VPIRG showcases widespread mental health damage they’ve inflicted on young Vermonters.
On March 17th the Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG) held a rally at the State House in favor of passing the UnAffordable Heat Act, S.5, employing a tactic they often use – exploiting young children. What was so striking about this display was how it exposed just how dangerous it is for kids’ mental health to weaponize and politicize children and our public education system to satisfy the agenda of adult activists and politicians.
The event featured middle and high school students taking the podium to read off talking points that, let’s be honest, these kids neither wrote nor really understand.
One high school student said, according to VT Digger, “The Affordable Heat Act is a big step toward (a safe) future. We needed this bill passed last year when our governor vetoed it, and we need it now, even more.” Who thinks this child has actually read the 38-page bill, can explain how it works, and could, if asked, articulate a reasoned argument for why we “need it now”?
A fourteen-year-old girl is quoted as saying, “I should be at school today.” True statement! And VPIRG should be asked to justify why they think it’s okay to pull these kids away from their education when test scores have been dropping across Vermont for the past decade. Maybe the steady stream of stunts like this are part of the reason why.
“But,” the young lady continued, “instead I'm here alongside my fellow students continuing to demand real, impactful climate action.” Of course, S.5, would not have any real or impactful influence on future climate trends, so it’s not clear why she would be in support of this bill – except that she’d been told to be so and, like a trained seal, got tossed a fish (or whatever the 14-year-old-girl’s equivalent of a herring is) for doing so.
Another student railed, “Black, Indigenous and communities of color and low-income communities already have limited access to education, jobs, housing, healthy food and transportation. A changing climate will exacerbate these crises.” I guess VPIRG neglected to tell this child the part where Vermont’s Director of Racial Equity testified that S.5 “does not meet the mark” in terms of satisfying equity concerns. Or that BIPOC communities are protesting the classification of biomass as renewable in S.5 because pollution from the biomass plants disproportionately impact health outcomes in their Burlington neighborhoods. If that’s really this kid’s priority, they should be protesting S.5, not rallying for it. And, opposing VPIRG’s support of biomass electricity generation, not standing with them. But again, and sadly, these kids are just being used and manipulated.
The real tragic part of this display was the multiple confessions of mental health impact that are the result of being exposed to VPIRG’s and other similar organizations’ constant, pervasive, doomsday propaganda that is, let’s be clear, purposely designed to scare the living crap out of our children – every day – precisely to twist them into a mental state that can be manipulated by groups like VPIRG into acting as political cannon fodder in in adult PR battles.
A now high school student recalled, “I remember having panic attacks over the state of the climate before I even left elementary school.” Panic attacks in elementary school due to exposure to this messaging! And VT Digger reported, “While the youth activists were quick to admit the emotional toll the climate crisis has taken on them, referencing feelings of climate anxiety and doom that have at times felt insurmountable, they stood at the Statehouse calling for change.”
Is it any wonder that incidents of suicide, self-harm, substance abuse, and mental illness are up across the board for our young people? And that academic performance is down? This is at best the result of negligence on the part of adults, and at worst the result of calculated cruelty based on selfishness.
If mental health is health, and mental healthcare is healthcare, then exposing young people’s brains to materials that knowingly harm mental health should be illegal—and prosecutable. We don’t allow, for example, cigarette companies to target youth with their advertising campaigns because we know picking up the habit will cause physical harm and potential illness for those who fall for the sales pitch. Exposing young people to perpetual fear campaigns – especially when they are captive audiences in public schools – knowing as we do that it leads to adverse mental health outcomes should be equally banned. Maybe there’s a class action suit in there somewhere. I certainly hope so.
Rob Roper is a freelance writer with over twenty years experience in Vermont politics and policy.