Racist video brings calls for action at Prior Lake High School
| Mama Toure talks with her 16-year-old son Ibrahim Camara in the kitchen of their home in St. Cloud, Minn., on Thursday, Oct. 18. Ibrahim's sickle cell disease has caused him to need a hip replacement and use a wheelchair to get around. He aspires to be an attorney and a supreme court justice. Evan Frost | MPR News |
By Sarah Gelbard
Ibrahim Camara is 16. He wants to study at Harvard Law School, and one day serve as a Supreme Court justice. Camara likes reading graphic novels and classes in school like science and language arts. But after school, he’s often tired and he needs to rest, stretched out underneath a blanket on the couch.
Camara has sickle cell disease, which affects his organs, his energy levels and his mobility. There are days when sickle cell causes extreme pain and discomfort.
“On a really, really bad day I can't breathe,” he said. “I can't move without feeling heavy amounts of pain. And anything I do will get me in pain.”
Camara, who lives in St. Cloud with his mom, brothers, and sister, is one of millions of people who have this genetic blood disorder in which red blood cells are bent, like sickles.
Those abnormally shaped cells can stick to the walls of blood vessels, causing blockages and reducing the flow of oxygen to organs throughout the body. Patients experience it as fatigue, and episodes of extreme pain — called crises. Over time, these crises can lead to organ damage and life-threatening strokes or lung infections.
The Red Cross is trying to triple the amount of African American donors across their donation system by the end of 2025. One of the barriers for sickle cell patients to getting full treatments is a lack of blood donors. Donations have diminished during the pandemic.
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Racist video brings calls for action at Prior Lake High School. A video that targeted a Black 14-year-old freshman includes racial slurs and urges the girl kill herself. The police chief of Savage called the video “horrific, hateful, racist” and said an investigation is underway.
Leaders stress need for more veterans centers in Minnesota. Four Minnesota political leaders toured a veterans center in St. Paul on Thursday to pay tribute to those who served in the military and call for better access to mental health care and readjustment services for veterans.
New grant powers electric bus pilot program in Minnesota The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has awarded $2.1 million in grants to private entities for electric school bus pilot projects to address climate change. | |
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