Challenge West Virginia

Challenge WV Executive Director Thomas Ramey and Challenge Fellow Lorelei Scarbro ask "What about the children?"

“Surely this is not for the sake of the children?” asked Challenge WV Executive Director Thomas Ramey, referring to Massey CEO Don Blankenship’s political slogan.

A June 23rd rally was held on the Marsh Fork Elementary grounds where a second coal silo is to be built within feet of the community school.

The event has raised tensions in the southern WV coalfields.

Thirty individuals were arrested after the rally when they attempted to deliver a petition to Massey’s nearby mine.

Environmental group speakers, including NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen and movie actress Daryl Hannah, were drowned-out by Massey Coal workers and supporters who blew horns, played music, and chanted while a number of speakers took the stage.

Rally speakers drowned-out by Massey miners and supporters

Miners expressed fear they will lose their jobs if decisions are made to curtail Massey’s operation.

While the rally focused on the impact of mountaintop removal, Challenge’s Ramey asked “What about the children in this school that are living under the shadow of coal silos and a 2.8 billion gallon sludge impoundment?”

“Most people in West Virginia would consider this bad planning, let alone intolerable,” he said.

When Robert Kennedy, Jr. visited Marsh Fork Elementary School in 2007, he said it is an example of crimes against children.

Now, the WV Supreme Court has ruled that Massey can build a second silo next to the school.

It’s been a battle between the coal company and concerned citizens, with most of Marsh Fork school’s administration and parents adamantly claiming the coal operations have little or no affect on children, many of them have family members working for Massey.

Ramey said “There appears to be threads of corruption linked to this battle and school consolidations in West Virginia,” citing deals with coal corporations, including land acquisition and ignoring environmental considerations. Click to read more …

Marchers move toward Massey Coal gate at Tuesday rally

Actress Daryl Hannah spoke of her concern for the children of Marsh Fork Elementary, later arrested

Former Congressmen and Secretary of State Ken Hechler arrested following comments

Massey miners and family members tell "tree huggers" to go home

State Police arrested at least 30 people yesterday at a rally held at Raleigh County’s Marsh Fork Elementary School, including NASA scientist James Hansen, actress Daryl Hannah and former congressman and Secretary of State Ken Hechler, all who spoke against mountaintop coal removal and the construction of a second silo adjacent to Marsh Fork Elementary school.

The arrests came in what is being called a continued movement of civil disobedience against West Virginia’s coal mining practice and the pollution meted out to the state’s streams and air. 

Several hundred people attended the rally at Marsh Fork Elementary School where Massey Coal intends to build a second coal silo within 170 feet of the building. Lurking on a hillside above the school is a 2.8 billion gallon slurry impoundment. The health and safety of the students of Marsh Fork was a staple in most speaches given during the rally. Click to read more …

Massey's giant coal silo looms over Marsh Fork Elementary School, with a 2.8 billion gallon sludge pond lurking on the mountain above, with a second silo to be built

Environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. flew over the West Virginia coalfields in July, 2007 to get a better view of mountaintop mining.

He said it is “a sight that would sicken most Americans.”

After visiting Marsh Fork Elementary School, he said it is an example of crimes against nature and crimes against children.

He railed against corporate media for failing to report the traumatic issues directly affecting the lives of West Virginians.

Standing ominously over the Raleigh elementary school is a Massey Coal silo and up the hill is a looming a 2.8 billion gallon sludge impoundment that shows leakage.

Now, the WV Supreme Court has ruled that Massey can built a second silo next to the school.

The debate started in 2005 when Massey applied for a permit to build a second silo near Marsh Fork Elementary.

Since then, it’s been a battle between the coal company and concerned citizens, with most of Marsh Fork school’s administration and parents adamantly claiming the coal operations have little or no affect on children, most of them having family members working for Massey.

Challenge WV Executive Director Thomas Ramey said “There appears to be greedy threads of corruption linked to this battle and school consolidation in West Virginia,” citing deals with coal corporations, including land acquisition and ignoring environmental considerations in the Mingo County school consolidation battle. Click to read more …

by Lynne White

ATHENS, W.Va. — Lost in the shuffle of education-related bills during the recent legislative session was House Bill 3150. It would have required county school boards to abide by maximum school bus transportation times.

That means 45 minutes each way for middle school students and 60 minutes each way for high school students. Those upper limits are presently only recommendations that are too often ignored. The travesty of unnecessarily long school bus rides in West Virginia has been the subject of excellent reporting in the past, but despite legislative and state Board of Education policy recommendations, without mandates the problem not only persists but promises to get worse.

In Mercer County, plans are proceeding to build a new School Building Authority-funded consolidated middle school on the same campus alongside the West Virginia Turnpike where PikeView High School is located. Four community K-8 schools, spread throughout the less populous areas of Mercer County, are to be reconfigured as K-5 schools. Eleven-to-14-year-olds will be required to join their high school-aged siblings and peers on long bus rides across the county to the consolidated campus.

When the SBA and State Board of Education approved the PikeView Middle School project, it was based on information, affirmed by the Mercer County Superintendent that “[a]t present, most PikeView High students spend less than 30 minutes on the bus each way. For a student living at Flat Top or beyond Herndon Mountain, the ride could take close to 45 minutes. Middle school students would have the same travel time, depending on where they live. Mercer County Transportation Supervisor … estimates that students attending the new PikeView Middle would be on the bus no more than 20 minutes beyond what was required to take them to their K-8 school,” as stated in the Mercer County application for the SBA grant. Click to read more …