Amsterdam councillors have earmarked €100,000 to make the waterways safer for animals.

Along the canals of Amersfoort in the Netherlands are hundreds of little wooden staircases leading out of the water and onto the banks.

These special steps were installed as part of an initiative to protect wildlife that sometimes falls into the water and cannot climb out because of the high sides.

Now, Amsterdam is looking to create similar escape routes for its small creatures.

So far this year, 19 cats have drowned in the city’s canals, a statistic that has prompted local pro-animal party PvdD to propose taking a leaf from Amersfoot’s book.

I teach art in a HUGE school, I see 520 kids in one week. I feel like my experiences with the kids gets lost and tbh it makes me sad cuz I wanted to teach because being in school was so hard for me and I loved my teachers. Well, a student gave me this Christmas letter today, and she totally made me (happy) cry. I wanted to share it.

This student came to me for tutoring help only a month ago. Due to a death in her family, she had missed a lot of class and was now failing. Getting this text from her mother was the best holiday present I could have imagined, and absolutely made my week. I'm so stinking proud of her!!!

I filed this lawsuit pro se in June 2023 after exhausting every internal and administrative option available to me, and after being told by many legal professionals that I had no case. I refused to believe that.

In 2022, not only did I lose my job due to blatant discrimination after disclosing the symptoms of my Endometriosis, but the aftermath upended my entire life. Just 5 days later, my then-husband left because the financial strain was more than our marriage could survive. For the next three months, I was homeless. The future I had spent so long building collapsed in just a matter of two weeks. I lost everything. But I turned this loss into fire.

I wrote every brief. I deposed every witness. I argued alone in federal court. I learned the law as I lived it and refused to let my harm be treated as ordinary. None of it was easy but all of it was necessary.

Some say that this is the first case in all of North Carolina to recognize endometriosis as an ADA disability, and the first case in the nation to allow a plaintiff to proceed on this theory. As of yesterday, it was resolved for a substantial settlement, but more importantly, for institutional reform.

This season has taught me so much about the importance of persevering against all odds. It taught me that change only happens when we are bold enough to fight back; even when others try to convince us otherwise. I know now more than ever that I have been called to do this work, and that is a call that I will continue to answer with a resounding “yes.”

Yet, the work is not finished. As of this week, I am halfway through law school and will be continuing my fight for civil rights for all people as a civil rights attorney upon graduating.

I end by reaffirming that I am committed to fighting just as fervently for the rights of my future clients as I have for myself. This is quite literally just the beginning and I am eager to see what is to come.

But as for now…this case is SETTLED👩🏿‍⚖️

She jumped to help a stranger with a car full of kids and smiled through the task while actively dealing with her own tribulations. What a lighthouse.