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At This Hour

Court: Parents Of School Shooter Can Stand Trial For Manslaughter; ADL: Antisemitic Incidents Hit Record High In U.S.; New Research: COVID-19 Vaccine Cuts Risk Of Long COVID. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired March 23, 2023 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This Just in to CNN. In what could be a precedent-setting case. An Appeals court in Michigan has just ruled that the parents of a teenager, you see right there, who killed four people in a school shooting that the parents will stand trial for the actions of their son. Jean Casarez joins me now with new details. This is just coming in, Jean. What more are you learning?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is huge. This is really, really huge because what will now go to the jury are charges of involuntary manslaughter.

BOLDUAN: OK.

CASAREZ: But the parents of Ethan Crumbley, they caused the death of those four students at Oxford High School, this is a homicide charge to make the parents responsible. Now, Ethan Crumbley has already pleaded guilty to all of his charges --

BOLDUAN: Right.

CASAREZ: -- which were the four students that were killed, and then seven were injured, other charges too. But now, it's the parents. And the parents had fought -- their attorneys had fought to get this dismissed because it is precedent-setting.

You know, I listen to the Appellate Court arguments. And the -- one of the appellate judges asked the prosecutor, have you found any other case in this country where parents face these charges in regard to the actions of their children? And the answer was no, Your Honor, we have not. But this court believes that there is enough reckless conduct --

BOLDUAN: Yes, but --

CASAREZ: -- and foreseeability. That's the issue.

BOLDUAN: There are text messages back and forth. I remember this now, Jean.

CASAREZ: Yes. Ethan had mental problems. And he texted his mother that he was -- the walls were falling in, things were happening around the house, and then they bought him a gun. Now, the defense is saying we never thought he would take the gun to school and shoot students. But it is a question of fact now for a jury leading up to this trial.

And it is precedent-setting because now if you span across the country, parents could begin to be charged with more serious crimes. They've been charged with neglect and negligence, but they now have potentiality of being charged with more serious crimes when their child does something with a gun that they had knowledge of.

BOLDUAN: That's so interesting. All right. This is a big deal. Thank you, Jean, so much for jumping on to bring us that.

CASAREZ: You're welcome.

BOLDUAN: I appreciate it. We'll continue to follow this very closely, of course.

There's also new guidance we want to get to you for air traffic controllers across the country in the wake of multiple close calls that we've been covering on run -- on airport runways, the new push from the FAA really to avoid disaster.

Pete Muntean has this for us. He's joining us now. Pete, what is the FAA's plan here to address the issue? And we're talking about air traffic control towers.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, you know, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is talking about this on Capitol Hill right now. And he just said that the top two most severe categories of the so-called runway incursions, near collisions on the runway, were happening about one time every month. Now, they're happening more than double that.

The real thing that the FAA is focusing on here is two-pronged after the safety summit they had about these issues last week, not only reminding operators of aircraft, including airlines to be extra vigilant and step up their training when it comes to safety protocols, but they're also laying out this five-point plan to air traffic controllers. Because they have a pretty big part to play in this as well. The FAA says it's going to step up supervisory oversight in control towers. Step up training for unusual circumstances like these runway incursions. And, of course, really try to get down to the nitty-gritty on the data, what is actually causing all of these issues.

I want you to listen now to Secretary Buttigieg. He says that the system is really pushed to the limit, something we have heard from airline pilots, but safety cannot be compromised.

[11:35:10]

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PETE BUTTIGIEG, U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: We think that the uptick is partly related to the exceptionally fast surge in demand and the swift return to the skies, faster than even the most optimistic scenarios that we heard a couple of years ago. We need to make sure, of course, that as that system comes back to that high level of demand, there is no negative safety impact to that.

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MUNTEAN: The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating six of these so-called runway incursions involving airliners since the start of this year. We're also learning of new incidents like one that happened in January involving an ambulance that was crossing one of the runways at BWI in Baltimore and Maryland, almost was hit the FAA says by a Southwest Airlines flight that was taking off, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Pete, we did that one-hour special on this just last week. I mean, and there's -- now, there's more work to be done. We'll need to continue working on yet another round of this.

Before I let you go. We're also learning more about a really scary situation with a Southwest flight, an off-duty pilot doing an amazing thing, and jumping into action to help a captain who needed medical attention. What happened?

MUNTEAN: You know, every pilot sort of thinks about what they'll do if they hear the call, is there a pilot on board? And It's pretty much what happened on this Southwest flight 6013 Las Vegas to Columbus, Ohio, was leaving yesterday morning. Only about 27 minutes into the flight did the flight turn back around because there was an apparent medical issue with one of the pilots on board this Southwest flight that left one pilot in the flight deck.

Thankfully though, there was a pilot who was a passenger in the passenger cabin from a different airline, Southwest Airlines says, and he jumped into the flight deck to help out with radio communications. That flight safely diverted back to Las Vegas and a backup crew came in and all the passengers got to where they were going. So, right place right time. All is well that ends well here, Kate.

BOLDUAN: We'll take it when we can get it. Thank you, Pete. I appreciate it.

All right. We'll be right back after this. But first, here's Dr. Sanjay Gupta on why being out in nature can be good for your health in today's "CHASING LIFE."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of CNN's "CHASING LIFE" podcast. According to this really interesting recent study from Finland, simply going for a walk in the forest or even your neighborhood park three to four times a week could reduce the need for medications for things like anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, even insomnia, it's already starting to catch on. In Canada, doctors are now prescribing three annual passes to the country's national parks. In the United States, Park RX America works with doctors and patients to encourage everyone to get outside. Also, I really like the 3-30-300 rule. It's a concept that in an ideal world, everyone should be able to see three trees from their window, there should be at least 30 percent tree coverage in every neighborhood, and everyone should live no more than 300 meters or less than a thousand feet away from a park. Now, go take a walk out in nature, doctor's orders.

You can hear more about how to optimize your health and chase life wherever you get your podcasts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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[11:43:29]

BOLDUAN: Out just this morning, new data on how real the threat is and is also increasing against Jewish communities across the United States. This new analysis from the Anti-Defamation League shows a record number of antisemitic incidents were reported last year. Nearly 3700 incidents across the United States and that's a jump of 36 percent from the year before, which was also a record-setting year. The report also showed a rise in all categories, harassment, vandalism, and physical assaults.

Joining me now, ADL CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt. Jonathan, thanks for coming on. This is another sobering moment for us to be coming together to discuss this. I mean, this report confirms so many fears in our conversations over the last year, reports of antisemitic incidents, just setting a new record. Why does this keep going in the wrong direction, do you think?

JONATHAN GREENBLATT, CEO, ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: Well, Kate, I appreciate you raising the question and covering the issue because this is indeed a trend that I would suggest tells us something sick about our broader society. I mean, as you said, this was the highest year the ADL has ever seen in almost 45 years of collecting this data. And to think about it. This was the third highest time in the past four years that we've reached a new record.

Kate, the data for 2022 was nearly 500 percent over what it was just a decade ago. And as you explained at the top, we've seen an increase. Not just acts, I should point out, of harassment, vandalism, and violence, but almost a 50 percent increase in K through 12 schools, and over 40 percent increase in colleges and universities.

[11:45:11]

And I think this virus of antisemitism, it is propelled by a few factors. Again, you have politicians and pundits who continue to weaponize the kind of tropes and stereotypes. We see it from the hard right, we see it from the far left. It's all ugly.

Social media continues to be a super spreader of antisemitism, Kate. There's new data about what we're seeing on Twitter, and then you have TikTok, and then you add YouTube, then you add Facebook, and it's really awful.

And then finally, Kate, extremists feel emboldened in this moment. I mean, in the past year alone, we had white supremacist groups more than double their propaganda. They had big public incidents from Black Hebrew Israelites, from Islamist radicals, from hardened anti- Zionists. Kate, it's coming at us from all directions. That's why we're so alarmed.

BOLDUAN: You also are hitting on one trend that I think is -- troubling isn't strong enough of a word, this jump in antisemitic activity on college campuses and at K through 12 schools. 41 percent in colleges and universities -- colleges and universities and up 49 percent -- 50 percent from -- in schools from kindergarten to 12th grade. Where's that coming from?

GREENBLATT: Well, I think it's coming from a few things. I mean, certainly, you know that kids repeat on the playground what they hear from their parents. And we know parents who repeat what they hear from people like presidents or members of Congress. And so, when you make wild claims about the great replacement theory or wild claims about the Jewish state committing genocide or wild claims about Jewish you know people with too much money, or too much power, that gets repeated, Kate. And on our college campuses, we've seen a surge of both white supremacist activity and radical --

BOLDUAN: Yes.

GREENBLATT: -- and anti-Zionist activity. And Jewish kids, Jewish college students, they get squeezed and caught in the middle, Kate. It's unfair. And we -- finally, I got to say, we need people in positions of authority to speak out emphatically. Freedom of speech isn't the freedom to incite violence against people because of how they pray. And the idea that somehow that gets protected as political speech, Kate, it's flat-out wrong.

BOLDUAN: Speaking --

GREENBLATT: And there's one other point I need to make sure that I make.

BOLDUAN: Of course, go ahead.

GREENBLATT: Orthodox Jews, people who are visibly Jewish, in places like Brooklyn, in places like Pico-Robertson in Los Angeles, they saw a 67 percent increase in acts of harassment and vandalism and violence directed at them. That's absolutely unacceptable on every measure.

BOLDUAN: Speaking out must be done by people in power. Continuing to call it out needs to be done in ways that we can as you are. But when I'm -- especially when you talk about the trend in schools, it's clearly -- it's clearly something is broken.

GREENBLATT: Yes.

BOLDUAN: What can people -- what else -- what else needs to be done on this? GREENBLATT: Well, I think -- you know, I'm a parent. And the idea that my son at college or my other child in public school would have to face kind of harassment and be victimized because of his ethnicity because of his religion is gross. So, I think there are a few things that we can talk about. Number one, we need anti-bias education in schools, Kate, and Holocaust education.

We've got data at ADL that shows that when you introduce anti-bias education, typically Holocaust education, it reduces biased attitudes. This should be a no-brainer in every school system across the country. And in colleges and universities, again, feel free to protest all you want.

But when you punish Jewish students simply because of their faith, that is wrong. That is well beyond the First Amendment. And that needs to be addressed in a strategic way by college presidents, by campus administrators, etcetera. Finally, once and for all, let's get it right.

BOLDUAN: Yes Seeing the numbers, though, is an important part of seeing where the problem is, so thank you for collecting it. And thanks for coming on, Jonathan.

GREENBLATT: Thank you always, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

So, there's a new study out this morning also on the hot -- and how the risk of long COVID could be cut nearly in half. That's next.

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[11:54:07]

BOLDUAN: AT THIS HOUR, new evidence there may be new benefits that come from COVID vaccines. A study out this morning shows that vaccination cuts the risk of developing long COVID almost in half.

Elizabeth Cohen is looking at this for us. Elizabeth, researchers also looked at how Paxlovid impacts the risk of long COVID. What did they find?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kate. Now, that the sort of acute phase of the COVID pandemic is, you know, behind us, people are still worried about long COVID. What happens if you get COVID -- you may not have much of an infection, but what happens later on? So, let's take a look at what this study found.

This study looked at lots of other studies. And what they found is that folks who had had two doses of vaccine had a 40 percent reduced risk of developing long COVID. That's interesting, since two doses, not sort of, you know, all of the other ones that followed. Just two doses did quite a bit. And for Paxlovid, that's the antiviral that you get after you have COVID.

[11:55:02] 26 percent lower risk of long COVID if you use Paxlovid. And also, almost half the low -- almost 50 percent lower risk of death when you look at people 30 days after infection. So, there's a lot of good reasons is if people needed more to get that initial round of vaccination, and also the Paxlovid can be very helpful once people are infected, Kate.

BOLDUAN: And it also gave an assessment of who is most likely to get long COVID, right?

COHEN: Yes, it did give an assessment. And it really has found sort of consistently what other have found -- what others have found is that older folks often are at a higher risk of getting long COVID than younger folks.

BOLDUAN: Elizabeth Cohen, good to see you. Thank you.

And thank you all so much for watching us AT THIS HOUR. I'm Kate Bolduan. "INSIDE POLITICS WITH JOHN KING" starts after this break.

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