www.wataugawatch.net
And a riot of 50 students and faculty chased the police and the six, who were handcuffed and thrown in a university van, for two miles all the way to the magistrate.
The school has threatened to not allow the seniors, who were involved, to graduate and if any of the USAS members, or other students take any action on any other part of campus, they will be arrested on-spot.
This situation looks like it will only get worse.
I was there the last two days of the sit-in, and during the final hours when the Vice Chancellor and every university police officer came in and surrounded us. They presented no olive branch, no concession - could have simply had us handcuffed and thrown out, without pressing charges - but had us arrested because their was an open house on campus yesterday, with 4,000 high school students in attendance.
I must say though that this demomstration was the purest and most remarkable thing I've ever been involved in, and I hope you keep us in your thoughts now that we will have to fight legally in court, because the university will not drop the charges - which they ought to, to at least quit fanning the flames of what is now a campus firestorm.
http://www.wxii12.com/video/index.htmlhttp://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/news.apx.-content-articles-TRI-2008-04-12-0017.htmlhttp://www.wataugawatch.net/The arrest Friday night of five Appalachian State University students and one non-student member of the local community caps a year-and-a-half struggle by a local chapter of United Students Against Sweatshops to get the university administration to take action to insure that none of the souvenir apparel items bearing the university’s insignia is sweatshop-produced.
The students want the university to sign on to the "Designated Suppliers Program" (DSP), which is affiliated with the Workers Rights Consortium and is dedicated to ensuring that apparel made with university logos is produced under humane conditions. As of the first of March, some 181 American colleges and universities have affiliated, including Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill.
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880412016http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173355264190&path=!localnews&s=1037645509099http://www.wxii12.com/news/15863696/detail.htmlIt should be noted that Democratic Congressional candidate Roy Carter (NC-5) showed up the third day, (second morning) when the doors were unlocked, and as the students were waking up to deliver doughnuts and spend time with the students and lend support and let us know we were not alone.
www.roycarterforcongress.com