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North Korea Releases Merrill Newman; Dallas-Forth Worth Area Hard Hit By Winter Storm

Aired December 07, 2013 - 18:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM, here with us. I'm Deborah Feyerick.

U.S. intelligence officials will likely have a lot of questions for an 85-year-old American war veteran who was held captive in North Korea. Right now, Merrill Newman is enjoying his freedom after a very difficult ordeal. Newman arrived at the San Francisco International Airport just a few hours ago. He said he was tired but said he otherwise felt good. He was abruptly released without any official explanation. But a week ago, North Korea did release a video of Newman reading what appeared to be a confession to war crimes.

Dan Simon joins us live right now outside Newman's home in Palo Alto.

What more are we learning, Dan?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I can tell you, Deborah, when he arrived, he was asked by reporters if he'd ever want to return to North Korea and not surprisingly Merrill Newman said probably not.

I can tell you here at his retirement complex, they have the yellow ribbons here to welcome him home. He has not come here, though, apparently he has some alternative arrangements in place. This is a man who is 85 years old, spent six weeks in North Korea, essentially as a prisoner. It's not entirely clear, as you said, why the North Korean government decided to let him go free. Perhaps, that on-air apology had something to do with it. But this is what Mr. Newman had to say shortly after arriving into San Francisco.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERRILL NEWMAN, RELEASED BY NORTH KOREA: Good morning. I am delighted to be home. I want to thank the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang and American embassy in Beijing for all their help. It's been a great homecoming. And I'm tired but ready to be with my family now. And thank you all for the support we got and very much appreciate it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIMON: Newman didn't really say much about his treatment by the North Koreans. He was asked about the food and he had a one-word answer and said it was healthy. He seems to be in good health. He seems to be in good spirits. This is a man who an intelligence officer, Deborah, during the Korean war. He was an officer during the Korean war, apparently had a burning desire to go back and said apparently the wrong thing to someone and he was placed into custody. And thankfully, the government released him, again, really without explanation last night -- Deborah.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN ANCHOR: And vice president Joe Biden was there. Did he have any role in this release?

SIMON: It doesn't appear that the vice president had a direct role but CNN is told by a White House official that the White House did have some sort of direct connection with the North Korean government, which is unusual because, of course, there are no formal relations between the two countries and that apparently did result in Newman being released. The back story behind that, Deborah, of course, will be fascinating.

FEYERICK: All right, Dan Simon for us there. Thanks so much.

Well, with Merrill Newman now free, Washington is trying to secure the release of another American being held in North Korea. Kenneth Bae, a Christian missionary, has been in custody for more than a year. He was sentenced to 15 years hard labor last May for so-called hostile acts against the regime. Bae's family released this statement today quote, "We are pleased to hear that Mr. Newman was released from DPRK. We have been praying for him. We believe that out Kenneth should also come home soon. We are thankful for all who are advocating on Kenneth's behalf and for any ongoing dialogue with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. We have faith in our government to bring Kenneth home."

Well, survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack gathered in Hawaii for a special ceremony honoring those who were killed 72 years ago today. Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor launched the United States into World War II. The crowd observed a moment of silence, then a vintage World War II airplane flew overhead to break the silence. Public ceremony explored how the Americans answered the call of duty after the Pearl Harbor attack.

For our top news story this hour, it is the winter wake-up call that a few hundred thousand people are dealing with today across several states, particularly in the south. December's first reality rolled in across Texas where a lot of people, they are going nowhere on miles and miles of Dallas highways. A layer of slush that covered the area on Friday froze to a hard glaze and ice early today. That means roads are impossible to navigate, ice-covered power lines are snapping and thousands of want-to-be travelers spent the night at the Dallas Fort Worth airport.

Nearly every flight was cancelled. Nobody wants that. Central Texas draw a line north and east across Arkansas and to up to the Mississippi the Great Lakes, temperatures there are far below average right now. in fact, there are 10 to 35 degrees colder than normal for this time of year. Even in places where they embrace the bitter cold, it is a challenge to feel the love today. Our Indra Petersons is in Memphis.

Indra, average temperatures there at this time of the year is in the mid 50s. It was single digit earlier today with the wind chill. How much longer before the people of Memphis have to deal with it?

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. I wish I had a better news. We are definitely going to be talking about cold temperatures for some time. Actually, I want to tell you in Dallas, they actually gave out free tickets to the college football game there, hoping people would come and still only a thousand people showed. This is the cold, arctic bitter chill her we are dealing with this morning. It felt like single digit here with the wind chill.

Now, you combined that, of course, with this right here talking about even more of an ice form set to overnight. Now, we still have that concern here that we're going to be talking about more of these power lines coming down, still another quarter of an inch is possible. You add that to the quarter inch that is already out there. And of course, we have the threat for these power lines to come down this evening.

FEYERICK: Always a positive when you get football players out in that that kind of weather.

Indra Petersons for us, thanks so much.

Well, President Obama has defended his six-month nuclear deal with Iran today when he spoke at a prominent D.C. forum. The deal requires Iran to temporarily cap some nuclear activities in exchange for lightly reduction of sanctions. The president suggests to his critics of being very unrealistic if they believe that Iran would suddenly give all nuclear enrichment capabilities forever.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One can envision an ideal world in which Iran said we'll destroy every element and facility and you name it, it's all gone. I can envision a world in which Congress passed every one of my bills that I put forth. I mean, there are a lot of things that I can envision that would be wonderful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: At least he's realistic. The forum is being held by the Brookings Institution which is a Washington think tank.

An American nearly won the Arab's Got Talent competition. 23-years- old Jennifer Grout barely speaks Arabic, but she finished in the top three in the contest.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING)

FEYERICK: Some journalists in the Middle East criticized the decision to allow an American in the competition, but the audience and the judges, they loved her take on traditional songs, while other contestants performed more western sounding music. A Syrian dance group ultimately won the competition.

But hours ago Prince Harry's charity race to the south pole was put on hold for safety reasons. The Prince and a team of wounded veterans set off five days ago on a race to the south pole competing against two other teams. The extradition director says that he cancelled the competition because it really was putting too much stress on contestants' bodies. Prince Harry and his buds still get to check to the South Pole, but they are going to do it at a more reasonable, come might say leisurely pace. The competition for now is over.

Could have created a new way to fight cancer, finally, defeat cancer. Next, you are going to hear about an experimental treatment that helped this 15-year-old boy beat leukemia.

And we've all got that one relative in the family that people, well, don't talk about. But does that explain why the White House did a reversal in its story about the president's uncle? That story also coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: Two patients believed to have been cured of the aids virus after bone marrow transplant have seen the virus return. The Boston doctor who treated the patients call the return of the virus quote "disappointing," unquote. He also called it to scientifically significant. Researchers say the cases had demonstrated that the aids virus may persist, even when there's no evidence of it in a person's blood. The two patients remain on anti-retro viral therapy and are both in good health.

Well, one day fighting cancer might be like fighting the common cold. An experiment to new treatment helped a various sick teens beat back leukemia.

Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen talked with researchers who trained a teen's immune system to actually attack the cancer cells.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is left for to us do as far as your learner's permit?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A year ago John Wilkins wasn't sure if he would ever get to teach his son to drive a real car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I really wanted to learn.

COHEN: Nick, who is 15, has had leukemia, since he was 4-years-old. He tried chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant from his sister, both failed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a moment there where I thought that was it. He probably wouldn't live much longer.

COHEN: Nick's last hope was an experimental treatment, a clinical trial at the University of Pennsylvania.

JOHN WILKINS, FATHER OF TEEN BATTLING CANCER: When they start talking about doing clinical trials as the alternative, that's when you're really throwing hail marys.

COHEN: How did it feel as a mom to know this is it?

LISA WILKINS, MOTHER OF TEEN BATTLING CANCER: Uncertainly. Just uncertainty, just not knowing what is going to happen, it's hard.

J. WILKINS: One day we're in his room and I just wanted him to understand where we were at, that, you know, this was probably the last treatment.

COHEN: Were you in effect telling him that if this treatment didn't work --

J. WILKINS: He could die.

COHEN: In the treatment, Nick's doctors tweaked his immune system to make his own body rid itself of cancer. It is a ground-breaking approach that has captured the attention of cancer doctors, but there were no promises.

Nick received the personalized cell therapy in May. For a month John and Lisa watched over their son.

Do you remember the moment where they said, hey, this appears to be working?

L. WILKINS: They came back and said, we don't see any leukemia cells. So, that was the point of, you know, I think this is working. I think that, you know, we're definitely headed down the right path.

COHEN: Exactly how the treatment works is complicated, but Nick is pretty good at explaining it actually.

NICK WILKINS, BATTLING WITH CANCER: They took out t-cells out of my body and they engineered them to kind of track down the cancer cells and kill them off.

COHEN: Did they get them?

N. WILKINS: I hope so. I'm feeling it now so I think they did pretty well.

COHEN: Watch as this gray cancer killing cell on the left, attack the green cancer cell, which gets smaller and eventually dies. Doctors tried this in 59 patients, 25 are now cancer free.

L. WILKINS: Our hopes are that, you know eventually, will, you know, he will be cured that, you know, he can kind of put aside this and just kind of start moving forward.

J. WILKINS: I just want him to be able to enjoy a normal kid's life.

L. WILKINS: His biggest thing right now is he is looking forward to getting his learner's permit.

COHEN: And soon instead of playing with toy cars, John will get the chance to teach his son how to drive a real one.

You went from having cancer to now they can't find it. How does that feel?

N. WILKINS: Really great.

COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Ashburn, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: Absolutely remarkable.

Well, ten days of mourning are under way right now for the man that many called Madiba. Nelson Mandela will not be soon forgotten. Next, we are going to take you to Johannesburg to show you how he people of South Africa are celebrating his life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: Crowds gathered outside the home of Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg today, celebrating the life of the 95-year-old president who died on Thursday.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING

FEYERICK: It's a period of mourning, but it's also one of great celebration.

CNN's David McKenzie has more on the generations of South Africans who are saying goodbye to their beloved leader.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A pilgrimage of song and dance, paying tribute to Nelson Mandela at his Johannesburg home. To the man universal live known here as Madiba.

TSEPHO MALIKE, BANKER: Madiba just died. He is the greatest. (INAUDIBLE).

MCKENZIE: They are singing revolutionary song of the 1980s from South Africa, many of these people would have been part of the struggle to liberate this country.

What is truly remarkable is the unifying nature of this man, of how people of all races, creeds and ages have come out here. This is a period of mourning but really, it is a period of celebration was call out.

Craig Dickinson came with his 5-year-old son, Luke, so he could experience some Madiba magic.

CRAIG DICKINSON, JOINED THE CELEBRATION: He's done so much for our country. And the youth that are coming though and they are really involved in the name of Madiba. He's an icon.

MCKENZIE: Yvonne Malupe brought her son. She hopes she remember this day.

YVONNE MALUPE, JOINED THE CELEBRATION: Madiba was in his lifetime for a purpose and I think they will gain much more than we did because they experience a little more than we did and then we experience Mandela. They were born free. They were born free and so they experience all the fruits of what he went through.

MCKENZIE: Also, the day they've been lighting candles and laying flowers on this wall of remembrance. Many of them carrying young children of (INAUDIBLE). It was written by young South African in South Africa, "Madiba, our land, I love you." It's extraordinary the deep personal connection this man had with the people.

George Chauke showed his love by adorning his car with Mandela's image. He says he hasn't been able to sleep or eat since he heard the news.

GEORGE CHAUKE, JOINED THE CELEBRATION: We thought of him as -- I hope and believe without him (INAUDIBLE). We are father and grandfathers and I'm just upset.

MCKENZIE: But mostly they sing and remember the man that unified a country divided by history with his lasting message of forgiveness and reconciliation.

David McKenzie, CNN, Johannesburg.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: Both unifying and transitioning to majority rule.

Well, in the days ahead, a parade of world leaders will travel to south Africa to pay their respects. Former president George W. Bush and his wife will fly in Air Force One with President Obama and the first lady to Tuesday's memorial. Former president Bill Clinton also plans to attend. Both Clinton and his wife, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton met with Mandela in his final years. Former president Jimmy Carter will also travel to the memorial as part of the elders delegation, an international human rights group that is chaired by Kofi Annan.

Well, the White House has backed away from a reported statement made two years ago that President Obama had never met an uncle who lives near Boston. It turns out the president not only knew the uncle, he actually once lived with him. Why all the confusion?

Here's CNN's Brian Todd.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's a 69-year-old man who works in a liquor store near Boston and he is now caught up in the president's latest political bigram. The man's name, Onyango Okech Obama, also called Omar, the president's uncle. The "Boston Globe" previously cited the White House as saying the president and his uncle had never met. But the White House press secretary now says this.

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president said that he, in fact, had met Omar Obama when he moved to Cambridge for law school and that he stayed with him for a brief period of time until his, the president's apartment was ready.

TODD: In recent days, the uncle said Barack Obama stayed with him for three weeks in the 1980s. Why the different accounts?

CARNEY: Back when this arose, folks looked at the record including the president's book and there was no evidence that they met.

TODD: Jay Carney said it was when he asked the president in person that the president acknowledged he stayed with his uncle. It could be simple semantics. But the White House was first asked about the relationship a couple of years ago after the uncle had been arrested for drunk driving and it came to light that he was fighting deportation. That is given ammunition to Republican critics.

Critics of the White House say this speaks to a deeper credibility problem of the president and his staff not being forthcoming even on matters that wouldn't seem of the aspect to be politically damaging.

ANA NAVARRO, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: So really, it was such an unforced error and it just goes back to this thing of the White House not being completely forthright with facts with the public. It's what's contributed to his trustworthiness numbers going way down.

TODD: And political observers say something else could be lingering.

MATT BERMAN, NATIONAL JOURNAL: I think it definitely does raise an interesting question about whether or not the White House has come through with this idea that he has relatives that had trouble with DUI or immigration problems or whatever else, but there's so many politicians out there that have had similar relatives with similar issues.

TODD: A White House official pushed back on the ideas that the president is not comfortable with those members of his family, pointing out that he wrote extensively about them in his book "dreams from my father."

Brian Todd, CNN. Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: Well, what could keep college football fans away from their favorite teams? Look at the stands. Almost empty. We're going to explain coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: Well, the ice storm battering parts of the country kept college football fans in Texas at home. Fewer than a thousand people showed up for today's game in Dallas between Central Florida and SMU (ph). It was 24 degrees at kickoff. School officials even offered free admission to anyone who showed up. But, yes, that wasn't even enough. Central Florida won, by the way, 17-13.

Well, lower than normal temperatures, snow and sleet, it is a long line of severe weather headed straight for the east coast.

Alexandra Steele is tracking the storm shows us where it is about to get nasty. I'm getting out my winter coat, Alexandra.

ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. The redskins, ravens, eagles, all have games tomorrow being impacted by this weather.

So hi, everyone. Good evening to you.

Looking quiet right now, right, from Boston to New York to Washington. But that will change. But this snow-and-ice show is a one-day event and it's really just tomorrow.

So, here is tomorrow morning in Washington, you can see the heaviest of the snow, which is white. The ice certainly what we are going to see to freezing rain and the sleet. In Roanoke to Richmond that i-81 may see the heaviest accumulation. And then by tomorrow night, you can see here, still in Washington, moving toward New York and Long Island and then overnight tomorrow night into Monday as well. They hit a snow becomes cold enough in New England, but most of this is rain. That's the biggest difference between this ice event and yesterday's. Between Dallas and Memphis, temperatures have been holding so cold. That will not be the case along the eastern sea board. By Monday everybody will be in the 40s so whatever ice there is will melt.

So, here is the timeline for Washington, the only city with winter storm watch as of now. It starts in the morning by 11:00 or 12. Snow and sleet to start. And then by the afternoon and the evening, changing over to freezing rain and sleet. So, on the haul maybe one to two inches of snow, maybe a quarter of inch of ice possible in Washington. Certainly more ice to the Western suburbs.

Philadelphia in the afternoon, it begins to move in, snow and sleet by nighttime. We'll see a change over to rain as temperatures kind of begin to come up, maybe see a snow/sleet accumulation of an inch. In New York city, really dry until tomorrow then late tomorrow night, the snow and sleet changing over to rain, could see up to an inch of snow or sleet in New York city.

And this is why. This is certainly the good news with this ice storm. Look at these temperatures by Monday in New York, in Boston, in Washington, all will be in the 40s. So certainly, Deb, we are going to see a different scenario with this one because of the quick changeover from any ice that does fall to rain and certainly melting it all on the byways and the overpasses where things are really so tricky today.

FEYERICK: All right. Well, that is good news. This is going to be a (INAUDIBLE), at least of a day. Alexandra Steele, thanks so much.

And you know, some people have stayed in doors and they are venting their weather blues online.

Rosa Flores joins me now here in New York.

And Rosa, you have been following this. And there's a good response to what is going on, how people are sort of the riding this out.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are. And one of the things that really stands out to me is just that variation in temperatures. Some areas of Arkansas, for example, the temperatures went from 70 degrees to freezing.

So, here's an interesting contrast. They found their colorful flowers covered in ice. This was sent in by iReporter Susan Brockett from Arkansas. She said classes had been cancelled. The day started off with the drizzle and then bam, pounding sounds of ice pellets which slowly turn into layers of ice.

Now to areas of Texas, Joslin Lockwood sent us in via Twitter from Dallas. She said still covered in ice with power outages remaining, but the roads have improved immensely. That is definitely a good news for those folks. And don't let the sun fool you, I've seen several pictures like these. This is from iReporter Mark Ivy from Indiana. And a lot of these pictures say looks are deceiving and that is true. Even though the sun is shining, it is cold and it is frigid in many areas. Mark Ivy says the temperatures fall into the single digits at night and rise only into the mid 20s during the day.

Tweet me your pictures or send me a message on facebook @rosaflores. I love to hear from you. Thank you so much for keeping us posted.

FEYERICK: Absolutely. I love the ice. It's so beautiful but you have to be so careful because it's so heavy and weighs trees and power lines down.

Rosa, thank you so much.

FLORES: You are welcome.

FEYERICK: Well, a 16-year-old boy died today on a Delta Airline. Apparently, he died of natural causes. Delta says that the medical emergency was declared on the plane which was flying from Seattle to Atlanta. They made an emergency landing in Spokane Washington. A deputy medical inspector said that the teen died once the plane landed. An autopsy is set for Monday.

And with more and more evidence that the get-tough policies don't work, school districts across the country are rethinking zero tolerance, but is giving kids a second chance the answer? Our conversation coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) FEYERICK: Well, there's no question that the world of education isn't what it used to be. The National tragedies like Newtown and Columbine to plummet test scores in student's performance. Ask anyone from teachers to parents, even students themselves. A new report by the American civil liberties union of Pennsylvania looked at student discipline. And whether the practice of zero tolerance is actually helping or hurting students. And the verdict, well, the overly broad policy just isn't working.

And joining me to discuss is Broward County public school superintendent Robert Runcie, president of national school safety and security services, Kenneth Trump and also psychologist Wendy Walsh.

All right, so, all of you, let's get down it.

Superintendent, you are on the front line so to speak, why turn away -- first of all, tell us what zero tolerance is and why turn away from it now?

ROBERT RUNCIE, SUPERINTENDENT, BROWARD COUNTY POLICE SCHOOLS: Well, the reason why we would turn away from it is because zero tolerance policies are not effective. In 2011 in Broward County, we had the largest number of student school-related arrests in Florida, 1,062 school related arrests. Out of that 754 of them, about 75 percent, were for non-violent misdemeanor offenses. These are things that would normally have been handled by schools in the past. And as we see the numbers continue to grow, they just put children on a trajectory that, one, they don't learn from the behavior. Two, we see a lot of repeat offenders.

So, what we are trying to put interventions on the front end to change behavior and increase students' opportunity for success.

FEYERICK: So, let's talk, just very -- fill us in, though, the 754 non-violent arrests, what specifically are you talking about? What were they for?

RUNCIE: So, we're looking at things like disrupting a school event, fights, bullying, minor theft offenses, things, that again, can normally be handled within a district and a school environment. So, what we've done is we've taken a very critical look at our student code of conduct and discipline matrix in the district. We've made some modifications with that through a comprehensive committee that include law enforcement, representative from the juvenile justice system, the courts and we recognize there's a huge issue here that we need to address. There's been a --

FEYERICK: OK. Let me quickly get way in, Kenneth, the concept of zero tolerance was clearly created for a reason. Has it gone in the wrong direction? What changed in education that we really needed this?

KENNETH TRUMP, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL SCHOOL SAFETY AND SECURITY SERVICES: Well, what a didn't hear an answer to is what is zero tolerance. You asked that question a moment ago. And my question having worked in school for 30 plus years is what is zero tolerance? Is that mean we had a 50 percent tolerance or 25 percent tolerance or is that what we're going to?

I agree there are certainly concerns about suspensions, expulsions and arrests. They are not secure all answer to this. and my concern is, and I'm not an advocate of this, there are just proportionality as well. I have known from a variations of all the cultural family, by with my own children and certainly understand there are those implications as well.

My concern though is out on the front lines in the school, what does that equate to? What is a minor misdemeanor that we're now going to handcuff school police officers and tell them they're not allowed to apply the law? If my child is assaulted in school, does that count? What's the degree of assault? Do they have to be bleeding and bloody and broken to be constitutes interaction with law enforcement? IS that theft that we talk about, is there a dollar limit, and for the 100, 200, 300?

So, what happens is, we have good ideas, we have good issues. There are -- we need balance and common sense. But what happens is when we start focusing on playing the numbers game, we're the number one district in the state on arrests, suspension and expulsions, than what the building level, principles start evaluating every case not on managing behavior, but on managing numbers and politics.

FEYERICK: OK. Well, Wendy, what was that? Wendy, let me ask you this question. And that is look, You have got an environment where kids, obviously, have got to be on their best behavior, but does it create a hostile environment within the school or does it really enforce the right kind of discipline. Should kids be given a chance when they make another mistake?

WENDY WALSH, HUMAN BEHAVIOR SPECIALIST: Absolutely. I think this puts an unfair pressure on teenagers. Some of the behaviors in the misdemeanor you're talking about, I'm sorry to say are natural teenager behavior, where they are learning from things experientially.

Let me tell you. Plenty of teenagers have tried marijuana, shoplifted, practiced testing social structure through aggression and ended up running Fortune 500 companies. The problem is we don't understand the developing brain. The developing brain doesn't understand always how to make logical choices and fully comprehend the consequences. And as a result, when you arrest these kids or expel them, you're marginalizing them in with a kind of criminal population or giving them a criminal identity.

Now, this is a big time of identity formation, which means, you know, if you tell a kid they're bad, likely they're going to be more bad in the future. So, I think it's really important that we give kids a second chance, that we help them understand and give them more logical consequences than you're a criminal, you're out of this school.

FEYERICK: OK. Now, the three of you don't go anywhere. The discussion is far from over. Next, we are going to look at how to change the norms in U.S. schools one student at a time, on the other side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: We're talking about school discipline and the use of zero tolerance policies. Back with me, Broward county superintendent Robert Runcie and president of national safety and security services Kenneth Trump and psychologist Wendy Walsh.

So superintendent let me swing it back to you. What kind of alternatives are there to zero tolerance because Ken raised the issue when is enough, enough?

RUNCIE: Well, let me just start off by addressing the first piece about zero tolerance. It's not cart blanche that we have no misdemeanor, no offenses that are actually involving arrests, we still have some of those. We have set limits on what that is. So, for example, theft is for items that are less than $300. We've set marijuana possessions to be less than 20 grams. So there are limits that we've constructed and the school district did this in partnership with the sheriff's office and our juvenile justice system. So, it's been a collaboration with our law enforcement, our juvenile justice system to come up with this program.

Now, as far as the interventions that we put, our alternative program in place, we created a program called "promise" where the student as well as the family essentially sign a contract to go and get counseling and support. They go through a curriculum that has been developed that's appropriate for the age and the particular offense. There's an assessment that's involved. The student is assigned a social worker, family counselors which work with the school to do restorative justice and we monitor and track them for several weeks to be sure that students are progressing.

What we've noticed this year so far, out of 625 students who have been referred to the alternative program, we've only had 25 of them come back. So less than four percent have been repeat offenders. That's a 50 percent drop from what we've seen. So, that is absolutely working.

FEYERICK: So, it does seem that it's working.

But at the same time, Ken, does it sound like these kids are being coddled in a way, maybe to the extent that there could be something worse happening, even a school shooting, for example?

TRUMP: Let me just say again, I am not one of those hardliners who think that the answer is arrest to everything. I think the superintendent raises a valid point and I particularly commend him and the district for developing alternative programs.

What I'm not hearing -- I'm hearing a lot of alternatives and the developing mind of the offender, I'm not hearing anything about the victims. So, my child is the victim of a theft of $295, my child is assaulted and it doesn't raised to the bar that you arbitrarily set. I guess, it's interesting to me that the police department and the school district have arbitrarily redefining what is and isn't criminal law. And most of all, my question is, what's the impact on the developing mind of the victim when there is a questionable consequences or lower consequences or no consequences and many other parents are asking me that? And what is the consequence for the child who were telling your criminal behavior when it rises to that and inappropriate behavior, it gets a special slide and special set of rules here in the school but they go out on the streets in the community and get a different response and feel they're discriminated there.

FEYERICK: Wendy, let me ask you. Let Wendy get a word in here. Because I want to know from you, Wendy, is, what is acceptable behavior and what is not? And there is that aspect that look, another child may be hurt. So, when does it become so disruptive that it shouldn't be tolerated at all, which is really what the policy is right now.

WALSH: Well, I think the idea that school districts work with local law enforcement, because do we really want to waste the public's money arresting all these kids anyway, is very important. But I think victims' rights are important here, too. And I really promote what I call logical consequences.

An arrest may not be a logical consequence to a 14-year-old, but understanding, you know, doing some empathy training, understanding the damage to the victim, finding a way to compensate the victim, you know. You're going to have to find a way to make the money to pay that person back.

That's how we learned lessons when we were coming up and it makes a lot more sense than just calling the police.

FEYERICK: You know, you also --

RUNCIE: And that's absolutely the program.

FEYERICK: Go ahead, Bob.

RUNCIE: You know, and that's absolutely part of the training and the counseling that's provided to the students is what was just described. So we do work -- so, for example, if it's bullying, we go through all the consequences of what that means. When we do a restorative justice piece, there is resolution that's brought between the victim as well as and the offender. So we do work through that.

At the end of the day, we've got to create a different climate in our schools. Just pulling a student out of the school, expelling them and putting them on the street or arresting them is not a solution to doing that. We're just creating a pipeline of failure as we see what happens long term when a student is arrested, it impacts their long- term chances for college, military, housing, jobs and it just perpetuates a cycle of generational poverty in many cases.

FEYERICK: So what you're trying to do -- so it sounds to me what you're trying to do is you're trying to lift these students up.

But there is a question that sometimes that schools will spend a disproportionate amount of time helping the children who are doing these things when that kind of energy could also be used to helping those children who are on a more successful path. By a show of hands, do you see an imbalance in that?

Wendy, let me start with you.

WALSH: No, I actually think the important thing to understand is we're in a village here. If you just marginalize a small group of kids, what you're going to do is raise a generation of criminals who will eventually hurt, maybe, your children maybe in adult life, right? And it will cause them in tax money. We're in a village. There is a group of children, some of them are high achieving, some low achieving, some come from homes that need more support from the public than other homes. But I think we have to have a village mentality to help all the children. They're kids.

FEYERICK: They are. They're kids. And if you can change the path, clearly that's what schools and society wants.

All right, the three of you, Wendy Walsh, Kenneth Trump, Robert Runcie, thank you so much. We appreciate it. Fascinating things to think about this evening. Thank you.

Well, with the click of the cameras, an iconic picture for the ages. Coming up, we are going to meet the photographer behind the lens and find out how this moment changed his life.

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FEYERICK: Nelson Mandela's compassion, his humanity, his humility touches people all over the world. For some, it has been life altering experienced. Peter Turnley is a photographer who was there the day Mandela was released from prison more than 20 years ago. He described the moments that followed in his own words.

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PETER TURNLEY, PHOTOJOURNALIST: Nelson Mandela's example, his courage, his determination, his dignity, his forward thinking of conciliation, of forgiveness and of love for all is something that has touched so many people and it has been something that has brought people towards him and brought people together.

On the morning of February 11th, 1990, I was with a group of photographers. We had gotten to the prison very early that morning. At one point in the early afternoon, I will never forget suddenly about five helicopters began to descend right over the back of this prison and suddenly there were screams that came in all directions of excitement. And I knew that something very important was about to happen. And I had been waiting so long for this moment and I always wondered what it would look like.

I was looking through my camera very intensely waiting and all of a sudden I saw Winnie Mandela with her right hand holding the left hand of a very tall man. And at that second I began to push on the shutter of my camera. I had a motor drive and I'll never forget had I saw her left fist and his right fist suddenly move up. And as they were moving up, my finger was on the motor drive and I could hear the click of my shut a shutter and I could see this moment. And when the fists arrived at the apoge of this arc, I knew at that moment that I heard my camera click and I saw his fist at the top of this arc that I had made this photograph and this was one of the most exhilarating moments of my life.

A few days after he came out of prison, a small group of photographers were at his house in Orlando west in Soweto and Nelson Mandela walked out of the backdoor of his house and he came and he sat in a chair, this chair was right below some trees and it was -- the trees had created a lot of shadow. There was a bright light that was shining through the shadows of these tries right on his face, as if his soul, as if his body was a magnet for this light. And I know that the light of this incredibly powerful jewel of a human being has touched my heart, has touched the hearts of all south Africans and has touched the hearts of people worldwide and will do so forever.

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FEYERICK: Remarkable. Well, Nelson Mandela inspired people around the world to make an impact. For more on his charitable legacy and how you can also make an impact and get involved, go to CNN.com/impact.