Landmark border trial put on hold

A former Durangoan is sitting in the middle of a landmark case regarding treatment of illegal migrants along the U.S./Mexico border. The case against 23-year-old Shanti Sellz, formerly of Durango, and 24-year-old Daniel Strauss was delayed this week, shortly after a former Arizona Supreme Court justice came to the pair’s defense.

Sellz left Durango in 2004 to take a job in the border town of Bisbee, Ariz. She was immediately shocked by the situation along the border, where migrants were crossing large areas of the Sonoran Desert without food or water, often perishing along roadsides without help from U.S. residents living in the area. Sellz promptly overcame her own fear of prosecution and began working with direct action groups, volunteering at relief camps.  

On July 9 of last year, Sellz and Strauss came upon three migrants near the Arivaca camp in desperate need of help. Two were ill and covered in blisters. A third was vomiting and had severe diarrhea. After consulting with two doctors and a nurse, Sellz and Strauss realized the third individual was in danger of liver failure and death and that all three were in need of immediate medical attention. The volunteers then consulted an attorney and were advised to take the migrants to the nearest medical facility. However, they were pulled over and arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol en route.

Sellz and Strauss were charged with two felony counts each: transportation of an undocumented person and conspiracy of smuggling. But Sellz and Strauss are fighting the charges, in the hope of changing the way people who are literally dying in the borderlands are treated.

“This is a really important case,” Sellz explained in aDurango Telegraph story late last year. “Humanitarian aid is what’s really on trial.”

The future of life and death along the U.S./Mexico border was scheduled to go to court April 25. However, U.S. District Judge Raner Collins announced Monday that the parties involved have not had sufficient time to prepare. This news comes shortly after Stanley Feldman, a former Arizona Supreme Court justice, stepped up and took Sellz and Strauss’ case.

“Do these people look like coyotes to you?” Feldman asked in a story in theTucson Citizen. “Do they look like they’re smugglers? What smuggler ever called first to say ‘We’re taking people for medical treatment’ and then put placards on their car, announcing what they’re doing?”

A new trial date has yet to be set.

School district revises its mission

The Durango School District 9-R Board of Education is tackling a challenging question this month: What do we want our students to know and be able to do by the time they graduate from high school? The board is currently working to update the district’s mission.

The effort follows three years of sporadic discussions about the district’s current alignment of academic goals into a tier structure. Reading, writing, math and science, for example, are currently placed in the top tier, implying they are more important than other skills. However, community discussions have questioned the tier structure and why things like foundation skills and community service are less important than reading, writing, math and science.

Since January, the board has convened two work sessions to study the mission statements that district schools have developed as part of their professional learning communities initiatives. Board members also examined mission statements and academic goals from other policy governance school districts. What board members found – and liked – was the simplicity, clarity and focus on students expressed in their goals.

Members of the public have an opportunity to follow the process and weigh-in this Tues., March 21. The board will hold a work session at 5:30 p.m. in the School District 9-R Board Room. No timeline has been set for the new mission’s completion.

Divide trail reroute pitched

One of the region’s most significant trail systems is scheduled for a face-lift this summer.

The Forest Service is currently seeking public input on a proposal to reroute 13 miles of the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail. The reroute would take place just east of Silverton, enabling the trail to become nonmotorized and parallel the Continental Divide as closely as possible. As part of the proposal, the Colorado Trail would also abandon its existing route in

the same area and become joined with the Continental Divide Trail for the full 13 miles, 7 miles of which is within the Weminuche Wilderness. Rerouting the trails would involve reconstruction and new construction, beginning in 2006 and finishing by 2007, in time for the 30th anniversary of the Continental Divide Trail in 2008. 

The resulting new section of trail will be designated for nonmotorized uses. A proposed 1-mile section of new trail construction within the Weminuche Wilderness would require a Forest Plan amendment. The existing Forest Plan designates this area to be managed as “pristine.” Constructing a new trail through the wilderness would require that the management prescription be changed to “primitive,” allowing for more impact.

For more information, call 719-658-2556, Ext. 6403.

FLC soccer champs take a final bow

A silent auction, including Final Four jerseys, chocolate bars, summer soccer camps and soccer balls, will begin at 5:30 p.m. followed by thering presentation ceremony and festivities at 6:30 p.m. Keynote speakers include FLC President Brad Bartel, Coach Jeremy Gunn, and a proclamation by La Plata County Commissioner Wally White. A multimedia highlight presentation of the Skyhawks season will be shown following the ring presentation. Admission to the event is free

The Skyhawks won the first national championship trophy for Fort Lewis College on Dec. 4 in a 3-1 win against Franklin-Pierce. The win capped off an unprecedented season for the Skyhawks, who went undefeated with a 22-0-1 record while also winning the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference regular season and tournament championships.

Wolf Creek forum reset for April 7

A debate between Village at Wolf Creek developers and several state legislators has been postponed. Originally scheduled for March 24, the forum has been delayed until April 7 to accommodate lawmakers, particularly Rep. Mark Larson, who have to travel from Denver.

Also invited to attend were Village at Wolf Creek proponents, Red McCombs and Bob Honts, and supporters State Sen. Lewis Entz, and Rep. Rafael Gallegos. Project opponents Larson, Sen. Jim Isgar, U.S. Rep. John Salazar, and Davey Pitcher, president of Wolf Creek Ski Area, also have been asked to speak.

The six-county Upper Rio Grande Economic Development Council supports the development atop Wolf Creek Pass that calls for more than 2,000 residential units to house as many as 10,000 people on 287 acres next to Wolf Creek Ski Area.

The forum will be held at 6 p.m. on Fri., April 7, at the Creede Community Center.

– compiled by Will Sands