Boulder Valley high school students are spearheading a rally at noon Sunday at the Denver Capitol to support The Green New Deal for Colorado Schools and climate-related bills that are before the state legislature this session.

The rally, organized by Colorado high school students, will include student and teacher speeches and a brief march starting at 1 p.m. The Green New Deal for Schools is a proposal of the Sunrise Movement, a national youth-led climate justice group. The proposal calls for sustainable school infrastructure — including school solar panels and electric school bus fleets — climate curriculum, pathways to green jobs and climate disaster plans.

“There are so many areas of society that need to adapt in terms of climate change,” Fairview High School senior Emma Weber said. “It makes sense to start with schools since young people are going to be most affected. Schools should be teaching about an issue that’s going to be one of the largest issues our generation faces.”

Last school year, a large group of students, including Weber, successfully petitioned the Boulder Valley school board to adopt a resolution based on the national Green New Deal for Schools proposal.

“It’s really important to us that we’re spreading what we started here to other districts in Colorado that haven’t taken as much initiative on this issue as Boulder Valley,” she said.

Owen Verner, a junior at Boulder High School, said the Marshall Fire, which started Dec. 30, 2021 and burned down more than 1,000 homes in Superior and Louisville; the recent Los Angeles fires; and other recent climate disasters have made him want to take a more active role in environmental activism.

“It just really matters to me that we don’t ruin this planet,” he said. “I really want to help.”

He said he is especially interested in encouraging support for pathways to green jobs.

“A lot of the problem is people are unaware of the devastating effects what people are doing to the planet can have,” he said. “More green jobs should lead us to a greener future.”Along with bringing attention to the Green New Deal, the students are rallying to support four bills — Senate Bill 55: Youth Involvement in Environmental Justice, House Bill 1006: School District Solar Garden Lease Term, Senate Bill 27: Trauma-Informed School Safety Practices and House Bill 1059: Food Waste Reduction in Public Schools.

One of the students helping organize the rally, Monarch High senior Ashna Shah, proposed the Youth Involvement in Environmental Justice bill as a member of the Colorado Youth Advisory Council.

“So often, the communities that need the most support are left out of the conversation,” she said, specifying that those communities include low-income communities, people of color and students. “Youth are interested, but have less power to take action on it. We wanted an avenue where young people could get involved.”

She said advocating for the environment is even more important now, given the federal level cutbacks on climate policies and funding.

“This is something that young people care about so much,” she said. “We can show the legislators that it’s important to us, and we can show the community that it’s important to us. We can hopefully inspire other people to agree with and take action on that same message.”