Students take stand against CSG

School of Total Education pupils Hayden Mascadri, Clodagh Sinnott, Will Jubb and Mei Lu with the Young Person’s Guide To: Coal Seam Gas they created.

Jenna Cairney

HAYDEN Mascadri issued a stark warning: We need to keep our eyes open.

Profound and sceptical words from the year 12 School of Total Education (SOTE) student but a recent study on coal seam gas has opened his mind.

As part of a school Study of Society and Environment (SOSE) class, Hayden and a group of his fellow pupils were challenged with making a young person's guide to coal seam gas.

The pupils admitted they knew little about the topic and had little interest in it, until they started scratching the surface.

SOTE principal Richard Waters said with a lot of emotion coming from parties both for and against coal seam gas, the students were charged with making a brochure presenting each side.

He said while the pupils went into the project open minded, many had come out with a strong anti coal seam gas stance.

"They're worried about the future of the area, especially as young people," Mr Waters said.

"They've seen the effect it has had on landholders and they are aware some of their parents are landholders."

He said the pupils were learning more about proactive democracy as opposed to representative democracy.

The students said they were concerned for their future quality of life.

Yesterday they gave a powerpoint presentation to year 11 pupils and distributed their brochures around town.

Clodagh Sinnott said it was interesting talking to the year 11 students who were neutral to start but then developed a negative opinion on it.

"I'm concerned about the chemicals they use," she said.

"It's short-term gain and not fair on property owners."

The class researched by watching documentaries, trawling the web and having guest speakers from the Southern Downs Protection Group

Will Jubb said he had no idea what coal seam gas was until he started the project.

"I'm relieved I now know more," he said.

Will said he could understand why it was developing at such a fast pace.

"We need the money.

"They're doing it because it's their way of getting the money we need."

For Callum Heron, despite conflicting points of view from those for and against, it's all pretty clear.

"We did a fair bit of research but I couldn't find anyone that wasn't an energy company that was for it," he said.

As for how they feel young people could become engaged, it was just about presenting the truth.

"People just need solid facts and then teenagers might find it more interesting," Hayden said.

"It's more important people know how it affects them," Clodagh said.

While the pupils aren't planning to stage protests just yet, they did say they all felt their responsibility was to spread the word.

"We were so much in the dark before we started the research," Hayden said.

"That is really scary."

"I feel informing others is the best thing to do," Will said.

"We want to leave it to individuals to make up their own minds as when you decide for yourself, it's more real."