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American Morning
Bullied to Death; Perkins: Don't Give to RNC; RNC Stripper Fallout; Losing or Gaining Jobs; "Climategate" Verdict; Principal Has Innovative Way of Dealing With Bullies; Dogs of War: Bomb-Detecting Dogs Help Marines Abroad; Mother Nature's Winning; Health Care Q&A
Aired April 01, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. It is Thursday. It's also April 1st. So, happy April Fool's Day. Try not to get tricked this morning. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts.
Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about coming your way in the next 15 minutes.
A principal is under fire, parents demanding to know why something wasn't done sooner to save Phoebe Prince. She was the 15- year-old that prosecutors say was bullied to death by fellow students at her Massachusetts high school.
Our Alina Cho tracked down the principal of South Hadley High School and asked the tough questions. Her live report is just ahead.
CHETRY: And a conservative leader is now telling donors: stop giving money to the RNC. Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, made the plea after it became known that the Republican Party picked up a $2,000 tab at a Hollywood strip club. We're going to talk to him about who he can back now.
ROBERTS: And new developments involving -- you remember it -- Climategate. This time, it involves the scientist whose stolen emails led skeptics to claim experts distorted the facts on global warming.
And, of course, the amFIX blog is up and running. Join the live conversation right now. We want to hear from you about what's in the news this morning. Just go to CNN.com/amFIX and we'll be reading your comments throughout the hour.
CHETRY: We begin with new developments in the tragic story of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince who authorities say was bullied to death. Her high school principal now under fire and also speaking out for the first time since nine students from South Hadley High School in Massachusetts were charged in connection with driving Prince to commit suicide.
Alina Cho tracked down the principal and she joins us live in South Hadley, Massachusetts this morning.
Hi, Alina.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, Kiran. You know, as you know very, very well, there has been so much outrage here in South Hadley, Massachusetts and, frankly, around the country, ever since the district attorney announced charges against those nine teens for allegedly bullying 15-year-old Phoebe Prince, a girl who ultimately hanged herself back in January. A lot of people have been asking the question, were school administrators asleep at the switch?
So, late yesterday afternoon, I walked across the street to the school. I rang the buzzer. And I was surprised that the principal himself answered the door.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: What do you say to all of the parents who are outraged and who are calling for your resignation?
DANIEL SMITH, PRINCIPAL, SOUTH HADLEY HIGH SCHOOL: At this point, I'm not going to talk any further.
CHO: Will you resign when your contract is up?
SMITH: I have no comment at this point.
CHO: Your contract is up in May, sir?
SMITH: I have no comment.
CHO: I hope you understand, we're just --
SMITH: If I need to, I will call the police. There is no media on the property.
CHO: OK, all right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: Now, the superintendent who's also been criticized heavily spoke to the "Boston Globe." He said that school officials only learned about the bullying against Phoebe Prince a week before she killed herself. The D.A. responded by saying the superintendent was a man who was under fire, Kiran, and lashing out.
CHETRY: You know, and a lot of parents are very upset as we know. What are the parents saying for -- especially parents of kids who still go to the school?
CHO: Well, you know what, Kiran, after spending about a week here in this area and talking to a lot of people, the fallout really, some are calling that the second tragedy. You know, it really has split the town. People are being forced to choose sides.
But having said that, a lot of parents I spoke with say that they have been complaining for years about bullying by students -- that those complaints, they say, have been ignored. They are now demanding some answers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN SMITH, SON WAS FRIENDS WITH PHOEBE PRINCE: They haven't apologized to this family, to this community. We have been saying from early on that the administration needs to resign. It's despicable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Amazing, Alina, when you listen to that -- that they say there hasn't even been an apology issued right now. What is next in this case?
CHO: Well, next week is going to be busy one. Certainly, three of the nine students, the ones facing the most serious charges, Kiran, are going to be arraigned on Tuesday afternoon.
What's interesting, so interesting about this case, is that -- and this may not be -- this may not be surprising to you, Kiran, there is no statute governing criminal bullying. So, prosecutors have to rely on a series of laws that are rarely used. And so, while these indictments certainly are significant, convictions may be an uphill battle, Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes. Statutory rape in a case of two of them and then harassment, as well as disrupting an assembly. You know, a lot of people are wondering, what does this stuff mean? And we probably will find out more about it in the coming weeks.
But, good work, Alina -- at least trying to get the principal to answer to that. Thanks.
CHO: You bet.
CHETRY: Coming up at 8:30 Eastern, we're going to be talking with Aaron Hansen. He's a Nevada high school principal who is credited with turning around a big bullying problem at his school. How did he do it? And other lessons learned in other communities.
ROBERTS: And here's one of those stories that makes covering the news so rewarding on a daily basis. A deputy who tased a 72-year-old woman because she dared him to is off the hook this morning. A grand jury in Texas just cleared him. It happened at a traffic stop in May and, of course, there is dash cam video of it. Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POLICE OFFICER: Ma'am, put your hands behind your back.
(INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm getting back in my car.
POLICE OFFICER: You are going to be tased, stop.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am getting back in my car.
POLICE OFFICER: No, ma'am.
(INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The woman was only 4'11" but as you can see, she was a little feisty. An internal investigation also ruled the officer did not violate any policies and wasn't disciplined.
How do you tase a 72-year-old woman, regardless of the fact she wants to get back into the car?
CHETRY: It's disturbing. It's disturbing to say the least. Wow.
Well, a strange beginning to the Yankees-Twins spring training game in Florida. The leadoff man, Denard Span, the first hitter of the game, slices a foul ball, goes into the stands. Well, he immediately starts running to the seats. That's something you don't see very often.
Well, it turns out, it's because he hit his own mom in the shoulder. Paramedics checked her out. She was OK.
But then a little bit later on, he just decided his head wasn't in the game. So he left. His mom left even though she was mad at him, right? She didn't want him to leave.
ROBERTS: He took her out for ice-cream, I think. You know, parents always do that, right?
CHETRY: They make it all better.
ROBERTS: You get hurt in a game and they take you out for ice- cream.
In the Northeast this morning, homes, schools, businesses, entire communities under water. Hundreds of people have been evacuated. Tens of thousands don't have power this morning.
CHETRY: Yes. And they are being told not to use the water. Still, a lot of challenges for Rhode Island. The hardest hit, some families there have lost everything.
Our Reynolds Wolf is on the ground in Rhode Island. He joins us from the town of Warwick.
How things changed since we talked to you last?
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, I'll tell you, they are basically the same. We've seen the water began to slowly recede, which is the good news. Of course, we got drier weather ahead. That's going to be great, too.
But let's be honest -- I mean, the weather here has been just nuts over the past month and certainly this past week. The people around here have also done some things that have been kind of out of the usual. For example, take a look at this roadblock that we have over here. Just yesterday, you see the police here at this barricade.
We have a local guy that came by in a car at full speed and came right down through this, right down through this water, water fanning up everywhere and then at full speed slowly became kind of slow speed as he hit the higher waters, the car actually started to float and then ended up right there next to the power pole where the guy was again rescued and then taking out and now, I think, is probably spending some time, you know, in custody, understandably. You shouldn't do those kinds of things, go through the barricades.
But we've seen this barricade of water just flow through the shopping plaza. And right around, you see all kinds of cars and trucks, even some buses on the far side. But even a hot tub that is actually been picked up from someone's back porch or even their backyard, and carried by the floodwaters where it now resting against this -- that fence.
Now, if you pan over a bit more, you can see the shopping plaza where on any other morning, people might be going in to get something to eat maybe for breakfast, maybe just doing that a little bit of last-minute grocery shopping. But today, they're going to be closed for business. I mean, it's certainly just a huge mess they're going to be dealing with.
Another big mess they're going to be dealing with is cleaning up all of this when the waters recede. And, thankfully, they will be dropping back a little bit. With the drier conditions in the forecast, through the weekend into early next week, they can't get that dry spell soon enough. So, there is, again, a silver lining to all of this, thankfully.
This place we have got from Warwick, Rhode Island, again kind of damp to say the very least. But things are starting to look up a little bit.
Let's send it back to you in the studio.
CHETRY: All right. At least the bright spot there, as you said, the water is starting to recede. A lot of challenges ahead though, for sure.
ROBERTS: There's no rain for the next 48 hours. But maybe more rain next week.
CHETRY: Hopefully, things will at least settle back down a little more.
We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to be talking to the president of the Family Research Council. He's had enough of the RNC and actually telling people: "Don't give any more money to the Republican National Committee." We're going to talk to him more about why -- still ahead.
It's 10 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
The Republican National Committee has come under fire for its lavish spending on limousines, private jets and then more recently -- and many say most outrageously -- picking up a nearly $2,000 tab for an outing to a bondage-themed strip club near Los Angeles.
Well, now, Tony Perkins, a prominent conservative and president of the Family Research Council, is urging people not to donate to the RNC anymore, writing in part, "The RNC is completely tone-deaf to the values and concerns of a large number of people that they are seeking financial support from. If you want to put money into the political process, give directly to candidates who you know reflect your values."
And Tony Perkins joins me from Washington this morning.
Thanks for being with us.
TONY PERKINS, PRESIDENT, FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL: Good morning.
CHETRY: So, explain more about why you are urging people to stop giving money to the RNC. It wasn't just this latest incident at the strip club, right?
PERKINS: No. I'd like to say this was an April Fool's' joke, but it's not. Unfortunately, we've seen a pattern. And, look, I've worked with Michael Steele. I have tried to work with him to help him be successful as chairman of the party.
But, increasingly, it appears that the RNC is tone-deaf to so many social conservatives out there that -- whose homes they are calling every night looking for money. I mean, just a few weeks ago, they announced that they were hiring the constitutional attorney, Ted Olson, to represent the RNC. It just so happens Ted Olson is working to overturn Prop 8 out in California, a marriage amendment that was passed by 7 million voters. That obviously doesn't set well with many Republican-minded voters who have worked hard in 31 states to pass marriage amendments or statutes.
And then, of course, this on top of all of that, spending money at a, you know, strip club. That's not the kind of stuff that people who are investing their money into the political process want to see the party spending it for.
CHETRY: But what about the way it was handled though? They say that the chairman didn't have any knowledge of that happening. And since then, the person who they say was behind it has been let go.
PERKINS: Yes. I mean, if this were an isolated incident, I mean, these things, I guess, they could happen. I still find it hard to believe that a culture has been created at the RNC where someone can not only authorize the expenditure, it can be put on the disclosure form and not raise any red flags. I mean, that tells me something right there.
But if it were an isolated incident, you know, that's fine. But, really, the naked truth here is that the party either was asleep during the elections of '06 and '08, or they didn't get the memo. Voters out there, people who are investing money in the political process want financial accountability. They want the behavior, the inappropriate behavior to cease. I mean, that's what cost the Republicans the majority. So where does encouraging people get?
We encourage you to be involved in the political process. Either give money, (A), to the candidates directly that you know represent and reflect your values or give to political action committees like the Family Research Council has. Put your money where you know it is going to be used wisely.
CHETRY: All right. Well, I got a couple of questions about that situation as well. Know where your money is going to be used wisely. The situation right now though is, where do -- in some of these areas, in some of these congressional districts. Looking ahead to 2010, who are you going to throw your support behind if a candidate?
Let's say there is a Democrat, let's say there is a Republican and let's say there is a third-party candidate, a Tea Party candidate, somebody that is maybe more conservative but they don't necessarily have a shot. How do you ensure that you have your values represented in Congress if politically, in Congress or the Senate, wherever, if politically, it is going to be tough?
PERKINS: Well, I mean, look, you have to start somewhere. I think what we are seeing across America in many ways is kind of a civic awakening where people are saying, you know what, we can work outside the party structure, we can support candidates. I think the Tea Party movement is a reflection of that. Supporting candidates who are not Republican, not Democrat but are for fiscal restraint or traditional values. I mean, I think we will see some independent candidates elected.
CHETRY: As opposed to taking away from a GOP candidate.
PERKINS: I am not here to advance the GOP. If the GOP wants to line up with the values that so many Americans out there are expressing and have expressed over the last 10 or 12 months, then maybe they will benefit from it. But, what we see right now in polling, the Democrat Party is in serious trouble going into the November elections. The Republican Party has to realize this is not necessarily a windfall for them. They are going to have to earn the support and the trust of those voters. Because, remember, we are just a couple years ago that the Republicans lost the trust of voters. What's happening at the RNC does not help reestablish that trust.
CHETRY: You know, Michael Steele has had a rocky time as RNC chairman, as many of the stories that we have done have shown. Do you think that he should resign? PERKINS: Well, that's not my call. I mean, as I said earlier, I like Michael Steele. I talk to Michael Steele. I did not talk to him about this latest incident. I did talk to him a couple weeks ago about the hiring Ted Olson, really a slap in the face to social conservatives. I have tried to help him through some of these areas.
It has become clear to me that, as I said earlier, the RNC is tone deaf to so many of those homes that they are calling every night asking for that $20, $25 contribution. People just need to put their money where they know it is going to be used to reflect their values because, in this tight economy, we should not be frivolously spending money. We should not be supporting candidates that are maybe 75 percent with us. We ought to invest every hard-earned dollar the best way we possibly can. That's what our folks want to do. We are just giving them direction on how to do that.
CHETRY: All right. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, thanks for joining us this morning.
PERKINS: Thank you.
ROBERTS: The jobs report comes out tomorrow. Christine Romans, "Minding Your Business" this morning, are we losing jobs or are we gaining? What are the predictions? She's coming up next. Stay with us.
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ROBERTS: Christine Romans "Minding Your Business". She joins us now with the prognostication of what tomorrow's jobs will bring.
CHETRY: Fingers crossed.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: We know, Wall Street expects maybe 150,000 to 200,000 jobs created tomorrow, and the Treasury Secretary said we could be on the verge of the first sort of sustained jobs creation. Then, he also, this morning on the "TODAY" show, said remember, we have a lot of damage to get through and we are going to have uncomfortably high unemployment for some time.
By my calculations, you have to have 300,000 jobs created every month for 56 months, just to dig us out of this hole and absorb the people who naturally come in the labor market every month. So, four, five years, folks, of trying to dig ourselves out of the damage done by the recession. In the meantime, everyone is looking for tomorrow's report to show finally some jobs creation. Finally, the beginning of digging out of that hole.
We keep getting these other maddening reports that are showing kind of a different story. Challenger, Gray & Christmas has announced at a placement firm this morning said that actually jobs were vanishing again in March. 67,000 job cuts. About 30,000 of those are planned job cuts, like the Postal Service. Those are jobs that, of course, that aren't going to be filled again. We told you about those. That's a surge from February. But still, not as bad as it was a year ago. Yesterday, we heard from ADP. They process one out of six private sector payrolls. So, they don't have those government jobs. In their report, they showed 23,000 jobs.
CHETRY: So, the private sector is still shut -- if jobs are being created, it is government jobs?
ROMANS: Well, not at the post office. But, yes. And here is the issue. We just don't know what it is going to look like when it turns. There is a lot of hope that tomorrow is going to be the beginning of something. But even the Treasury Secretary this morning on the "TODAY" show saying, but remember, we have a very long, long way to go. We just haven't quite turned it yet.
ROBERTS: Where do we expect the jobs to be created, small business? Medium-sized? Large?
ROMANS: We are looking at education, we are looking at health care, we are looking at government. The usual suspects. We want to see new places. We want to see the small businesses start to create jobs again.
ROBERTS: Because they do fuel the most job growth.
ROMANS: Yes, they do. I mean they are -- but look there are a lot of uncertainties for small business right now. And they are still having trouble borrowing money. They are still on the fence about hiring and whether they are ready to go out there and commit. They have health care reform they are trying to figure out how to implement. Everyone is talking about that. What is this going to mean for me? I talked to a small business owner yesterday, two sisters who own a cupcake company.
ROBERTS: Are these the ones in Washington?
ROMANS: Yes.
ROBERTS: Georgetown Cupcakes.
ROMANS: Yes, he likes cupcakes. They are already trying to figure out. They have 100 employees. They have to figure out.
ROBERTS: They got 100 employees already?
ROMANS: Yes.
CHETRY: That's a lot of red-jelly (ph) cupcakes being eaten.
ROMANS: Oh, yes. And a price point of $2.42 if you buy a dozen. But listen, oh yes. Anyway, I have been talking to a lot of small businesses and they are trying to figure out how these changes are going to affect them. So, there are a lot of reasons for people to be cautious. We are waiting to see what it is going to be, that is actually going to get people to pull the trigger and start hiring again.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans "Minding Your Business" this morning. Thanks.
Well, it is April the first, the day that everyone thinks they are a comedian. Problem is, not everyone is.
CHETRY: That's right. So we have some tips. Hold on. Can I just please tell this story. We are the only two idiots that fell for it, Christine. But you know what --
ROMANS: Idiot, no. Gullible, yes.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: Gullible is a better way to put it. That is right. Because we are --
ROMANS: Sweet and innocent.
CHETRY: We are brainy idiots.
ROBERTS: You want to believe.
CHETRY: We were just -- he told us this morning, listen, please keep this to yourselves, but I've just accepted a position at the request of the presidency with the new U.S. ambassador to Canada.
ROBERTS: I was born in Canada.
ROMANS: I didn't even doubt it for a minute, John. I didn't doubt it for a minute.
CHETRY: But no one else believed him except us and one other person that shall remain nameless, because you do want to keep this job.
We do have some tips though to make sure that your April Fool's prank doesn't fall flat or on its face or lead your co-workers to call HR immediately after the show, just kidding. Think of it like this, it's a little bit like drinking.
ROBERTS: Yes, you have to ease into it. You don't line up 12 shots all at once and knock them down. Try out a few one-liners, test the waters before you drop the big one. Know that you are playing to a friendly audience here.
CHETRY: All right. Number two, is that you need to know when to stop. You want to joke in moderation, tickle their ribs but don't make people freak out.
ROBERTS: And, three, mean does not mean funny. This one is in dispute among the writing staff. But, probably a safe bet is to stay away from the old, your dog is dead gag or they just called about your grandmother. You don't want to do things like that. I find, too, always best to get people just when they wake up.
CHETRY: That's true.
ROMANS: Ding, ding, ding.
ROBERTS: It is easy to prank someone at 2:30 in the morning.
ROMANS: It worked. I just fell for it. Next year, Roberts, I'm going to get you next year.
ROBERTS: The other thing is, don't do it too often. Lay low for a couple of years and then people won't be expecting it.
Climategate report clears the scientist, Phil Jones, but not without some criticism. We will tell you what the investigation revealed coming up next. It's 26 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's new developments in the case involving the scientist who was accused of cooking the books to make his case for climate change.
ROBERTS: You will remember that his e-mails were leaked late last year giving global warming skeptics a slew of ammunition to make their case. Our Mary Snow has been following this story for us. This came to a head right before the United Nations conference on climate change in Copenhagen.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And cast such a shadow. Critics said this was evidence of a conspiracy, a panel and the U.K. says not so.
This investigation focused on Phil Jones, he is a scientist at the University of East Anglia in the U.K. Back in November, he came under fire when his e-mails to other scientists about climate change were hacked and posted on the internet. Critics saw them as a smoking gun accusing scientists of trying to exaggerate the threat of global warning.
A government panel in the U.K. has done an investigation and has cleared Jones of hiding or manipulating data. The panel concluded, in its words, we have found no reason in this unfortunate episode to challenge the scientific consensus that global warming is happening and that it is induced by human activity. However, the report criticized Jones for not complying with requests from climate change skeptics, for data. It emphasized that climate scientists must be more transparent and publish all their raw data. It also says the University of East Anglia should make sure that this happens.
We reached out to the university. It provided us a statement saying "We are pleased that it has dispelled and rejected many of the myths that have arisen over the matter while accepting we have been taken to task on a number of issues." And it also has its own review.
ROBERTS: Many scientists will make the case if you have the data and you believe in your research and you put it out there for peer review and put all of it out there and let the critics have at it.
But there were a couple of e-mails that made a particular point that skeptics jumped on, this idea that some of the results and evidence was being hidden. Did the investigation address that?
SNOW: There were two instances in particular. One was the word "trick" found in an email. This panel is really saying that it is determined these were more colloquial terms. In terms of "trick" it says it found this to be another way of saying a neat way of handling the data.
In terms of "hide the decline," this is also mentioned in this report. It says that this is disregarding day that that is known to be erroneous. This panel really came out and said, with refute allegations that there was any kind of conspiracy to hide evidence, bottom line.
ROBERTS: To "hide the decline," they referred to tree ring data from the 1970s that showed that the temperature seized warming while temperature readings from thermometers showed that it continued to increase.
SNOW: It was much more complicated than just that little phrase. But that was the one phrase that got the attention.
CHETRY: So clearing him and saying they need to be more transparent around make changes in the future.
SNOW: Absolutely. They were very critical about that point. John was saying if it is coming from critics who are requesting that data, this he need to be much more transparent.
ROBERTS: Mary Snow for us this morning, thanks for the update on that.
CHETRY: Well, checking this morning's top stories right now at half past the hour, Google is taking aim at the communist government of Vietnam now, saying the country is trying to stop the dissenters by using cyber-attacks. The complaints come on the heels of a decision by Google to shut down its operations in China.
Google says these new attacks are targeting potentially tens of thousands. Officials in Hanoi are not responding to the accusations.
ROBERTS: The suspect in the Fort Hood shooting massacre is reportedly being removed from the hospital to jail. Major Nidal Hasan's lawyer tells the Associated Press that doctors gave him his discharge physical last night.
CHETRY: Stunning new details about an extreme right wing militia busted over the weekend. We already know that Hutaree members made up a spoken language. Now prosecutors are saying they actually wanted to carve out a piece of Michigan to form their own country. Eight alleged members pled not guilty yesterday to plotting attacks on police officers.
ROBERTS: The principal of South Hadley high school in Massachusetts is finally and reluctantly speaking out, defending his school's actions after a 15-year-old student was allegedly bullied to death. Nine of her fellow students now face criminal charges. CHETRY: Our next guest faced a bullying problem at his Nevada school and met it head on. Now Principal Aaron Hansen is credited with turning things around at White Pine Middle School in Nevada. He joins us live via Skype.
Thanks for being with us.
AARON HANSEN, PRINCIPAL, WHITE PINE MIDDLE SCHOOL: You are welcome.
CHETRY: You became principal back in 2006. It was your fourth year at the school. There were serious problems with bullying as well as other things, difficult and tenuous relationships between students and teachers. Give us an idea of how tough things were when you first got to the school.
HANSEN: Honestly, I don't know that the bullying situation was worse than anywhere else in the country. But there was contention among students and staff. And I think there was not what we have now, which is a very positive culture, and one where we make sure every one of our students feel safe, accepted, listened to, and has relationships with adults.
ROBERTS: You undertook a rather unique effort to address bullying by getting the students themselves to identify the bullies and do it in an anonymous way. What did you do?
HANSEN: We got the idea from another principal, a friend of mine, whose name is Lorrie Sparks, a principal in Battle Mountain, Nevada.
Basically, what it is, we have a survey that we ask the students confidentially to write down if there is bullying in our school, where it takes place, so we can improve supervision in those places, and then also who the bullies are.
And so we create a list based on that survey, and I meet with each of those students who has been named as a bully and sit down with them and talk with them and basically let them know, your peers have said that they feel like sometimes you are not very nice or that you are a bully. How do you feel about that?
And we have a conversation and go through some of the behaviors that they have and talk about how they can improve. We don't use the survey in a punitive way at all. We use it to help the bullies, to make sure that they are having their needs met and making sure that their behavior changes.
CHETRY: So in some cases, what was the reaction from the students? Were they surprised that people thought they were bullies? Did they deny they do this? What was the takeaway for the kids that were doing the bullying?
HANSEN: Yes, absolutely. Some of them are surprised. Some of them are not surprised. Some of them in their reactions when they are surprised they feel really badly about that and say, well, I don't want to be viewed that way from my peers is what they say, and just by talking to them, stop some of their behaviors.
Others, it takes a little more effort. We have to ask them to start doing some things and helping them find some things that they can work on to improve their behaviors.
ROBERTS: We spoke earlier, principal, with the author of the new book "Mean Girls, Mean Women." They said there are some common traits among young women or girls that are mean to each other, things like self-hate, rigid gender stereotypes.
When you identified and sat down and talked with these bullies, did you find there were common traits that they all share, or some of them share?
HANSEN: You know, I don't know necessarily that I noticed that. I think our focus has been to make sure we have a positive culture within the school, that we ensure that every one of our students is known well, that we have an environment where kids feel safe, accepted, listened to, and have a relationship with an adult.
There is not a magic bullet for solving the bullying problem. And the problem can't be solved in isolation. We have to work to create a positive culture where kids, like I said, feel good about being in school and where it is not cool to be a bully.
CHETRY: So you talk about tackling the bully issue. What about the kids that feel bullied? The reason we're asking about this is there has been a lot of criticism leveled at the school district where this 15-year-old tragically committed suicide, prosecutors say, because of the relentless bullying that some allege happened under the nose of teachers and school officials.
How do you tackle the challenge, when a student comes to you and says, "I'm being bullied"?
HANSEN: Absolutely, we deal with that as proactively as we can, dealing with their issues, listening to them. Again, it goes back to creating a culture within the school, and making sure -- I think if we worked ahead of time, we can solve a lot of the problems before they arise.
You know, one of the things that we have done in our school is to make sure that every single one of our students has a relationship with an adult. And I think if other schools are out there listening and thinking what can we do, the most important thing is to make sure systems are in place so that every student has a relationship with an adult, someone they can go to and talk to if they have a problem.
We have a program in our school called an advisory program, and through the help of the Lindsey Foundation we are able to make sure that every single one of our students has someone that they can go to and talk to. Every single morning, they check in with this adult. The adult makes sure they have something to eat, they are OK, nothing crazy went on over the weekend at home. And we check on their grades.
But we make sure first that they are socially successful and that they are OK, because, if we don't do that first, how can we expect them to be academically successful?
ROBERTS: It certainly sounds astonishingly simple. Aaron Hansen, thanks so much. Good luck to you. Maybe you haven't eliminated the problem, but at least you found an effective way of dealing with it.
HANSEN: We have. We have a lot of results. Thanks for having me.
CHETRY: Thank you.
Still ahead, we will be meeting with the only female dog handler in all of Afghanistan. She is out there, on patrols with Marines looking for deadly IEDs and saving lives. Chris Lawrence checks in with her.
It's 39 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: It's 42 minutes past the hour. Right now we are going to go to the Marines in Afghanistan. They can make a difference between life and death. They are the dogs of war.
ROBERTS: Literally, they are the dogs of war. This morning, we want to introduce you to the only female handler in all of Afghanistan. Our Chris Lawrence is live at the Helmand province today. And Chris the pair that you had a chance to spend some time with has saved countless lives there in Afghanistan.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And she is doing it really not as one of the larger bases where most women in the country are stationed. She is out here at a base full of Marines with no running water or toilets, eating pretty much nothing but MREs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE (voice-over): One Marine and her dog on the hunt for IEDs, the only partnership like it in all of Afghanistan.
CPL ASHLEY ENTRIKIN, U.S. MARINE CORPS: And 14 dogs came out here. I am the only female.
LAWRENCE: Corporal Ashley Entrikin is the only female dog handler. Hugo is her Dutch shepherd. He can bring down an enemy and detect up to 17 scents -- explosives, technician cord, and fertilizer used to make IEDs.
(on camera): The one thing we can't show you is how Hugo trains, the specific things he does and looks for as he searching for IEDs.
(voice-over): But he allows Marines to keep a safe distance from suspicious cars.
ENTRIKIN: The dog will indicate to me whether there is anything in the vehicle or not.
LAWRENCE: Hugo is OK. It's Entrikin that has to live on this base with tough infantry Marines to go deep in Taliban territory.
ENTRIKIN: Honestly, you just have to prove yourself. You have to prove that you can hang in there.
LAWRENCE: Sometimes that means marching all day with fellow Marines, hauling 70 pounds of gear in sweltering heat.
ENTRIKIN: The first couple of really long hikes that we went on, they don't expect to stay in on them. Once you stay in the first couple, it is not that hard. We condition ourselves along with our dogs. So I'm used to wearing this gear doing training back in the states.
LAWRENCE: And Hugo doesn't get off any easier.
ENTRIKIN: Before we came out here, I would take him on runs. I would take him out in southern California in the hottest parts of date and take him on a run.
LAWRENCE: Just like the Marines, he has to be conditioned for long, hot days.
ENTRIKIN: It is definitely not your average dog we are bringing out here.
LAWRENCE: And not your average handler.
ENTRIKIN: I have been places with other females. They fall into the background. They are scared to step up and say, this is my job. This is what I am here for. So it takes somebody who is willing to stand on their own two feet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: Yet, more dog handlers could be on the way. So maybe she won't be alone for long. But the key is getting them supplied. They can't run at such a high tempo on just scraps. So to get that high, fortified dog food in, it's a tough logistical road especially out here in these remote areas -- John, Kiran.
CHETRY: I can only imagine. She's doing great work. Both of them are and all of them out there actually. Chris Lawrence for us this morning, thanks so much.
Well, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back -- finally, some good news for the northeast, drying out a little bit. Some record warmth on the way. Hopefully, it will make a difference for some of the people dealing with the -- the aftermath of some of the worst flooding in 200 years.
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CHETRY: This is a live picture right now from Washington, D.C. I see something sort of very funny on your screen right there. There's a flag blowing, it's the Canadian flag. And we do this in honor of John Roberts who's leaving soon to be the new U.S. ambassador to Canada as he heads to the president. Congratulations.
He got me good this morning with the April Fool's joke. That's all effect.
ROBERTS: It was early, it was really early. You just woke up and you've got the e-mail.
CHETRY: All right, well --
ROBERTS: Now, Christine Romans was saying, "Oh, wow, can I go to all those great parties?"
CHETRY: Well, I know, that was her first thought. She's a trooper. But the way, we're checking in with Reynolds Wolf, right now who is not going anywhere. He is actually in Warwick, Rhode Island right now, where they are thankful for this break in the weather but still have a lot to deal with in the aftermath of this flooding.
WOLF: Well, there's no question about it guys. I'm actually standing in Warwick outside of (INAUDIBLE) Discount Liquors at the Back. As you see, they have been unloading some stuff, which is a sure sign that things are getting back to normal.
Now they are lucky for the time being. Now other people over here are certainly aren't. You look over at city break and even look all the way over towards (INAUDIBLE) they get -- many of these places just inundated with the flood waters.
But the good news is that your forecast is going to look pretty favorable at least for this part of the country.
Let's go right to the forecast and what are you're going to be seeing is high pressure developing over the Eastern Seaboard. That means nothing in terms of rainfall at least through the weekend. Warmer conditions, see what's going to be picture perfect for you from New York. Obviously, in Rhode Island as far south as Atlanta, Georgia high is going up in the 70s and 80s.
Meanwhile, farther on to the west, we are going to see a few issues there. We're going to give you more updates on your forecast, what you can anticipate throughout the rest of the morning. Jackie Jeras and then Chad Myers will be in to give you the very latest.
Guys, that's the story here. Let's send it back to you in New York.
ROBERTS: All right, Reynolds, thanks so much. Good job you are doing out there.
Coming up now on 10 minutes to the top of the hour. The health care reform bill, what does it mean for you? How are college students and illegal immigrants affected? We're taking a look at that coming up next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: We're back with "The Most News in the Morning". It's seven minutes to the top of the hour. It's time for your "AM House Call", stories about your health.
Health care reform is a done deal. But you still have an awful lot of questions about it.
CHETRY: That's right and that's why we have chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us from Atlanta answering some of the questions. We'll dive into your mailbag, Sanjay. Because you know, people do have a lot of questions. The more you answer, people think of another thing they want to ask.
And one of them was about how it will affect children's health care. The Children's Health Insurance Program, will they continue to receive money, adequate amount of money, people want to know?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the short answer is, yes. Children's Health Insurance Program, CHIP as it's called; that's something that's administered by the state. It's specifically geared towards uninsured children and teenagers up until the age of 19.
Full disclosure, this is something that I worked on when I worked at the White House back in the late '90s. It continues to get reauthorization in terms of funding every five years. Looking at it specifically, with regard to this bill, now law, it should receive funding up until 2019. And overall, the amount of money has gone up by about 23 percent during this time period as well.
So the short answer to that question is, yes.
ROBERTS: This question comes from Chris in Scottsdale, Arizona. Sanjay, he writes to say, quote, "What section or language in the bill limits the benefits of the bill to U.S. citizens and legal immigrants?"
GUPTA: Great, great question. And I'll tell you this is a bit of a controversial even in the crafting of the bill, some of the behind-the-scenes stuff. If you look at some of the big sort of pillars of this in terms of increasing access, look at this national health exchange which goes into effect 2014. It is for U.S. citizens and legal immigrants only.
If you look at the high-risk pools which go into effect this year, again, U.S. citizens and legal immigrants only. Even the expansion of Medicaid which is going to be expanded to 133 percent of poverty level. Again that excludes illegal immigrants.
You know, it was controversial particularly with regard to these exchanges. The idea was sort of floated around, what if you allow people who are even illegal immigrants to buy into the exchange using their own money. This sort of bill did not reflect that. They say they are not going to be eligible for that. CHETRY: Always a hot button issue. Illegal immigration and a lot of concerns about whether or not that would block passage.
Another question. This one comes from Dawn in Ohio. "If a young person -- if a young person is in a school and off of their parents' insurance, can they then go back on to their parents' insurance with health care reform?"
GUPTA: Great question. I don't know about you Kiran, John lives in Canada. But you and I live here. I don't know if you ever found yourself in this position but there was a period of time after school for me where I fell into the exact situation, off parents policy but not yet employed.
The bottom line is this, if you are claiming the child as a dependent on your tax form, within six months you will be able to revert them back to your own policy -- talking to the parents here. And that stays in effect until one's 26th birthday.
Two important things that you have -- they have to be a dependent on your tax form, number one. And two, you do have to call your insurance company to let them know that you want to put the child back on your policy. So if you don't do those things, you might have a little bit of trouble but that should be pretty simple otherwise.
ROBERTS: All right. Final question, Sanjay, does any part of health care reform take effect before the year 2014?
GUPTA: Yes, it does. The people who are probably most directly affected immediately are people who have some sort of medical problem and are currently uninsured. The reason being -- and these are people who have been watching the last several months saying, I need this operation. I am putting it off. I need these medications, can't get them.
The reason being that -- they are going to create these high-risk pools as we have talked about. Think of them sort of as supermarkets all over the country where you can go and try and negotiate for a good price for a health insurance plan. The reason they are going to be able to lower the cost and make it more accessible is because the federal government is putting about $5 billion into these pools to help defray some of these costs.
So, I don't know what the final price tag is going to be for somebody who is watching right now --
CHETRY: Right.
GUPTA: -- but it should be better than what's currently available on the open market.
CHETRY: And they're also expanding Medicaid for kids, right. Are they -- they're doing that before 2014 and also the so-called doughnut hole?
GUPTA: That's right. With regard to the doughnut hole for seniors, for example, giving a $250 tax credit more immediately and then eventually, giving 50 percent tax subsidies towards any brand name drugs that are purchased. So that helps shrink the costs -- the prescription drug costs.
And finally Kiran, since you brought it up, this idea of not discriminating against children based on pre-existing conditions; that takes place this year as well.
ROBERTS: All right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta answering the questions from the mailbag this morning. Doc, great to see you. Thanks so much.
GUPTA: See you guys. Take care.
CHETRY: Thanks, Sanjay.
Fifty-eight minutes past the hour. We will be right back.
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CHETRY: That's going to do it for us. Watch yourself out there, by the way. Don't get fooled by any April fooleries. Continue the conversation on today's stories by going to our blog, CNN.com/amFIX.
ROBERTS: We'll see you again tomorrow morning. Meantime, the news continues in the "CNN NEWSROOM", here's Kyra Phillips -- good morning, Kyra.
