Germany: Leipzig school obliges children to attend climate rally

Last Friday, participation in the “Global Climate Strike” of the radical organisation “Fridays for Future” was compulsory for tenth graders at a Leipzig grammar school. Previously, students had skipped school for this, but this time everyone had to go – even those who didn’t want to.

This is because participation was declared compulsory as part of a “sustainability project day”. Morning and afternoon classes were cancelled for this purpose. But the action violates the legally prescribed neutrality requirement of schools. Political demonstrations are taboo. Beforehand, there had been a vote in the class on several local demonstrations, reports the headmaster. A majority decided in favour of the demonstration.

Als ich jung war, war ich auch links. Um zu einer Demo zu gehen, musste ich die Schule schwänzen. Heute muss man die Schule schwänzen, um NICHT zu einer linken FFF-Demo gehen zu müssen. pic.twitter.com/zxMVD3LxJ7

— Dr. Dr. Rainer Zitelmann (@RZitelmann) September 17, 2023

Leaving the climate demo early was expressly forbidden, he said. Otherwise, the teachers would have violated their duty of supervision. Four days earlier, at the parents’ meeting of the Gerda Taro School in Leipzig, some mothers and fathers were said to have protested vehemently. “It’s just like in the GDR,” complained one father. At that time, the pupils were also sent to demonstrations.

The teacher in charge had also distributed a “parents’ letter” on the evening of the climate demonstration. According to the letter, visiting information stands, listening to rallies of the Climate Alliance and “participating in the demonstration” were explicitly obligatory.

Headmaster Uwe Schmidt justified the action to “t-online”: “We are talking about tenth graders here, they don’t let themselves be taken by surprise. With fifth graders, one would have had to evaluate it differently.

https://jungefreiheit.de/politik/deutschland/2023/kinder-klima-demo/