By Sam Peña, News Channel 9 

HAMILTON COUNTY, Tenn. — After the controversy of a viral video of a Hamilton County SRO arresting an East Ridge High student, community members gathered for a discussion about the place of SROs in schools.

A private community forum at the Urban League of Chattanooga featured an intense discussion about the presence of SROs in Hamilton County Schools.

Outrage is the feeling of many Hamilton County parents, students, and teachers, after the release of body camera video showing an East Ridge SRO tackling a student, pulling his hair, and pepper-spraying him.

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KNOXVILLE – As Phyllis Nichols, the retiring President and CEO of the Knoxville Area Urban League (Knoxville, TN) thinks back on her years at the Urban League, she is reluctant to speak about herself.

In a recent interview, Nichols was asked how she felt about her legacy at the Urban League, which is a term she doesn’t much like to think about.

“I don’t think about legacy,” she said.

An advocate for equity in schools, Nichols was passionate about the ways to better close the academic achievement gap.

ELYRIA – The Lorain County Urban League (Elyria, OH) held its annual Diversity and Inclusion Conference, already in it’s eighth year.

The event took place on Thursday, Sept. 22nd at the Spitzer Center at Lorain County Community College.

One of the focuses of the conference was, unsurprisingly, voting rights.

Parris M. Smith, President of the Urban League, said, “While the tactics have changed, our hard fought rights are again under attack.”

This year’s conference included Lorain Mayor Jack Bradley, himself a partner of the Urban League for several years.

LOUISVILLE – In another addition to their already successful Norton Healthcare Sports and Learning Center, the Louisville Urban League (Louisville, KY) has broken ground on a new medical building.

This new medical building will be serving the underserved seniors in the West Louisville area and could be seeing patients as soon as next year.

The building is a partnership between the Urban League and CenterWell Senior Primary Care, which is an organization that is focused on senior medical care, also based in Louisville. CenterWell will lease the 24-acre property for ten years, providing comprehensive care and services.

WASHINGTON – In an effort to boost diversity within the construction industry, the National Urban League has partnered with Hill International to address this issue.

Legislation passed earlier this year addressing the country’s infrastructure has exposed a shocking lack of diversity within the construction workforce. A McKinsey report published recently has noted that within the construction industry, 88% of the workforce is white, and 89% is male.

This partnership was cemented when both organizations signed a memorandum of understanding to ensure work opportunities within Black and other underserved communities.

NEW YORK and CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (September 24, 2022) – National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial and Urban League of Greater Chattanooga President and CEO Candy C. Johnson today condemned the brutal mistreatment of an East Ridge High School student that was captured on video, and called for increased behavior intervention and cultural competency education across the district.
 
“The level of violence directed at a student who posed no threat to anyone is unacceptable,” Johnson said. Appropriately-trained staff could have mitigated the situation without involving police resulting in this violent act. Instead, it appears the goal was to merely demonstrate the adults’ power and humiliate the student. The school resource officer should be also disciplined appropriately. This is not the environment we want to see in schools.”

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