Yale University honored Bobbi Wilson, a 9-year-old black girl who was reported to police after spraying lantern flies, an invasive insect species in the United States.
The Yale School of Public Health held a ceremony to celebrate Bobbi’s efforts to eradicate the invasive species on Jan. 20, according to a university press release.
The ceremony also served as an opportunity to recognize Bobbi’s donation of her personal collection of lantern flies to Yale’s Peabody Museum.
“Yale doesn’t normally do anything like this… this is unique to Bobbi,” Yale School of Public Health assistant professor Ijeoma Opara, who organized the event, said in the university statement. “We wanted to showcase her bravery and how inspiring she is, and we just want to make sure she continues to feel honored and loved by the Yale community.”
In October, Bobbi was testing a homemade lantern fly spray in her hometown of Caldwell, New Jersey. State agricultural departments across the country urged Americans to kill the invasive insects, which pose a threat to native trees and plants.
But Bobbi’s quest to help remove the invasive species was cut short when a neighbor called police reporting “a small black woman walking around, spraying things on sidewalks and trees in Elizabeth and Florence.”
Source: CNN Brasil
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