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OKEMOS Okemos student-athletes will no longer compete as the Chiefs after district leaders cast a vote 30 years in the making.
The Okemos Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to stop using the Chiefs nickname, which an increasing number of students, alumni and residents say is an offensive caricature of indigenous people.
The board hopes to adopt a new mascot by 2023.
The decision comes after decades of discussion surrounding Okemos Public Schools moniker, which was picked for the town of Okemos namesake, Chief Okemos.
Superintendent John Hood was the most recent district leader to consider a name change late last year. But discussions surrounding the nickname and mascot date at least to the mid-1990s, when Katie Cavanaugh, secretary for the Board of Education, was an Okemos High School student.
James White (Photo: YouTube) It was recently said by a member of the Detroit Police Department s oversight board that officer misconduct often stems from trauma experienced in the field or PTSD that can affect officers ability to perform their duties, as the Justice Department puts it. That issue will receive additional focus when Detroit s incoming police chief, James White, takes the helm in June. The former Michigan Department of Civil Rights director and 24-year veteran of the department has a background in mental health, and tells the Detroit Free Press he will seek grant funding to pay for counselors in each precinct to help officers manage stress and tragic situations.
Michigan Civil Rights Leaders Commend Passage of COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act
Michigan Civil Rights Leaders Commend Passage of COVID-19 Hate Crimes ActContact: Vicki Levengood levengoodv@michigan.gov
May 20, 2021
LANSING, MI-James E. White, Director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, and Stacie Clayton, Chair of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, have issued the following statements in response to Congress passing and President Biden signing into law the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, designed to address hate crimes targetting Asian Americans.
James E. White, Director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights: Congress sent a clear and bipartisan message with the passage of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act: we will no longer stand by while racist rhetoric fuels attacks on Asian American families across the nation. This new law will bring much needed additional resources to bear in the fight against the surge of anti-Asian hate crimes and bias incidents we have witnessed in the