Page 13 - Florida Sentinel 3-13-18

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Teen’s Viral ‘Act Of Kindness’ Gains Her A College Scholarship
Evoni ‘Nini’ Williams breaks down in tears when a day was named in her honor. This is the photo that went viral, of her cut- ting up a customers food, because he could not do it.
Canada Unveils New $10 Bill Featuring Civil Rights Icon
LA MARQUE, TX —-A teenager has been rewarded for her kindness with a college scholarship after she was pho- tographed cutting up food for a 78-year-old diner who couldn’t do it himself.
Evoni Williams works in a La Marque, Texas, Waffle House was saving her money to go to college.
During her shift, an elderly man who was on oxygen came in for a bite to eat. When he was served his meal, a cus- tomer overhead him mention to Williams that his hands don’t work well. Without hesi- tation, she took his plate and began cutting up his ham.
Laura Wolf, the woman who took the photo, posted it
on Facebook where the act of kindness proceeded to go viral; receiving thousands of shares and likes. It also caught the at- tention of Texas Southern Uni- versity who came through with a $16,000 college scholarship to help Williams to study business management.
Williams said her kind act was “something I would do any other day.” She went on to say that the man required help be- cause his hands were “not func- tioning too well.”
The act of kindness also got the mayor of La Marque in- volved. The mayor declared March 8, 2018 “Evonni ‘Nini’ Williams Day” in her honor. The announcement brought Williams to tears.
Louisiana School Board Sued For Having Teacher Arrested At Meeting
Black Nurse Awarded $3.8 M By Jury After Racially Harassed At Work
ABBEVILLE, LA — Louisi- ana’s attorney general sued a local school board Thursday over a meeting disrupted by the video-recorded arrest of a teacher being roughly hand- cuffed on a hallway floor after she criticized the district su- perintendent’s pay raise.
Attorney General Jeff Lan- dry’s lawsuit accuses the Ver- milion Parish School Board and its members of violating the state’s Open Meetings Law by stifling public debate at the Jan. 8 meeting.
Middle school English teacher Deyshia Hargrave, whose arrest sparked outrage after video of it spread online, said the suit is good news for “anyone who speaks at public meetings.”
The suit asks a state court to nullify all actions taken by the board during that meeting, in- cluding its vote to raise Schools Superintendent Jerome
Abbeville, Louisiana middle- school English teacher, Deyshia Hargrave was knocked down and handcuffed by a city marshal after comply- ing with a marshal’s orders to leave a Vermilion Parish School Board meeting last Thursday.
Puyau’s salary by roughly $30,000.
It also seeks civil penalties against any board members found responsible for violating the Open Meetings Law and
says the school system should be reimbursed for any extra money the superintendent re- ceived under his raise.
Hargrave has said the inci- dent violated her First Amend- ment right to free speech.
Landry’s suit says the school board conducted the meeting “in an atmosphere that was hostile toward and contemptuous of” parish resi- dents who attended it.
Anthony Fontana, the school board’s president at the time, then banged his gavel, told her to stop and said her comment wasn’t “germane” to the vote on the contract. Har- grave countered that she was directly addressing the matter.
At that point, according to school board member Kibbie Pillette, Fontana beckoned Deputy City Marshal Reggie Hilts, who interrupted Har- grave while she was speaking and ordered her out.
HONOLULU — A Black nurse who found a photo of hangman's noose taped to her locker at a Hawaii hospital has been awarded a $3.8 million payout.
A Circuit Court jury last Wednesday awarded the money, one of the largest dam- age awards in state history.
Ellen Harris was a regis- tered nurse in the intensive care unit at the Queen's Med- ical Center when she reported that patient safety was being jeopardized.
Jurors were told that Har- ris, the only black nurse at the time in the medical intensive care unit, reported concerns to management that a co-worker was stealing narcotics intended for patients. Two other nurses eventually reported the same drug-use suspicions to man- agement, her attorney Carl Varaday said.
She then became the target of racial threats, she said.
She filed suit in November 2011, alleging that a note in her work mailbox used the "N" word against her.
On Christmas Eve that same year, she said, someone taped a photo of a hangman's noose on her work locker.
Baltimore Mayor Will Help 3,000 Students Attend ‘Gun Control Rally’
Canada unveiled its new $10 bill this week that features one of the country's civil rights icons: Viola Desmond.
Desmond is the first black Canadian woman to appear on the country's currency. She is also the first non-Royal woman to be featured.
Desmond refused to leave the whites-only section of a Nova Scotia movie theatre on Nov. 8, 1946 — nearly a decade before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Al- abama, according to the Toronto Star. She was arrested, thrown in jail for 12 hours and fined.
It took another 63 years before she received a posthumous apol-
The $10 bill with the face of Viola Desmond will be circulated by the end of the year. Wanda Robson, attended the unveiling of her sister’s currency.
ogy and pardon, many years after she died in 1965.
Her sister, Wanda Robson who is now in her 90s, attended the unveiling ceremony last Thursday led by Canadian Fi-
nance Minister Bill Morneau and Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz.
The new bill is expected to enter circulation at the end of the year.
Registered nurse, Ellen Har- ris was forced to leave her job due to racial harassment.
Harris, who grew up in Mississippi, said she was fear- ful of going back to the job she had loved.
Varady, said the hospital also "never apologized, never admitted liability, tried to de- grade and criticize and make Ellen out to be a liar."
Varady also said Harris' supervisors at the hospital tried to downplay the incidents.
After 5 weeks, it took the jury less than a day to award Harris $630,000 for emo- tional distress, and another $3.2 million in punitive da- mages.
BALTIMORE, MD —- Ahead of the student march for gun control in Washington, D.C., planned for this month, Balti- more’s mayor vowed that thou- sands of her city’s students will be among the protestors.
Mayor Catherine E. Pugh
said last Tuesday that she will provide 60 buses to transport students to the “March for Our Lives” rally on March 24, which was organized by survivors of last month’s deadly shooting at a Florida high school.
Her announcement came as hundreds of Baltimore’s stu- dents walked out of classes and marched to City Hall to protest gun violence throughout the city and its schools.
Once at City Hall, they were met by Pugh, who cheered them on, according to the Huff Post.
Mayor Pugh, said that funding for approximately 3,000 stu- dents’ transportation is being made available through both the
Students walked out of class on Wednesday and marched on City Hall in Baltimore, where they met the mayor, Catherine Pugh.
private sector as well as through individual donations.
Gun control in Baltimore re- mains a hot-button issue, with high crime and violence rates continuing to plague the city.
Last year, 88 percent of those killed in Baltimore died from a firearm. The majority of the guns used to commit the acts were il- legally possessed.
Baltimore County Public Schools spokesman Mychael Dickerson said there will not be consequences for students who participate.
However, all the school dis- tricts in the Baltimore region are not onboard. The Harford County Public Schools has de- cided to prohibit students from participating in the event.
Barbara Canavan, the school district’s superintendent, was unequivocal in a letter she wrote to students Thursday. They will not be allowed to walk out of school, and those who do “may be subject to disciplinary action for disrupting school op- erations,” according to the let- ter.
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