Bobbi Wilson holds a spotted lantern collection as it is worshiped at Yale Public School on Jan. 20.
Andrew Hurley/Yale University
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Andrew Hurley/Yale University
Bobbi Wilson holds a spotted lantern collection as it is worshiped at Yale Public School on Jan. 20.
Andrew Hurley/Yale University
Nine-year-old Bobbi Wilson may be in the fourth grade, but last month, Yale Public Health School held a ceremony honoring the work of the young scientist.
Bobbi University entered a collection of 27 spotted lampreys — a highly invasive species that is harmful to trees and other plants — into the Peabody Museum of Natural History database. Bobbi was also awarded the title of “physician donor” on January 20.
“We wanted to show her strength and how inspiring she was, and we want to make sure that she continues to be honored and loved by the Yale community,” Ijeoma Opara, an assistant professor at the school, said in a statement.
The accolades come just three months after Bobbi, who is black, was sued when former Caldwell city council member Gordon Lawshe, who is white, was called out on a local girl.
He was collecting spotted lanternfly specimens. Her neighbor panicked and called the cops
That Oct. 22. Lawshe was a house, and things in the neighborhood seemed mostly white copacetic. But looking down the tree-lined street, Lawshe saw something terrifying. He recognized that it wasn’t actually an accident, calling the police instead.
“There’s a little black woman walking, throwing stuff on the sidewalks and trees in Elizabeth and Florence,” Lawshe told the dispatcher, according to a call obtained by CNN.
“I don’t know what the hell he’s doing. It scares me,” added Lex.
Outside of Bobbi, a little boy who wears rose-tinted glasses, he will act as a public Stomp! campaign that encourages New Jersey residents to help eradicate the spotted lanternfly infestation. She had learned about it at school and made her version of the disgusting insect seen on TikTok. Bobbi travels from tree to tree, sprays bugs, plucks them from the tree and drops them into a plastic bottle.
Bobbi was still there when the officer arrived, wondering what he was doing. Body camera footage shows officer Kevin O’Neill approaching the boy before his mother, Monique Joseph, intervenes.
“Am I to be taxed?” asks the little girl.
“No,” Joseph and O’Neill answered together.
Joseph added, how many trees have you saved?
O’Neill explains that he was responding to a call made by Lawshe. The information appears to be misleading to Joseph who said that she lived across the street from the age of 71 for eight years and that they were familiar.
Bobbi’s mother and sister talk about racial profiling
Unable to shake the gnawing feeling that things could easily have turned into a tragedy and could have ended, as they have in other situations, that of black children and law enforcement, Joseph decided to address the issue head on at a Caldwell city council meeting a few weeks later. At the meeting, Joseph and his 13-year-old daughter, Hayden Wilson, called the incident an example of racial profiling.
“Not only was he doing something wonderful for our environment — he was doing something that he felt strongly about,” Hayden said in a speech to the city council.
“What Mr. Gordon Lawshe did to my sister was very shocking, traumatic and scarring for my family. I can confidently say to you guys that it will never be forgotten,” he added.
Scientists and scholars around Bobbi
The outpouring of support for Bobbi and her love of science has been constant since officials hit the Internet. Caldwell received the Environmental Commission’s Sustainability Award for his contributions to improving the city’s environment. The science writer gave Bobbi at least one collection of books and stickers to encourage her interest in learning. And there is recognition from Yale.
“Wale doesn’t usually do this. … Bobbi is unique,” Opara, the Yale professor, said. She helped organize the recent ceremony and invited Bobbi and her sister earlier to the campus to “meet other second-generation black women scientists and reminisce about that horrible day.”
Shortly after the police encounter, Joseph told CNN that he had not been the same for 9 years. But in celebration, he expressed gratitude for the community that brought his entire family to him.
“You know, you hear about racism; you’ll experience it in your peripherals, if you’re happy in your life. It doesn’t come knocking on your door. In the morning, when it happened, my world stopped,” Mother Bobbi said. next to the Academy.
He added: “The whole community, the scientific community, gathered themselves and said, “we are one and we are not going to lose our steam for STEM. We go to support the family, we perish. to support this girl.”
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