{"id":846541,"date":"2025-05-07T18:13:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T23:13:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/07\/this-11-year-old-skipped-school-over-climate-anxiety-heres-how-theyre-learning-to-cope\/"},"modified":"2025-05-07T18:13:27","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T23:13:27","slug":"this-11-year-old-skipped-school-over-climate-anxiety-heres-how-theyre-learning-to-cope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/07\/this-11-year-old-skipped-school-over-climate-anxiety-heres-how-theyre-learning-to-cope\/","title":{"rendered":"This 11-year-old skipped school over climate anxiety. Here’s how they’re learning to cope"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Saskatchewan<\/span><\/a>\u00b7<\/span>BEAUTIFUL MESS<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Kik\u00e9 Dueck, 11, didn’t show up to school one day. Their parents were panicked and police were notified. Turns out Kik\u00e9 had skipped school to go protest about climate change. Kik\u00e9\u2019s parents explain how they’re now helping their child channel eco-anxiety into tangible action to protect the earth.<\/p>\n

These parents are finding ways to guide their child through that anxiety<\/h2>\n
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Nichole Huck<\/a><\/span> \u00b7 <\/span>CBC News<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/p>

Kris Dueck, Dennie Fornwald and 11-year-old Kik\u00e9 sort through seedlings at the family’s home. Caring for baby trees that will eventually get planted in a nearby urban forest is a way for Kik\u00e9 to channel climate change worry into tangible action. (Nichole Huck\/CBC )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Beautiful Mess is a series that mines the wisdom of parents in Saskatchewan who have experienced difficult circumstances.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When Dennie Fornwald got a call at work on a Friday morning that her 11-year-old hadn’t shown up to school, the Regina woman felt sick to her stomach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The school, their friends and family and eventually the police were all out searching for her\u00a0child.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Police eventually located the Grade 6 student outside the Saskatchewan legislature.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kik\u00e9, who uses they\/them pronouns, had\u00a0printed off small flyers about climate change and was handing them out to people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That day and the days before, I felt so down and hopeless,” Kik\u00e9 said.\u00a0“I had read books that action is the best antidote for this. I felt there was nothing else I could do, so I went to the legislature alone.”<\/p>\n

Fornwald was on an emotional roller-coaster that morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There was a part of me that was angry that they did this without asking and that they didn’t think about the consequences, but mostly I was just so relieved they were OK.”<\/p>\n

Fornwald and her husband Kris Dueck\u00a0felt sad they hadn’t realized just how bad their child’s climate anxiety had become. They used this scary situation as a teachable moment for the family.<\/p>\n

“There wasn’t a part of me that didn’t understand why they did it,” Fornwald said.\u00a0“That’s why we really knew we needed to help them find safe and appropriate action, but that they absolutely needed to take part in something that was gonna make them feel like they had power.”<\/p>\n

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Kik\u00e9 Dueck holds petitions they have gathered to deliver to the legislature asking for the provincial government to make action on climate change a priority. (Submitted by Dennie Fornwald )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

From a love of nature to a concern for the planet<\/h2>\n

Kik\u00e9’s love of all things in nature started young. Their mother remembers them picking up a bird book at age three\u00a0and looking at it for three hours straight. Kik\u00e9 is an avid birder and has a keen interest in mushroom identification. They get immersed in guides on mushrooms, native plants and birds\u00a0like other kids would with video games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Kik\u00e9 Dueck is excited about identifying a mushroom. (Nichole Huck\/CBC )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Kik\u00e9 says it was two years ago, at age nine, when they first got a book out from the library about climate change.<\/p>\n

“I was surprised that life would just go on as normal when these terrible things are happening.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The terrible things Kik\u00e9 is talking about is global warming,<\/p>\n

“We are using too much and overexploiting the earth, which I feel will lead to grave consequences.”<\/p>\n

There is a term for what Kik\u00e9 and many other young people are feeling \u2014 climate anxiety. A\u00a02023\u00a0study in the Journal of Climate Change and Health<\/a> surveyed 1,000 young people across Canada and found more than half the kids reported feeling afraid, sad, anxious and powerless. Kik\u00e9 fits into the 37 per cent of kids who reported their feelings about climate change negatively impacted their daily functioning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fornwald says there are days when Kik\u00e9 loses their motivation to care about day-to-day basics like getting dressed and going to school or being enthusiastic about the sports they are involved in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kik\u00e9 says there are highs and lows.<\/p>\n

“I feel bad because I’m not feeling like I’m doing enough or something like that. But then I eventually feel better and then I feel like I’m not doing enough again and I’ll just cycle on and on.”<\/p>\n

Their anxiety\u00a0tends to be worse in the summer when the realities of climate change hit close to home, whether that’s due to droughts or\u00a0fires. Last year,\u00a0Kik\u00e9 had several track meets cancelled because of smoke from wildfires.<\/p>\n

“I had to stay inside for like three\u00a0days at a time, which is hard because I really love being outside.”<\/p>\n