They are victims of an organisation called 'Earth Guardians, which describes itself in these words:
The Earth Guardians are committed to standing up and protecting the Earth, the Water, the Air and the Atmosphere so that our generation, and those to follow, will inherit a healthy, sustainable and habitable planet.
What we have here is a set of adults who have decided that children make good political levers, and who have not hesitated to exploit them for campaigning purposes.
The 'mentors' are here: http://earthguardians.org/team.shtml
The 'council of advisors' is here: http://earthguardians.org/council.shtml
These are irresponsible and ruthless people.
A news site in Colorado is on to the story, which it currently highlights as 'developing' (hat tip Tom Nelson):
Students receive anti-frack rap at Evergreen Middle school
Let us hope it 'develops' into a major scandal, and that the victims of these self-styled Earth Guardians get more protection, more help, and kept out of other schools.
Update added 10 May 2013: From the update at the above link:
'Lynn Setzer, Communications Director for Jefferson County Schools explained to The Blaze.com that the students in question had been invited to the school for a different purpose, and that the fracking portion of the presentation “wasn’t specifically planned.”
According to The Blaze, “Setzer said the school is sending a letter of apology to parents, along with a list of resources for both sides of the issue for families to discuss. The school will also put in place a procedure to vet guest speakers.” According to letters reviewed by CompleteColorado.com, a vetting procedure to vet guest speakers is precisely what some parents were asking from the district in light of this assembly.'It looks like the timely and sensible response of the school authorities may well defuse the issue, and so dash my hopes of more attention being given to this event.
Note added 29 May 2013 Pail Driessen provides more details of this shocking event in a Colorado school, and takes a very critical look at the Earth Guardians. Extract 'But the Earth Guardians still deliver outright falsehoods about fracking, by children to children, in public schools funded by taxpayer dollars. Perhaps this goes on because teachers and school administrators fail to recognize the potential harm, or are themselves devoted to promoting extreme environmentalist ideologies. Certainly they failed to exercise their responsibility and authority as educators to provide a balanced curriculum and avoid being used by groups with political agendas, to inculcate a new generation of Americans in perverse Hard Green dogmas that are harmful to wildlife, people and the environment.'
http://townhall.com/columnists/pauldriessen/2013/05/27/mindless-green-indoctrination-of-children-n1606861/page/full
(also here: http://www.eco-imperialism.com/mindless-green-indoctrination-of-children/ )