NP3 Students Hold First “Lights Out Day”

Anthony Parker’s second period held class in the dark for Lights Out Day.

By Krista Chouang
Co-Editor | The Pacific Times

NP3 high schoolers earlier this month participated in a schoolwide Lights Out Day in an effort to reduce the school’s carbon footprint.

Lights Out Day was organized by the Climate Change tutorial, which urged classrooms to keep their lights off and avoid using electronics such as Chromebooks for the entire school day to bring attention to the issue of climate change. Students were also encouraged to wear black clothes to show their support for the event on Nov. 10.

Several students wore black to show support for Lights Out Day.

“In two of my classes, they had the lights off completely and let natural light in through the door, and in my third period, we didn’t use computers at all, which I think helped a lot,” said sophomore Brodie Brown. “I used the computer for Spanish notes really quickly for like five to 10 minutes.”

When asked about what they enjoyed about the day, participants said they liked how the lack of technology didn’t get in the way of class.

“It’s just very subtle,” said sophomore Aarthi Vijayarajah. “There’s not a big difference, like in most of my classes, my second period, he doesn’t put lights on. Or in the fourth period, they don’t even put lights on. It’s not that big of a difference.”

Others said they liked the message and how the noticeable lack of technology spread awareness and encouraged questions about climate change.

“What I liked about it was making students conscious of why we’re doing it and seeing the physical difference that it’s really dark in here. It’s something that they couldn’t not notice,” said teacher Dulce Hernandez. “So they asked questions like ‘why are we doing this’ and then being able to explain it was really cool.”

There were few disliked aspects of the event. Students admitted that the dark environment made them tired or sleepy. However, teachers struggled with accommodating both the event and their daily teaching necessities.

“The only thing that I disliked is that I still have to take attendance on my computer and check emails, because of emergencies, and the phone ringing,” said Hernandez. “If there was a way to fix those things, like a system of how we are going to make sure we have attendance and communication between the campus…that way we can be consistent and no one is using any technology at all.”

Overall, participants were willing to participate in the event in the future because they believe that positive long-term effects are possible.

“It was a really good event, because it’s about helping the planet and saving the environment, and there’s a lot of goals we have to make in order to save our planet,” said Brown.

“I think it would have an effect because we use a lot of electricity throughout the day, so I feel like having a lights out day would limit that,” said Vijayarajah.

For more information, read our preview article about it here.