Newsletter Archive

STF Events: 2021-2022

HRW’s LA Film Club is In-Person!

The Human Rights Watch Film Club invites you to an in-person screening and discussion of: Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America.

The screening will be held at New Roads School (map) on Sunday, June 26, 2022. Doors open at 4pm. The film will be followed by a Q&A and reception with food. Student and educator tickets are $10. Not in town? Limited virtual tickets are available. Contact us with questions!

In Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America, Jeffery Robinson’s groundbreaking Town Hall on the history of U.S. anti-Black racism is interwoven with historical and present-day archival footage, Robinson’s personal story, and interview footage capturing meetings with Black change-makers and eyewitnesses of history. From a hanging tree in Charleston, South Carolina, to a walking tour of the origins of slavery in colonial New York, to the site of a 1947 lynching in rural Alabama, the film brings history to life, exploring the enduring legacy of white supremacy and our collective responsibility to overcome it.

STF volunteers are needed to support the event! Let us know if you’re available to help.

About the Film Club: Through regularly-scheduled screenings and discussions, the Human Rights Watch Film Club in Los Angeles creates a forum to advance awareness of human rights issues and empower audiences with the knowledge that personal commitment can make a difference.

Email stf@hrw.org if you can volunteer!
Reserve your tickets: hrw.org/LAFilmClub | STF Admission – $10

Standing Strong for Climate Action

To end the academic year strong, several STF chapters hosted events throughout May. They demonstrated their firm commitment to the Human Rights and the Climate Crisis Campaign by continuing efforts for climate action and education within their communities.

Save the Date! Saturday, May 21, STF’s Year-End Celebration

Please join us at the beach for STF’s 2021-2022 Year-End Celebration on Saturday, May 21! We will have a short program reflecting on the year’s accomplishments and a chance to get to know members from across STF. Lunch and tents will be provided. Bring a beach chair or blanket!

RSVP by May 14 to let us know if you can attend!

Who: STF members, teachers and stakeholders
What: 2021-2022 Student Task Force Year-End Celebration at the beach!
When: Saturday, May 21, 11am to 1pm
Where: 2400 Ocean Front Walk, Santa Monica, CA 90405 (map)

We look forward to seeing you there!

Earth Day The STF Way

Students across STF campuses participated in events to acknowledge Earth Day. From educational activities on environmental justice and renewable energy to die-ins and climate games, STFers raised their voices for the planet and challenged their peers to do the same.

Scroll to see a sampling of STF’s Earth Day events!

We Mourn the Loss of a Witness to the Holocaust

March 31, 2022: STF mourns the loss of William (“Bill”) Harvey, who generously shared with students his heartrending story of surviving the Holocaust, including two of the infamous Nazi concentration camps, Auschwitz and Buchenwald. In 2020, right before Covid closed our schools, Bill spoke at the STF Winter Workshop. How fortunate we all were to meet and learn from his testimony.

Afterwards, STF student leader Iris Erwin wrote on behalf of STF:

“Dear Bill, Your life story and wisdom has impacted and inspired us as future activists and change-makers. What really stuck with us was how you said that we come into this world as we leave it — with nothing, and all we can do during our time here is make a positive impact on others. Many of us have now adopted this as a life motto. We know that we will not have a fulfilled life if we spend it just indulging ourselves, but we will fulfill our lives if we spend our time helping others and making our world a more just and equal place. Thank you for being so truly inspiring!”

Later in a note to STF Executive Director Pam Bruns, Bill wrote, “I was very gratified to spend the evening with such wonderful teenagers. They were all extremely bright students and their involvement in human rights will surely make this world a better place to live in. And if I left even the smallest impact on their lives, then my day was made.”

Bill’s impact endures and is treasured, especially because the opportunity of meeting with witnesses to the horrors of Nazi genocide is becoming rarer with their passings each year. Annually, STF commemorates the Holocaust and the lessons to be learned, especially during April Genocide Awareness month.

Excerpts from Bill’s video testimony housed at the USC Shoah Foundation:

Born on May 20, 1924, in Berehovo, Czechoslovakia (now Ukraine), Bill was the youngest of two boys and four girls. His father, Aron, a veteran of World War I, was a winemaker, and his mother Zali was a dressmaker.

Bill grew up in a traditional Jewish family. In 1943, Berehovo was occupied by the Germans and his family was forced into the town Ghetto. The following year his father was beaten in the street by the Nazis and later died, soon after which Bill and the rest of his family were deported to Auschwitz.

In his recorded testimony he gave to the Shoah Foundation in 1995, Bill describes that moment.

“They put us into wagons and transported us to Auschwitz. It’s very difficult to describe the whole thing. It didn’t seem real that these things were possible, that this was really happening, that we were treated like animals. You had no future, and you could see it.”

After 12 days at Auschwitz, Bill was moved again, this time to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Thereafter he was forced to work on a labor crew that was cleaning a nearby oil refinery damaged by Allied bombers and digging mountain tunnels. Bill was subsequently injured and shipped back to Buchenwald in such terrible physical condition that the people unloading the cattle train used for transport presumed him to be dead.

Bill was miraculously able to survive until Buchenwald was liberated in 1945. At the time U.S troops entered the camp, he weighed just 72 pounds. He then spent a year in a German displaced person’s camp, where he learned that his siblings had survived the war but that his mother, aunt, cousin, and her children had been murdered immediately upon arrival at Auschwitz.

Bill recalled encountering his neighbors from Berehovo soon after his liberation from Buchenwald.

“Our neighbors, who practically used to live in my mother’s house—her door was always open to help anybody, she was that type of person—those same people told us that it was too bad that Hitler left a few of us behind to hate,” Bill recalled.

“I was astonished. I didn’t know how to answer. I thought that when we come out of the camp and we’re going to walk on the street, everybody will bow to us, that they wouldn’t believe a human being could survive such a suffering what I endured, what I witnessed, what I had seen. So, to me, it was unbelievable that people still had that much hatred and that much discrimination.”

In 1946 Bill immigrated to the U.S. and settled and worked in New York City before moving to Los Angeles in 1950, where he soon earned his California cosmetology license. He subsequently opened a pair of well-known beauty shops.

Bill Harvey dedicated his life to countering the hatred and discrimination he endured during and after the Holocaust by sharing his story widely with schools, museums, and even a California state prison.

He is survived by his two daughters, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. May his memory be a blessing.”

Thank you, Bill, we will not forget you or your story and inspiration.

Crisis in a Tent!

Wednesday, March 23: Palisades Charter High School STF hosted their all-day climate education tent event in the center quad. Seven classes with students from all four grade levels visited the tents. They learned general climate crisis facts and filled out a survey to share if they’ve learned about climate change in school. They explored four types of renewable energy and heard more about STF’s goal to transition Pali to solar-powered energy. In the environmental justice tent students discovered injustices globally and in Los Angeles. Those who contribute the least to climate change suffer the most! Exhibit visitors also explored stories of the millions of climate migrants who have been forced to abandon their homes due to extreme weather and severe droughts.

Discovering how close they live to active oil drilling, one ninth grade student remarked, “I can’t believe I live right next to five oil wells, and I had never even heard about this before!” Another student described evacuating during the 2019 fire in the Palisades. Comparing her experience with climate migrants, she said, “We had to leave in the middle of the night. I threw an entire dresser drawer in my bag and realized later I didn’t have anything I needed.” Climate-induced heat waves and drought will only make stories like hers more common. STF member Maddy said, “It was so gratifying when students would ask us questions because it showed that they really cared about these issues and that we were getting through to them!”

STF’s tent event paves the way for Climate Summit Day on Earth Day, Friday, April 22. Pali’s first ever Climate Summit Day will feature a special class schedule so that every teacher can offer a lesson related to climate change. Students will participate in lunchtime activities including tables about sustainable household products, the dangers of fast fashion, how and why to eat less meat (welcome, Rainforest Menu!), and more. LAUSD Board District 4 Representative Nick Melvoin will attend Pali’s Climate Summit Day to learn about student initiatives and to speak about his support of Pali’s advocacy to transition to 100% renewable energy.

TREE Academy’s Board Stands With STF

[Editors Note: This report was submitted by Adelaide Jarnot, a freshman at TREE Academy and a student leader in TREE Academy’s STF class.]

February 11, 2022: Students from the Human Rights Watch Student Task Force (STF) class at TREE Academy for the Creative Arts, New Technology & Social Justice met with their Board of Directors to ask for their support to switch TREE’s campus to renewable energy. Along with giving the Board their petition signed by 85% of students and teachers, STFers presented a proposal asking for financial support to invest in solar panels and purchase renewable energy from the Southern California Edison Clean Power Alliance to transition the school campus to 100% renewable energy.

The presentation was a resounding success! The Board was intrigued by the discussion and plans to move forward with implementing the proposal.

STF’s class participants are proud of their fantastic first step in reducing their campus’ carbon footprint and leading by example to motivate both their fellow students and the Board of Directors to make more environmentally-friendly choices on- and off-campus now and in the future.

STF Meets LAUSD Board Rep. Nick Melvoin

[Editors Note: This report was submitted by Amanda Shane, a junior at Palisades Charter HS, co-secretary for Pali’s STF chapter, and a West Coast Region Coordinator for the Green Schools Campaign.]

February 11, 2022: Human Rights Watch Student Task Force (STF) members at Palisades Charter High School met last week with Nick Melvoin, who represents LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) Board District # 4. Their meeting was a result of Pali’s clean energy resolution — the first-ever student-led resolution presented to the Pali Board of Trustees, which was unanimously passed last May, and commits the school to 100% renewable energy within the next 10 years. Palisades students are now looking for Nick Melvoin’s support to push their renewable energy resolution forward in LAUSD, the nation’s second largest school district.

At the meet-and-greet, Melvoin received a warm welcome from STF members, who presented him with an STF shirt with the slogan “Oceans are Rising, So Are We.” After a quick introduction, Melvoin expressed his enthusiasm for renewable energy efforts “driven by real student leaders” who understand the urgency of the climate crisis “in a way that many adults don’t.”

Going on to address the school’s air conditioning initiative, Melvoin explained that, “When Pali was first built (1961), there wasn’t a need for air conditioning, you just opened the windows and doors, but with global warming, temperatures are rising.” Adding air conditioning systems throughout the school will raise Pali’s energy consumption and STF leaders emphasized that this will also increase the importance of transitioning to solar. STF co-president Peter Garff pointed out, “Within the last year there have been 19 blackouts or brownouts in local neighborhoods,” highlighting the fact that the area is already running on unreliable power, and cannot handle increased energy usage.

Fortunately, solar energy production at Pali could help mediate this situation. The school could potentially produce a surplus of solar energy to be returned to the LADWP energy grid. Solar power at Pali would not only provide for all of Pali’s electrical energy needs and create surplus clean and reliable energy, but Pali could also set an example for the surrounding community of what fighting climate change looks like. To make this possible, leaders of Pali’s HRW Student Task Force are counting on support from Board District Nick Melvoin to continue pushing for climate action in LAUSD.

The Road To “Yes” Is Paved With “No”

January 29, 2022: “Don’t be afraid of rejection. Every conversation you have is a little step in the right direction, and those inches become feet and the feet become miles,” said Anisa Nanavati, a 17-year-old climate advocate from Tampa, Florida, to participants at the 2022 STF Winter Leadership Workshop on Saturday, January 29. Anisa shared her experiences as a climate advocate and encouraged students not to give up on their efforts to transition their schools to 100% renewable energy.

STF teacher advisors echoed this call to action, reminding students that they are the change our world needs. “It’s so important to educate the next generation of leaders to push for change. Education is what builds the courage to say what you know and fight for what you believe,” explained Angelica Pereyra, STF Advisor from Palisades Charter High School.

As we continue our push for 100% renewable energy, STFers set goals for what success will look like on their campuses and discussed how to use student and teacher surveys to further their efforts. By advocating for climate education in and outside the classroom, we know that our campaign will end with school communities ready to be the change our world needs to continue fighting climate change!

Let’s keep pushing for “yes”!

Action: Louder Than Words

As we kickoff the final push of our current Human Rights and the Climate Crisis campaign tomorrow at the STF Winter Leadership Workshop, we will reflect on our efforts to transition our schools to 100% renewable energy. STFers have demonstrated time and again that action speaks louder than words!

Here is a sampling of STF chapters’ accomplishments so far:

Learn about “The New Corporation”

We are excited to kick off the year with an HRW Film Club screening of The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel streaming virtually from January 21-23 in partnership with SIMA.

STF students and teachers are eligible for comp tickets to the virtual event. RSVP to receive the film link and access to the live panel discussion and Q&A on January 23 at 4pm PT.

About the film: From Joel Bakan and Jennifer Abbott, filmmakers of the multi-award-winning global hit, The Corporation, comes this hard-hitting and timely sequel. The New Corporation reveals how the corporate takeover of society is being justified by the sly rebranding of corporations as socially conscious entities. From gatherings of corporate elites in Davos, to climate change and spiraling inequality; the rise of ultra-right leaders, to Covid-19 and racial injustice, the film looks at corporations’ devastating power. In the face of inequality, climate change, and the hollowing out of democracy The New Corporation is a cry for social justice, democracy, and transformative solutions.

Two Student Voices

December 2021, HRW STF Weekly Update:

Victoria Valdez, STF leader at Hamilton HS, and Angel Macario-Flores, STF leader at Palisades Charter HS attended meetings this fall as the only student representatives on the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Clean Energy Task Force. The task force was created to honor LAUSD’s commitment to transition to 100% renewable energy by 2040.

They share about their experience:

What have you learned by participating in this Task Force?

Victoria: The most interesting thing I have learned is the process of getting plans approved. I assumed that because people have important roles, their projects would automatically be easy to start. But actually, many of the Task Force members have spent months and even years on their causes and have to redevelop much of their work to overcome obstacles.

What surprised you most about being on this Task Force?

Angel: I was surprised by how carefully and cautiously people offered their comments and questions. It also surprised me how complicated and technical the material is. Everything from environmental health and safety to climate change curriculum to electric school buses. But each meeting I’ve grown in understanding.

What is it like to be one of only two student representatives on such an important school district Task Force?

Victoria: It’s very liberating to be a part of a community that eliminates the preconception that ‘because we are young, we are incapable’. It’s a great honor to feel welcomed and to be able to express, not only my concerns, but the valid concerns of countless other young individuals as well.

Angel and Victoria: Please send us your questions about clean renewable energy at your school. We promise to ask your questions and share the responses we receive!

STF Honors Human Rights Day

Friday, December 10, 2021 was the 73rd anniversary of the United Nations’ adoption of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights (UDHR), a document that proclaims the rights of every human being, regardless of race, gender, age, nationality, religion, political opinion, birth place, or any other status.

STFers celebrated this milestone and raised awareness about human rights on their campuses with events including all-school presentations, chalk art, information tables, paper chain displays, and more!

Scroll to see some of the events:

Our Shared Humanity

December 10, 2021, by Tirana Hassan, HRW’s Deputy Executive Director and Chief Programs Officer:

Human Rights Day – the anniversary of the 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – is a day to celebrate our shared humanity. We have the chance to reflect areas where we can make rights a reality as we emerge from another period of turmoil.

The climate crisis is taking a mounting toll on the lives, health, and livelihoods of people around the globe. And, as we’ve seen this past year with devastating floods in Germany and the United States and deadly heat waves in Canada and Pakistan, governments are failing to protect at-risk populations from the foreseeable harm of climate change. Their recent pledges of more ambitious action to reducing greenhouse gas emissions still fall well short of what’s needed to avert the most catastrophic outcomes of global warming.

Governments need to recognize and learn from the extensive know-how of local communities and civil society groups to address the impacts of climate change with equity. And, above all, they need to heed the calls of climate activists to drastically ramp up efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions before it’s too late.

Human Rights Day 2021 isn’t a day to lament the losses or fear what may come – it is a call to action. It is a reminder that the hard-won fights of the past need to be protected and advanced and that human rights for all requires action from governments and international bodies. But it also highlights that protecting our human rights is driven by human rights activists and defenders in every corner of the globe.

Read Tirana’s 5 Lessons Learned online.

Heartbreak into Action

To the thousands of STF students and teachers who met and worked with Katie-Jay Scott and Gabriel Stauring,

Last Tuesday evening a local car crash took the lives of our friends Katie-Jay and Gabriel. The devastating news brings not only heartbreak, but also a flood of memories of their actions to spread peace and love. Many of us were blessed to work with these two wonderous humanitarians since 2005. Over the following years, thousands of us followed them via satellite phone transmissions on trips to the Darfuri refugee camps in eastern Chad, and they continually found new ways to introduce us to survivors they befriended in the camps, putting faces and hearts to a distant crisis. We learned from Katie-Jay and Gabriel how to broaden awareness by building Camp Darfurs, and Children’s Rights Camps in our schools, and they worked with us to assemble mobile human rights libraries that traveled in the refugee camps. STFers were inspired to meet with policy makers to press for support for the refugees and ending the genocide. We were all emboldened by Katie-Jay and Gabriel’s call for “Humanity Over Politics.” Once they touched our lives, that can not be taken away.

From the Stauring family comes this message:

“The impact they made in people’s lives is immeasurable. They were exceptional parents, family members, and friends. They were the personification of the word “humanitarian” empowering people around the world — especially refugee communities affected by genocide. The essence of their mission was to create hope through various programs for these communities that ranged from soccer camps to educational programs with the goal to empower the communities they served. Gabriel and Katie-Jay were not bystanders to the injustices around the globe; they initiated change through action.

“The Stauring Family is grateful for the overwhelming expressions of love and support. Your messages are of comfort to our families during these difficult times. Let us all continue living in a community of mutual care in honor of Katie-Jay and Gabriel’s lives. Always in our hearts and minds, their memory will keep us strong.”

May all of us who are grieving, find the strength to turn heartbreak into action,

Pam Bruns, on behalf of the HRW Student Task Force

To learn more about iAct and to help go to: https://www.iact.ngo/

Sky’s the Limit

Dear STF Leaders and Teacher Advisors,

Check out this drone footage of Palisades Charter HS STFers collaborating with 5 classes to form a “100” to represent 100% renewable energy for Pali.

This demonstration was their November 5 advocacy event. Pali STF leaders are using this video to raise awareness at school, in the community and in their advocacy with school decision-makers.

We invite each chapter to share their creative activism to fight climate change!

Ever onward!
Pam, Kristin, Jordan, Brennie and Joel

Allies in Action: Part 2

Dear STFers,

Thank you for demonstrating your commitment to human rights and fighting climate change by campaigning to transition your schools to 100% renewable energy. Your chalking and lights out events, petitions, presentations, photos and paper chains made the climate crisis something your schools and district decision-makers can no longer ignore!

Check out photos from Monday-Thursday and scroll to see Friday’s events!

In Solidarity,
Pam, Kristin, Jordan, Brennie and Joel

Allies in Action

November 1-5: Throughout the week, students across Southern California echoed the efforts of global leaders at COP26, asking their schools and districts to make commitments that will change the future of this planet. Raising awareness about the need for their schools to transition to 100% renewable energy, STFers made their voices heard through “lights out” initiatives for energy efficiency, letters to decision-makers, class presentations, writing climate messages in chalk and more.

Scroll to learn about some of these efforts:

Together We Rise!

Across campuses, STFers are wearing their “Oceans Are Rising” t-shirts as part of their advocacy to transition their schools to 100% renewable energy.

Submit your selfie or group shot in solidarity today!

Demanding Climate Action

September 24, 2021: Young people around the world took to the streets to demand urgent action to avert disastrous climate change. STF members demonstrated on their campuses, hosted interactive tent events, collected signatures on their petitions to transition their schools to 100% renewable energy, wrote climate facts in chalk around campus and organized “green outs” with classmates.

Scroll to see photos of some STF events:

We Have a Voice, Let’s Use It!

Watch and Share Video with Your Networks!

STF chapters are participating in Fridays For Future’s Global Climate Strike this Friday, September 24. Get motivated by watching STF demonstration and education efforts in our NEW video!

Check out these actions STF chapters are organizing for Friday:

• Culver City HS: Participants will visit an interactive climate tent at lunch to make climate change pledges, sign their campus’ petition, and learn about efforts to convert their campus to 100% renewable energy.
• Da Vinci Schools: Teachers will show a PowerPoint to all classes that include climate crisis fast facts and actions students can take to limit their environmental impact.
• Hamilton HS: Chapter members will wear green for a “green out”, share climate change information, and get petition signatures at lunch.
• Palisades Charter HS: STFers are organizing a multi-day event leading up to Friday, including climate phrases written in chalk on sidewalks (see below), inviting students and staff to sign their campus’ petition, and asking teachers to participate in a “lights out” day by turning off their classroom lights.

Need more inspiration? Check out advocacy/demonstration ideas developed at STF’s Fall Leadership Workshop. Remember, human rights advocacy starts with the person next to you.

Don’t forget to register your event to show solidarity with Fridays For Future’s Global Climate Strike!

Oceans Are Rising, So Are We

September 11, 2021: STF leaders, teachers and guests renewed their Human Rights and the Climate Crisis Campaign at the 2021 Fall Leadership Workshop. “We join together every year to learn how to be the best human rights advocates possible,” said Madelyn Rahimi, “and this year our campaign is global and personal.”

“Our future is hotter summers, colder winters, drier droughts, more severe storms and floods and rising temperatures and sea levels,” explained Alisa Zhang, “but we can stand tall in front of climate change, and together drive it out of our beautiful home, planet Earth.”

Participants shared how to have conversations with family and friends about the climate crisis, including a role-play with a climate denier. Then the workshop went global and heard from a fellow youth climate activist from Uganda, Hilda Flavia Nakabuye.

“Our campaign advocates for environmental justice because this climate crisis disproportionately impacts low-income and communities of color, not just in the United States, but even more in underdeveloped countries around the world,” said STF leader Angel Macario-Flores, underscoring the global impact of the work we do to fight climate change.

The workshop celebrated progress STF students have made since launching this campaign last spring. Advocating for 100% renewable energy at our schools is not just personal but has a global impact. In breakout sessions, attendees brainstormed future education and demonstration opportunities, and identified how we can make our voices heard this fall.

Next step includes STF support for the Fridays For Future Global Climate Strike by organizing events for Friday, September 24.

Register your event and take action to stop climate change.

We have the power to make change, and no effort is too small!

In solidarity,

The STF Team, Pam, Kristin, Nancy, Jordan, Brennie and Joey

Save the Date: Saturday, September 11

You are invited to join us at the 2021 Virtual STF Fall Leadership Workshop. Be a leader. Fight Climate Change.

RSVP today to receive the link to participate in the workshop!

Important Information:
Who: STF students, teachers, alumni and special guests
When: Saturday, September 11, 11:00am-1:00pm PT
Where: Virtually on Zoom

Mark your calendars and RSVP today!

The planet needs you,
STF Team: Pam, Kristin, Nancy, Jordan, and Brennie

STF Goes Into Space

[Editors Note: This report was submitted by Alisa Zhang, STF leader at Los Osos HS, following her participation in the ASP2021 Symposium.]

July 23, 2021: Last Friday STF leaders Victoria Valdez and Alisa Zhang presented their Green Schools Campaign to the Astronomical Society of the Pacific at the ASP2021 Summer Symposium. The two-day international event focused on the connection of astronomy and climate change through various panel discussions. At the session titled “Advocating for Adopting Sustainability at Your Institution”, Victoria and Alisa were the only high school panelists.

The session started with presentations by scientists who spoke about the work they did at their own institutes–University of California, Riverside, and the Space Telescope Science Institute, respectively. Victoria and Alisa followed with a discussion of the progress made at their own high schools advocating for 100% renewable energy. Victoria relayed the difficulties of pushing through administrative barriers at her school and with the Los Angeles Unified School District, while Alisa gave four best practice tips to others wishing to transition their own institutes with examples from advocacy at her school district, Chaffey Joint Union High School District (CJUHSD). The student activists’ stories were well-received, and enthusiastic questions for them arose during the Q&A period. The audience even expressed the wish to involve their own youth relatives in climate activism and begin green energy transition movements at their local high schools.

This wonderful opportunity to talk to scientists worldwide is a great testimony to the hard work that all members and supporters of the STF put into the Green Schools Campaign this past year. As one scientist stated after the session, “Youth’s concern for the climate, and their tangible actions as a result, give hope to the scientific community.” Indeed, the STF serves to bring hope to the entire world in engaging and supporting passionate youths toward taking responsibility for their own futures.

By Alisa Zhang, STF Los Osos HS