by YUJIE ZHOU NOVEMBER 21, 2024 (MissionLocal.org)
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The California Academy of Sciences abruptly dissolved a youth group for climate change and moved to fire its staff coordinator earlier this year after several teenage members distributed flyers in solidarity with the museum workers’ union.
The museum created Youth Action for the Planet in October 2023 as “an environmental action hub” for young people who care about the natural world to sharpen leadership and advocacy skills.
The pilot program enrolled 14 volunteers between ages 13 and 18 who were interested in “youth climate activism,” said Vivienne Yu, 18, a volunteer who is now a society and environment major at the University of California, Berkeley.
The teenagers were matched with the Cal Academy staff coordinator Aleks Liou, who holds a Ph.D in youth activism and intergenerational solidarity. Liou was let go in September but continues to be paid while the museum and its union negotiate the issue.
Between the group’s October 2023 establishment and June 25 of this year, its members stayed busy: They attended the Bay Area Youth Climate Summit, held a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day panel with around 60 teen climate activists, launched an Earth Day pop-up, worked on a Youth Action for the Planet logo, and generally set the direction of the fledgling program.
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Liou, who was featured in the museum’s June staff spotlight, got a $249,986 grant in August from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services to keep the program going. The grant went to the museum.
But on June 25, a trio of Youth Action for the Planet members distributed fliers supporting Cal Academy employees, who voted to unionize in July 2023 but are still without a contract. The three youth group members handed out the flyers, which they designed themselves, to visitors, and also left some on museum benches to spotlight wage disparities within Cal Academy, according to a 17-year-old San Francisco high school student and one of the three members.
Specifically, the fliers pointed to the salary of the museum’s executive director, Scott Sampson, who took home $632,626 in the 2023 fiscal year.
The teenagers tell Mission Local that showing solidarity with the union was their own idea, and Liou did not sanction or encourage it.
Backlash, the teens say, came swiftly. After 9 p.m. on the same day, all 14 youth members received a call or voicemail from a Cal Academy administrator, asking them not to come to the building for the rest of the week. Liou recalled that the next day, “basically, I was told I shouldn’t do anything related to my job.”
The four youths Mission Local talked to said they never returned to the building. And the youth group never officially met again. Academy management formally dissolved the Youth Action for the Planet program in late October. Liou, who obtained the nearly quarter-million-dollar federal grant in August, was let go in September, and is still negotiating a severance package through the Cal Academy Workers United union.
The Cal Academy, which has been in a financial crisis, attempted to “restore” the $249,986 grant money that Liou won to the federal institution, according to an Oct. 21 bargaining update written by the Cal Academy Workers United. The museum now plans to use the money on a new education program for indigenous youth, according to an Oct. 28 statement sent to Mission Local.
The California Academy of Sciences declined to comment on the reasons for firing Liou, the program manager for Youth Action for the Planet, citing “personnel matters” and a “legal obligation to maintain” confidentiality.
As for the youth program, the museum said in a statement that, after piloting the program for six months, “the Academy identified the need to rebuild it” to better “center our education programming on historically marginalized communities,” and would create an “evolved version” of the program for indigenous youth.
After publication, the museum sent a statement noting that Liou’s position is being negotiated with the union, and saying that the “evolution” of the youth program was “in no way affected by the actions of the teens described in the article.”
“The Academy has not and will not tokenize or retaliate against youth,” the statement continued.
The teens aren’t buying it. “There was no warning of any kind,” said another member who is under 18 and who expected “youth autonomy” when she joined the program. “We didn’t realize that was off-limits. We just want to learn about what it’s like to be part of a movement.”
Yu, who as a small child used to frequent the Cal Academy with her family, said she was “really disappointed” that the museum “tokenized” them. “I think a public apology would be the first thing,” she said.
Surabhi Chinta, a youth member who now majors in pre-human biology and society at the University of California, Los Angeles, said she now realizes the action of the teens didn’t exactly line up with the museum’s idea of climate activism. “For us, climate activism was going beyond just talking about the science. We wanted to talk about the social aspects as well,” said Chinta, who said the museum never formally notified her and the other young people that the program was over.
Liou’s disciplinary notice said they violated the museum’s employee policy by liking the youths’ non-museum Instagram account “@youthsaction4planet.” The notice also stated that a cartoon Liou kept at the office — depicting young people telling world leaders “You fucked up!” and world leaders responding “So inspiring!” — violated the museum’s code of conduct for profanity.
Also cited were Liou’s usage of non-museum Google accounts to talk with youth. “Having secrets with youth” violates the prohibitions, the notice stated.
It’s “very alarming” that they are using a “technicality” to terminate me, said Liou. “To me, that implies that I was the mastermind behind all of this.”
After learning that the program would be shut down, five of the youth are now launching their own organization, Youth Riot Network, to focus on climate and broader social issues.
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YUJIE ZHOU
REPORTER. Yujie Zhou came on as an intern after graduating from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She is a full-time staff reporter as part of the Report for America program that helps put young journalists in newsrooms. Before falling in love with the Mission, Yujie covered New York City, studied politics through the “street clashes” in Hong Kong, and earned a wine-tasting certificate in two days. She’s proud to be a bilingual journalist. Follow her on Twitter @Yujie_ZZ.More by Yujie Zhou
