{"id":37786,"date":"2024-11-22T12:59:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T20:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=37786"},"modified":"2024-11-22T12:59:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T20:59:00","slug":"cal-academy-cuts-youth-program-after-teens-show-solidarity-with-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/11\/22\/cal-academy-cuts-youth-program-after-teens-show-solidarity-with-union\/","title":{"rendered":"Cal Academy cuts youth program after teens show solidarity with union"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A by\u00a0YUJIE ZHOU<\/a><\/strong> NOVEMBER 21, 2024 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
The California Academy of Sciences museum. Photo by Superchilum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Mission<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sign up below to get Mission Local\u2019s free newsletter<\/strong>, a daily digest of news you won\u2019t find elsewhere.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019 union. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The museum created Youth Action for the Planet<\/a> in October 2023 as \u201can environmental action hub\u201d for young people who care about the natural world to sharpen leadership and advocacy skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pilot program enrolled 14 volunteers between ages 13 and 18 who were interested in \u201cyouth climate activism,\u201d said Vivienne Yu, 18, a volunteer who is now a society and environment major at the University of California, Berkeley. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between the group\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Liou, who was featured in the museum\u2019s June staff spotlight<\/a>, got a $249,986<\/a> grant in August from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services to keep the program going. The grant went to the museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a> but are still without a contract. The three youth group members handed out the flyers<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specifically, the fliers pointed to the salary of the museum\u2019s executive director, Scott Sampson, who took home $632,626<\/a> in the 2023 fiscal year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The teenagers tell Mission Local <\/em>that showing solidarity with the union was their own idea, and Liou did not sanction or encourage it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"MCCLA<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Aleks Liou (top left) and members of Youth Action for the Planet program. Photo by Nicole Ravicchio \u00a9 California Academy of Sciences<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Backlash, the teens say, came swiftly. After 9 p.m. on the same day, all 14 youth members <\/strong>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, \u201cbasically, I was told I shouldn\u2019t do anything related to my job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The four youths Mission Local<\/em> 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<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cal Academy, which has been in a financial crisis<\/a>, attempted to \u201crestore\u201d the $249,986 grant money that Liou won to the federal institution, according to an Oct. 21 bargaining update<\/a> 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<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The California Academy of Sciences declined to comment on the reasons for firing Liou, the program manager for Youth Action for the Planet, citing \u201cpersonnel matters\u201d and a \u201clegal obligation to maintain\u201d confidentiality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Velvet<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As for the youth program, the museum said in a statement that, after piloting the program for six months, \u201cthe Academy identified the need to rebuild it\u201d to better \u201ccenter our education programming on historically marginalized communities,\u201d and would create an \u201cevolved version\u201d of the program for indigenous youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After publication, the museum sent a statement<\/a> noting that Liou\u2019s position is being negotiated with the union, and saying that the \u201cevolution\u201d of the youth program was \u201cin no way affected by the actions of the teens described in the article.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Academy has not and will not tokenize or retaliate against youth,\u201d the statement continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The teens aren\u2019t buying it. \u201cThere was no warning of any kind,\u201d said another member who is under 18 and who expected \u201cyouth autonomy\u201d when she joined the program. \u201cWe didn\u2019t realize that was off-limits. We just want to learn about what it\u2019s like to be part of a movement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"BiriteNov23\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yu, who as a small child used to frequent the Cal Academy with her family, said she was \u201creally disappointed\u201d that the museum \u201ctokenized\u201d them. \u201cI think a public apology would be the first thing,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t exactly line up with the museum\u2019s idea of climate activism. \u201cFor us, climate activism was going beyond just talking about the science. We wanted to talk about the social aspects as well,\u201d said Chinta, who said the museum never formally notified her and the other young people that the program was over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Liou\u2019s disciplinary notice states that a cartoon Liou kept at the office \u2014 depicting young people telling world leaders \u201cYou fucked up!\u201d and world leaders responding \u201cSo inspiring!\u201d \u2014 violated the museum\u2019s code of conduct for profanity. Photo courtesy of Aleks Liou.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Liou\u2019s disciplinary notice<\/a> said they violated the museum\u2019s employee policy by liking the youths\u2019 non-museum Instagram account \u201c@youthsaction4planet.\u201d The notice also stated that a cartoon Liou kept at the office \u2014 depicting young people telling world leaders \u201cYou fucked up!\u201d and world leaders responding \u201cSo inspiring!\u201d \u2014 violated the museum\u2019s code of conduct for profanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also cited were Liou\u2019s usage of non-museum Google accounts to talk with youth. \u201cHaving secrets with youth\u201d violates the prohibitions, the notice stated<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Nacamiento\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s \u201cvery alarming\u201d that they are using a \u201ctechnicality\u201d to terminate me, said Liou. \u201cTo me, that implies that I was the mastermind behind all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After learning that the program would be shut down, five of the youth are now launching their own organization, Youth Riot Network<\/a>, to focus on climate and broader social issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

YUJIE ZHOU<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

yujie@missionlocal.com<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cstreet clashes\u201d in Hong Kong, and earned a wine-tasting certificate in two days. She\u2019s proud to be a bilingual journalist. Follow her on Twitter @Yujie_ZZ.More by Yujie Zhou<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0YUJIE ZHOU NOVEMBER 21, 2024 (MissionLocal.org) Sign up below to get Mission Local\u2019s free newsletter, a daily digest of news you won\u2019t find elsewhere.Sign up 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… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37786"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37786"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37787,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37786\/revisions\/37787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}