John Burroughs students learn about climate change from Al Gore documentary
About 30 students from John Burroughs High School remained after school on Thursday to learn about what they could do to help save the planet.
The film club at Burroughs High hosted a screening of “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power,” the sequel to former Vice President Al Gore’s first documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” in the school’s auditorium.
Principal Deborah Madrigal said about 13 classes initially attended the screening, which began toward the end of the school day, but many students left when the school day came to an end.
However, she was impressed to see so many students choose to stay and finish watching the film, as well as watch a live-stream question-and-answer session with Gore afterward.
Madrigal said it’s important to start exposing high school students to national topics such as climate change to encourage them to talk about and find solutions to those issues.
“Part of high school is about learning to become adults and to have these kinds of conversations where things can be discussed instead of having arguments,” Madrigal said. “The issues brought up in this movie and the different things that the students are talking about help to teach them the process of change and the process of discovering other people’s ideas.”
Savannah Spatafora, a senior at Burroughs High as well as founder and president of the film club, said she got the idea to host a screening at the school from her counselor, whose husband works for Participant Media, the company that produced Gore’s documentaries.
Spatafora said the nationwide screening and live question-and-answer session with Gore predominantly involved college campuses throughout the country, but she said John Burroughs was just one of a handful of high schools in the nation that participated.
“Our generation, kids younger than us and those in college are the most important people to realize that this is important,” Spatafora said. “The film says that we have to make the world better for our children, but we are the children, so this is our world. It’s so important for us to be passionate about things.”
Sophomore Jaden Gerard said she wished more students had attended and stayed for the documentary because she thinks it was something everyone could have benefited from.
Jaden said she didn’t see Gore’s first documentary, which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, but she still was moved by the message the former vice president was making about climate change.
“I really liked how they told the story of not just why it’s so important, but how some people, like politicians, are making a difference,” Jaden said. “We need to slowly but surely ensure the safety of our world.”
anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com
Twitter: @acocarpio
