This article originally provided by The Register-Herald

March 19, 2007

New school

No matter how you cut it Marsh Fork deserves a new school

The situation surrounding Marsh Fork Elementary School and its close proximity to Massey Energy’s Goals Coal mining operation reach new, uglier territory Friday in Charleston when State Police and Capitol security officers forcibly removed and arrested more than a dozen people who were among a group of protesters gathered in the reception area of Gov. Joe Manchin’s office in the state Capitol building.

This is just the latest chapter in a situation surrounding Marsh Fork Elementary. And while it’s really been all about the adults on either side of the issue, the focus needs to remain on the most important part of this picture — the kids. We’re afraid that’s being lost somewhere.

You can listen to various reports, theories, studies, opinions — and everybody close to the issue seems to have one — about whether the existing school is safe or not. The fact is, there is a huge coal silo that literally casts a shadow over the school and plans are to construct another one. A pond that holds millions of gallons of sludge is also uncomfortably close to the school.

Don’t tell us it’s totally safe; we’re not that naive.

This is 2007, not the 1930s or ’40s, and children shouldn’t have to be put into a school building that sets next to any type of mining operation. And spare us the chatter about funding; plenty of taxes are being generated from our coalfields and it’s time for some to be earmarked for a new Marsh Fork Elementary — one that’s in a safer place.

Gov. Manchin, who did not meet with the protesters Friday, issued a statement saying a new school needs to come from action taken first by the Raleigh County School Board, then the state can get involved. We would suggest he actually make personal contact with Raleigh County Superintendent Dr. Charlotte Hutchens and school board president Kim Cooper to express his encouragement for such a project.

In the same breath we would encourage the local school system to get busy on planning for it — now.

Of course, there is always the option for Massey Energy — and its CEO, Don Blankenship — to be a good neighbor and ante up the cash for a new school and take the children out of harm’s way. But then again, the end of the world will likely come before that would happen.