activism to influence and drive change.
“We wanted to share with our peers that our voices truly have an impact on our community and that it is important to stand up for issues you care about. Our voices do matter! If they didn’t, Rohrabacher’s office wouldn’t have contacted us to set up a meeting with him to further discuss our views,” said Nguyen.
