Area student becomes icon of Obama's speech

Image by Image: CNNImage by 20090225-student.jpg Jump ahead to the 4 minute mark for the part about Dillon and Bethea.

Dillon 8th-grader Ty’Sheoma Bethea become the face associated with President Obama's call for why we're doing the stimulus package and the need for change.

[gmap markers=blue::34.42107129982385,-79.36592102050781 |zoom=6 |center=34.12544756511612,-79.8486328125 |width=220px |height=200px |control=Small |type=Map]

Here's what he said in regards to Bethea:
And I think about Ty’Sheoma Bethea, the young girl from that school I visited in Dillon, S.C. -– a place where the ceilings leak, the paint peels off the walls, and they have to stop teaching six times a day because the train barrels by their classroom. She has been told that her school is hopeless, but the other day after class she went to the public library and typed up a letter to the people sitting in this room. She even asked her principal for the money to buy a stamp. The letter asks us for help, and says, “We are just students trying to become lawyers, doctors, congressmen like yourself and one day president, so we can make a change to not just the state of South Carolina but also the world. We are not quitters.” We are not quitters.

The school is J.V. Martin Junior High School.

Dillion is, of course, located just off I-95 and is an area where Obama had promised to help fight against the cycle.