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New Day
Alice Paul Tapper's Challenge to Young Girls; Prince Charles and Camilla Visit Cuba; Suicides Put Spotlight on Survivor's Guilt. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired March 26, 2019 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[08:33:07] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: At just 11 years old, Alice Paul Tapper, the daughter of our friend Jake Tapper, has started a movement to motivate young girls to be more confident in the classroom.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, based off a school experience of her own, Alice Paul wrote the book "Raise Your Hand," available now in stores.
And here with us is Alice Paul Tapper and also another guy, Jake is with us.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE LEAD": I'm here too.
BERMAN: Alice Paul, I have to tell you, I love the book.
ALICE PAUL TAPPER, AUTHOR, "RAISE YOUR HAND": Thank you.
BERMAN: And I love the story behind it. So just tell us how you came to write this.
A. TAPPER: Well, I started noticing in class that the boys were raising their hands more than the girls. And the girls were just sitting there being silent. And I was scared myself to raise my hand. So I brought this up to my mom because I wanted to know if I was the only one. And she told me to go ask my Girl Scout troop.
So then I went to my Girl Scout troop to ask them if they have experienced the same notices -- noticed that the boys raising their hands more than the girls. They said that they also experienced shyness when raising their hands. So I wanted to do something about that.
So I got in a meeting with the Girl Scouts Nation's Capital Council, Lydia Soto-Herman (ph), and we discussed what we could do with this information. So I had the idea of making a patch for Girl Scouts to earn. And they have to pledge to raise their hand. They recruit three other girls to pledge to raise their hands as well. But those three other girls do not have to be Girl Scouts.
CAMEROTA: Wow. That is a great idea. And -- J. TAPPER: Tell them how many patches.
A. TAPPER: Oh, now we have sold over 13,000 patches.
BERMAN: Thirteen thousand?
A. TAPPER: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. So you've inspired 13,000 girls to raise their hands and they've spread the word to other girls.
A. TAPPER: Uh-huh.
CAMEROTA: And what do you think that's about? Why do you think girls in 6th grade or 5th grade are not as comfortable raising their hands as boys?
[08:35:02] A. TAPPER: Well, because I'm -- I think they're afraid to be laughed at and they're afraid that people are going to judge them.
CAMEROTA: Yes. I get it. I mean I think that we all are. But somehow girls, I guess, internalize that more at that age than boys do.
A. TAPPER: Yes.
BERMAN: And when you raise your hand, you know, you're not always right. You don't always have to be right.
A. TAPPER: It's true. Girls my age have to be like certain they're right or else most of them won't raise their hands because they're too nervous that they're going to get the answer wrong.
J. TAPPER: And boys, what about boys?
A. TAPPER: Sometimes they just raise their hand and get the answer wrong. But then -- but they -- it's -- they're trying and it's a good thing. It's good to -- if you get a bad grade on a test, you learn from it. As long as you learn from it, it's OK.
CAMEROTA: Is part of the problem that at home your dad's always right? Is that how you see your dad? Is he just --
J. TAPPER: That's -- that's -- that's not our home. That's definitely not right.
A. TAPPER: Yes.
J. TAPPER: I don't think I'm always right.
A. TAPPER: No.
J. TAPPER: I'm often wrong.
BERMAN: So talk to me about the reaction here. You know, 13,000 patches. You know, the book is now out. Beautifully illustrated. And you've had responses from around the world, including a response that Alisyn picked up on right away here.
CAMEROTA: Well, I mean, I just wanted to show this picture because you have a check right here and I want you to explain to us what's going on. You're holding a big check for I guess $20,000?
A. TAPPER: Yes, $25,000.
CAMEROTA: $25,000. And it's from Oprah.
A. TAPPER: Yes. That's my friend Joelle (ph) right there. She's holding the one from Oprah and I'm holding the one from my book.
CAMEROTA: And so what's that about? How did you get them? I mean why -- why was Oprah investing and why did you get this money for your book?
A. TAPPER: Well, my dad asked her to blurb (ph) my book, but she couldn't. So instead she sent me a letter and it was this really sweet letter saying that she supported me and that she also -- she didn't really struggle to raise her hand but she supports me and then --
J. TAPPER: But she heard that Alice was donating her advance to the local Girl Scouts.
A. TAPPER: Yes.
CAMEROTA: That's great.
J. TAPPER: So then Oprah did what?
A. TAPPER: So then Oprah sent a check for $25,000 to the Girl Scouts.
J. TAPPER: And then what did Ellen do?
A. TAPPER: Ellen wanted to top Oprah, so she gave a check for $25,001.
BERMAN: That is awesome.
CAMEROTA: Fantastic.
BERMAN: Maury Povich, I feel like, you know, you're up next.
CAMEROTA: Yes, your move.
BERMAN: Jake, I have to ask this as a parent of 6th graders myself, I mean, on a scale of one to ten, how proud are you?
J. TAPPER: You know, the truth is, I'm always proud of her and her brother Jack. They're both just wonderful, wonderful kids. The idea of this was such a great idea. So when it got out there and people started picking up on it, first the Girl Scouts Nation's Capital agreeing to do the patch and then "The New York Times" saw the patch and asked her to do an op-ed. And then Penguin Books saw the op-ed and asked her to write a children's book. It made sense. And Alice is very inspiring and also --
A. TAPPER: Thank you.
J. TAPPER: She's very humble about it, which is also just very touching as a dad to see.
And I should say mom had a lot to do with this, inspiring your feminism and your strength.
A. TAPPER: Yes. Yes.
CAMEROTA: We know that. We've met your mom. We bet that she has --
A. TAPPER: She's awesome.
CAMEROTA: Oh, she is awesome.
And so your dad is an author. I have written a book, as John Berman can tell you.
J. TAPPER: Great book.
CAMEROTA: How hard was it to -- it's harder -- I found it harder than people expect to write a book. How did you find it?
A. TAPPER: I didn't find it that hard actually because I knew what I was going to say. And I wanted -- I knew what I was going to write about and what I was going to say. And I was passionate about it. So if you're really passionate about something, then, yes, you can do anything.
CAMEROTA: It's a great message.
BERMAN: Alice Paul Tapper, we are honored to meet you. I love the book. People should go out and get it. The illustrations are wonderful and the story is wonderful and the message is best of all.
A. TAPPER: Thank you.
BERMAN: Thank you so much for being with us.
A. TAPPER: Thank you for having me.
CAMEROTA: Thanks, guys, great to see you.
J. TAPPER: Thanks, guys.
BERMAN: All right, Jake.
Britain's Prince Charles just did something no other royal has ever done before. And not everyone is happy about it.
CAMEROTA: Like you.
BERMAN: We have a live report from Havana, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [08:42:58] BERMAN: Prince Charles and Camilla, the duchess of Cornwall, making history with their first visit to Cuba. So this historic trip is the royal family's first ever trip to the communist island, which is angering some lawmakers here in the United States.
CNN's Max Foster is live in Havana with the very latest on this.
This was clearly a choice, Max.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: John, human rights, Cuban support for Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, as you know, highly sensitive issues in parts of Washington. And there's more talk now about increasing sanctions on this island.
Meanwhile, key U.S. ally, the U.K., is opening up to Cuba in the most high profile way it knows.
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FOSTER (voice over): Bring a senior royal couple to Havana, show them around the narrow streets, add some tourists, a ton of media and you very quickly end up with this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need to move everyone back, please.
FOSTER (on camera): The British royal family aren't particularly well known here in Cuba. But you wouldn't know it from the amount of media that's shown up in these very narrow streets. Much of it's state media controlled by the government.
FOSTER (voice over): The regime keen for its media to show it still has powerful friends in the west who are keen to visit the country's historic areas. The couple were guided by a senior member of the communist party, Eusebio Leal.
FOSTER (on camera): What does it mean for Cuba to receive the prince and have him here?
EUSEBIO LEAL, HISTORIAN AND POLITICIAN (through translator): It's very important for all the people around the world to come to Havana on the 500th anniversary. It's a great motivator to come.
FOSTER (voice over): Charles doing his bit to reinforce that message with this high profile visit on behalf of the British government. But it's infuriated some in Washington who are pushing for tougher sanctions against what they regard as a tyrannical regime.
SEN. RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA: Why would the British government want to recognize Juan Guaido as the new president of Venezuela and they -- we all know that the Castro regime is the one that are propping up Maduro, the dictator in Venezuela, and at the same time have the prince, who has unbelievable worldwide influence, go prop up the regime. It just doesn't make sense.
[08:45:22] FOSTER: This image, more than any other, showing how far U.K./Cuba relations have come. Prince Charles hosted by the president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, in the palace of the revolution itself. A U.K. government source said they're conscious of how their approach is very different from that of the U.S., but they're confident that they've got it right.
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FOSTER: And I have to say, there are some lawmakers in the British ruling conservative party as well who are very concerned about how this will look in Washington. But, obviously, Alisyn, the White House has its other distractions this week. So perhaps not focused on it today.
CAMEROTA: Fair to say, Max. Thank you very much for that report from Cuba.
Well, the tragedy of the Parkland and the Sandy Hook school massacres are compounded this week by apparent suicides. Why is this happening? What can we do to help? That's next.
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[08:50:21] CAMEROTA: Two communities struck by unimaginable grief, now dealing with more loss. A father whose six-year-old daughter was killed in the Sandy Hook massacre becoming the latest to die in an apparent suicide. Also this week, two Parkland high school survivors died in apparent suicides.
What is prompting this? Joining us to discuss it is John Draper. He's the director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. And he has some very important tips and information for us.
John, it's nice to see you again. You've helped us through this topic before here on NEW DAY. And I just find it so soul-crushing to have to report on this because the ripple effect after a school shooting, you know, we now know that the pain, of course, stays with people. And so months later, a year later, seven years later in the Sandy Hook case, this is happening.
How do you explain it?
JOHN DRAPER, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION LIFELINE: Well, and thank you for inviting me on for this important subject matter, Alisyn. I mean really what we're talking about is traumatic loss. And traumatic loss is not something that just goes away. It really is something that we have to pay attention to and ask each other for years afterward, how are you doing?
You know, the question that you're asking this morning about, you know, why did this happen and what more can we do about it, those are the questions that relentlessly hammer at people who have suffered traumatic losses. What more could I have done? And why did this happen? And maybe even, why not me? And these are -- these are cruel questions that people will continue to ask themselves. And there's no good answers for them. But the only answer that we can provide is, you don't have to go through this alone. CAMEROTA: Well, yes, I think that that's a really important message.
But, you know, the old adage of time heals all wounds, no, it doesn't. You know, sometimes you're still in searing pain long after the event. And what are you supposed to do about that? For people who are still in pain, and for people -- if we know people in crisis, what's the answer?
DRAPER: Well, you make a very good point, Alisyn. Really most people who have go through traumatic situations actually do get better. But what that means is that those people who are not getting better and who see others moving on and not asking and/or expecting that they're going through anything now, they begin to form more -- feel more alone and feel unsupported and feel like they don't have permission to talk about it. So that's why it's very important to have special resources for people that are available.
And we -- we certainly provide those. We have not only the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline but the National Disaster Distress Helpline, which has provided for people who have gone through human- made as well as natural disasters and are still emotionally affected years afterwards.
CAMEROTA: That's really valuable.
You know, we've talked, John, you and I before about the best way to talk about this on TV because for a long time we avoided the subject of suicide.
DRAPER: Right.
CAMEROTA: I mean studiously avoided it because we were afraid of copycat cases.
DRAPER: Right.
CAMEROTA: But it turns out, that's not the right answer either because that creates a stigma. So we need to talk about it but we need to do it, obviously, in a productive, helpful way. And so what is that?
DRAPER: Well, I think a very productive thing is -- what makes it hard, I think, for a number of people, and what causes -- what we would say a contagion of some kind is when people see individuals modeling how to react to circumstances where they feel hopeless and helpless and do so self-destructively.
What we really need to see more of and give more contact for people is our peers who have gone through these situations, essentially who are -- who found ways to cope through seemingly the impossible and learn from them. What is it that got you through this? And those models -- and those are primarily what's happening out there is most people are getting through. But how -- how are they getting through? What -- what -- what helps them? So I -- from our standpoint, one of the things that we're absolutely committed to is an organization is to establish a way in which -- in this specific case -- survivors of school shootings get additional supports and actually contact with each other so they can support one another. CAMEROTA: That's really valuable because while the pain doesn't
completely go away, you can turn a corner.
DRAPER: Right.
CAMEROTA: And you can have some good days. And you can have some longer than good days. And so I think that people need to realize that the pain doesn't stay as excruciating forever. And that's what we need to talk about.
[08:55:10] DRAPER: Yes. But here's the other thing, Alisyn, is that people shouldn't have to go through this alone. And I -- and it's hard to get through those days when you feel like you have to do it all by yourself.
We know that any measure of pain is more tolerable if we're sharing it with somebody else. There's all sorts of research to indicate that. So the more people feel empathy and understanding and connection with others, the less likely they are to feel that pain. We have -- it actually registers in the brain that way. So the more we can provide contact and assistance for individuals who are going through these situations, who feel left behind and say, we haven't forgotten you, the more we're going to be able to help people get through it.
CAMEROTA: That's a great message, John.
John Draper, thank you very much for giving us the language to help people and for giving us the actual hotline. If anyone out there is thinking about suicide or if you're worried about a friend or a loved one, there is help. Please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. It is 1-800-273-TALK, or 8255. This is free, confidential. It's available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
And please keep the families of the Sandy Hook victims, as well as the Parkland survivors, in your thoughts today.
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