College students promote a cause on spring break

The students are concerned about effects a coal mine might have on nearby kids.
By CRISTINA CALA
SPECIAL TO THE VINDICATOR
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- If there's a reason for a college student to give up a week of debauchery and tanned skin on sunny beaches in exchange for an educational spring break, it's in the pale, freckled face of Berry College history major Amy Potts.
Standing in thick rain and wearing a down parka, jeans and mud-clogged boots, Potts, along with college students from a number of states, opted this year for an alternative spring break in West Virginia.
Potts' spring break was on a soggy camp site with port-a-potties labeled "Big John," empty tents and a ramshackle barn where 50 to 75 college students and activists slept during Mountain Justice Spring Break, a weeklong gathering of college students March 10-18. The gathering, organized by several environmental groups, promoted education and community service.
It was Potts' concern that toxins were seeping onto the grounds of Marsh Fork Elementary school in nearby Sundial, W. Va. that led her to MJSB and brought tears to her eyes.
"I have two young nephews and ..." Potts trailed off as she choked back tears for the thought of Marsh Fork's approximate 279 schoolchildren who study in the shadow of a coal silo 125 feet from school grounds and a sludge dam 400 yards downstream.
Potts, a Georgia native, attended a March 16 rally in Charleston's Capitol building. She was among a roomful of college students petitioning state Gov. Joe Manchin to build a new school for the children of Marsh Fork.
University of Tennessee graduate student Ryan Wishart, shouted, "We can do what we have the will to do."
Wishart wants West Virginia to explore alternative energy. Along with Potts, Wishart chose to forgo his spring break with a carload of UT students to show his support of MJSB and the children of Marsh Fork Elementary.
While the majority of registered Mountain Justice spring breakers performed community service and visited local mine sites, Graham Boyle joined Potts in holding down the fort (in the form of a sodden tent) at MJSB's home-base camp site.
With long and curly red hair matted beneath his hoodie and hands pocketed in paint- and dirt-splattered pants, Boyle spoke on MJSB, the rally for Marsh Fork children, and educating citizens about the state's coal industry.
On a mission
"It's about new energy. It's about environmental justice and social justice," said Boyle, a recent graduate of Shepherd University in West Virginia. Boyle earned his degree in photography and works as a Field Organizer for the Student Environmental Action Coalition.
A day before voyaging to the Capitol building for the rally, Boyle said, "We're not so much protesting as we are demanding a new school for the community."
Once at the Charleston rally, the governor's waiting room pulsated with young people playing guitars, holding protest signs, singing and chanting.
Kim Teplitzky, a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, served as the media liaison for the rally, enthusiastically handing out stacks of press release folders. Along with press releases, each folder contained a photo illustrating the short distances from Marsh Fork Elementary to the coal silo and sludge dam that activists say holds 2.8 billion gallons of toxic coal waste. Protesters say the dam is leaking.
Tommy Binsho, also a student from the University of Tennessee reported to the crowd that word of the sludge situation is spreading to the nation's universities, where teachers use Marsh Fork as a working example of environmental problems. Supported by shouts from rally-goers representing Ohio, California, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, North Carolina, New York, West Virginia and Georgia, he said concern is forming all over the country.
"It comes with the first picture of the schools next to the silos and the impoundment."
Binsho called West Virginia's large coal industry "dirty."
"I don't mean dirty in the way it's burned, I mean it's dirty in the way it's mined," he said.
Responding to his statement with the crowd, Potts cheered from behind her camera lens, and then shook her head.
"What is 24 million to build a school for a county who spends billions and billions each year?" Potts asked.
Arrests
She continued to snap photos as state police moved to disperse the crowd and arrest several protesters.
Police informed protesters that if they did not clear the area in front of the governor's office doors, they would make arrests. Thirteen protesters were taken into custody of the West Virginia state police and charged with obstruction of justice.
"It was despicable," Potts said of the arrests. Potts said the rally and the week were inspirational.
"It was definitely an experience that changed my life," Potts said. A week after Potts' spring break, her dedication to the environmental issues of West Virginians remains strong. She plans to move to West Virginia to continue her work as an environmental student and activist. "I want to learn more about the whole situation and [I am] aching to get back to help out."
Additional reporting by Ernie Calderon.