Weekly Reads: Inclusive Playgrounds, Mindfulness for Kids and What Afterbirth Really Feels Like

Hey there Readers! I have made the executive decision to untether the Reads from any specific day of the week. Heck, sometimes there might be two of them a week… who knows! Besides, now the title reminds me of Weekly Reader from back in the olden days of my youth.

Cedar Rapids welcomed it’s very first all inclusive playground in Noelridge Park. Inclusive playground offer accessibility to the 5% of American children with disabilities. You can learn more and see if there is an inclusive playground near you, or how to help make one happen near you at Inclusive Playgrounds.org.

An elementary school in Jackson, Mississippi with a 98% African American student body will no longer be named for Confederate President and traitor Jefferson Davis. Instead these kids will now attend a school named for the first black president, Barack Obama!

Janelle Jefferson, president of the school’s Parent Teacher Association, said the new name will be more fitting for a school with a student population that is 98 percent black.

“Jefferson Davis, although infamous in his own right, would probably not be too happy about a diverse school promoting the education of the very individuals he fought to keep enslaved being named after him,” Jefferson said in a statement, according to the Clarion Ledger, a local paper.

The school’s new name will now “reflect a person who fully represents ideals and public stances consistent with what we want our children to believe about themselves,” she added.

In a sad but touching story, we learned that a fund set up to honor the late Philando Castile has raised enough money to wipe out a years worth of student lunch debt in St. Paul, Minnesota. 

Castile, whose killing by police officer Jeronimo Yanez sparked nationwide outrage, worked as a nutrition services supervisor at the J.J. Hill Montessori school in St. Paul.

The Philando Feeds The Children Fund was started by Pam Fergus, a local community college professor who was inspired by stories of Castile having helped pay for student’s lunches with his own money.

“We just had this little idea that we were going to help do Mr. Phil’s job and make sure you guys have good lunch to eat every day,” Fergus told students, according to a WCCO report.

In total, more than 2000 donors helped the fund raise over $72,000—well above the initial $5,000 goal—which was presented to officials at J.J. Hill on Friday by Castile’s mother Valerie.

“We as a community have to work together in order for things to work,” Valerie told WCCO. “This would’ve meant everything to him.”

“He was supposed to research and ask a question that impacts our community,” his mother Lori Mayfield told KTLA sister station KDVR in Denver.

When it was Ames’ turn, he asked: “An issue that I’m concerned about is common sense gun control. I was shocked that you co-sponsored a bill to allow domestic violence offender to continue to own a gun. … Why on Earth would you want somebody who beats their wife to have access to a gun?”

Mayfield said the den leaders thought the question was disrespectful.

“Given that the Las Vegas shooting happened, I felt that it should be a reasonable thing to ask,” Ames said. “I don’t feel like I did anything wrong.”