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The Issues Facing America's Families as Kids Return to School; Little Leaguer Out of ICU After Falling From Bunk Bed, Fracturing Skull. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired August 19, 2022 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:30:00]
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: And so do you.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: I think I do.
BLACKWELL: I mean --
CAMEROTA: I think I do, but people make fun of it all the time.
BLACKWELL: So, any of these hackers who are sitting out there, Alisyn just them what phone I have.
CAMEROTA: Would you like my number?
BLACKWELL: All right, thanks.
CAMEROTA: Oh, OK. Brian, thank you.
BLACKWELL: And Brian's just sitting there letting us do this.
CAMEROTA: He doesn't know why we're talking like this.
Meanwhile, as students are headed back to school, parents are worried. My candid conversation with parents across the country and across the political spectrum about their biggest concerns. OUR PULSE OF THE PEOPLE, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:35:00]
BLACKWELL: In Florida, a federal judge there has temporarily blocked a new law that restricts conversation about race in schools and workplaces.
In April, you'll remember the governor Ron DeSantis signed this legislation. It's often called the Stop Woke Act, and this is one of the topics that I took up with our latest voter panel, this one made up of parents across the geographic and political spectrum who say they are anxious as their kids head back to school, and one of their biggest concerns is the classroom culture wars.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CAMEROTA: You've all said that education is one of your personal top issues. So, let's just talk about what you mean by that. What most concerns you?
ROXANNE BECKFORD HOGE, CALIFORNIA MOTHER OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS: The number one thing that's salient, in my mind, in the mind, of all my mom friends, is school being open and the kids experiencing normal life.
WESLEY DONEHUE, SOUTH CAROLINA FATHER OF PRE-SCHOOL & ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS: Honestly, for me, right now, it's school safety. And as a parent, I have a lot of jobs. But my top primary job, above every other job, is to make sure my kids are safe.
ACQUANDIST UY, FLORIDA MOTHER OF MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS: Honestly, the same, it's the school safety. That along with just what is being taught in schools, like what's being banned from schools.
VANESSA SPENCER, CALIFORNIA MOTHER OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS: I think my biggest concern is just teachers feeling supported. Obviously, safety within schools is a major issue.
ROBIN SCOTT, VIRGINIA MOTHER OF ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS: My biggest concern for education is that the children return to a safe, inclusive, equitable, productive environment.
CRIS CANDICE TUCK, VIRGINIA PARENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS: Seeing an inclusive school environment and really, removing the politicization of teachers, contents, topics. You know, having parents' involvement, but also recognizing that our schools are a diverse place that students need to feel safe, to attend, and be themselves. And that's been a real issue here.
CAMEROTA: OK, so let's dive into that, Critical Race Theory. Roxanne, I know you have strong feelings about CRT.
HOGE: I'm an immigrant from Jamaica. And I would just say that being taught, from an early age, and I've seen this, again, across the spectrum of my friends that America is a bad place that Thanksgiving is something to not be celebrated, kids no longer say the Pledge after Middle School. As someone who, you know, took an oath to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution when I became a citizen, it's sad.
TUCK: I'm kind of shocked. Because our high schoolers say the Pledge of Allegiance. My kids have never been taught that being White or being Black was a bad or a good thing. They've never been taught that Thanksgiving isn't to be celebrated.
They do the same things that I did when I was a kid. They do book reports, on Martin Luther King, and Abraham Lincoln. There's no evidence students are being taught to be oppressed or feel oppressed or feel guilty.
UY: No one's teaching critical race theory. All they're wanting to do is just to add more truth to the history, because a lot of the truth is not there. HOGE: The fact is that when there's so much focus on the things that are tangential, as opposed to, here's history, here's reading, writing, and arithmetic. And it's really a crying shame that we get distracted. And we also -- that we tell black kids, essentially, you can't get anywhere unless a white person gives you permission to do so.
CAMEROTA: But just help me understand like, what have your twins been told -- just so I have a concrete example.
HOGE: So, I try not to talk about them, because they have their own lives, and that's their own business.
DONEHUE: I'm sitting in Charleston, right now. I'm in a 210-year old building. And I'm three blocks from the slave market where the majority of slaves came into America. Here slavery and the history of slavery and racism is embedded into our culture. We have to acknowledge it. But we shouldn't be teaching our kids that one, white people are inherently racist, because that's not true.
SCOTT: We need cultural competence training, we need implicit bias training, we need tolerance, inclusion and awareness, to go into the world, and to communicate and connect, and we are preparing our kids for that. What's wrong with that?
TUCK: If CRT is bad, show me a concrete example. Show me the policy.
HOGE: I've seen elementary kids be divided into groups, on the basis of race, and told -- and by the way, it's 2022. There's a lot of miscegenation here. How do you pick whether you're black, whether you're white, whether you're an ally? The fact is that I happen to think segregation is bad and I'm not going to let that go.
CAMEROTA: Let's move on. Let's do the gender, sexuality, transgender issues of kids in school and whether or not -- just how it's being addressed.
UY: One of my children is gay. They're trying to push the "Don't Say Gay," and it upsets me, because I just want her to go to school and learn. All I care about is giving great education to her. And I want her to know that she has opportunities in this world. And she shouldn't have to care about the color of her skin or who she wants to love, and just live a normal life. But we don't get that chance, because people are telling her she can't be who she is.
[15:40:00]
TUCK: As someone, who is transgender, I know that the vast majority of arguments against gay and trans kids, and talking about them, it's made up. And sadly, it's just a lack of awareness. People are afraid of what they don't understand.
And, under this law, under the "Don't Say Gay" law that is in Florida, my son, when he was in kindergarten, he got recognized as a star student and he was supposed to bring in a poster that talks about him, his family, and all of his favorite things. And on that poster, he put a picture of me.
Under that "Don't Say Gay" bill, that teacher would have had to take that poster from him in the middle of his class, and be like, I'm sorry. We can't talk about your parent because they're trans. And I don't want to get sued. This is not the environment we should be creating for kids.
HOGE: They claim that the Florida Bill 1577 will stop the poster from being put up from a kid's family. No, no, it won't. It was specifically to address things.
And Alisyn, we're old now. So, these things didn't happen, when we were young that there were a legion of young activists, who wanted to sexualize conversations in kindergarten.
CAMEROTA: What do you mean they wanted to sexualize kindergarteners? Can you give me a concrete example?
HOGE: Well, you can just look at any one of the many videos that's shared by Libs of TikTok, on Twitter, where it's actually people, in their own words, on TikTok, elementary teachers, saying, this is what I tell all my kids, to choose a new name, to choose a new gender.
CAMEROTA: You're saying that on -- your source is TikTok, with people on there, saying -- claiming to be teachers, or whatever, and saying what they said, to little kids? Is that what is bothering you?
HOGE: Yes, and saying that my job is to -- is to definitely open up the whole conversation, of the panoply of sexuality.
SPENCER: It's incredibly important for children to see their families and themselves represented, and the books that are in their classroom library. No teacher, no teacher is sitting down to sexualize children in kindergarten.
DONEHUE: Well, I disagree with Vanessa, in that no teacher is sexualizing children, because if that were the case, then you wouldn't see these videos that Roxanne talked about. The real question is how many of those teachers are sexualizing? Just need to find out. Is this widespread? Or is it -- are they rare occurrences?
UY: Did you ever ask their teachers are they teaching that? Are you teaching sexualized content? Are you going to schools within your county instead of looking at TikTok? Go to those schools and talk to those teachers. And I assure you, it is not happening.
DONEHUE: Yes -- to answer your question. I have talked to my teachers, my principal. I have talked to the community leaders. It doesn't happen here, where I am, in South Carolina. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen across the country.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: I mean, I'm thinking back to any conversation earlier, no wonder it's hard to keep teachers.
CAMEROTA (on camera): Oh, my gosh, yes.
BLACKWELL: If you're balancing all of these issues that maybe a decade ago, we weren't discussing.
CAMEROTA: Oh, all of it, between their salaries, between COVID protocols, between these culture war things, between safety in the classroom, between teachers retiring. It is so complicated right now. And I just, again, I thank our panelists because I learned so much from them. And I think it was really helpful to know that some of the anxiety is not what they're necessarily seeing in their own kids' classrooms, it's what they're seeing on the internet, and how do you ever combat that?
BLACKWELL: Yes, I don't know that -- who's the person in the left corner, Roxanne?
CAMEROTA: Yes, yes.
BLACKWELL: Who her source was a teacher who was on TikTok, talking about what she told her students.
CAMEROTA: It's this whole games of memes that's on actually Twitter, it's called "Libs of TikTok," and so many parents are freaked out about it, though it's completely out of context. I mean, there are just clips. There are different clips of people sometimes talking into their own cell phone. Anyway, it's complicated.
BLACKWELL: It's also not in their schools, as they admitted. All right.
A remarkable recovery for the 12-year-old little league baseball player who fell from a bunk and fractured his skull. He's up, he's walking with some help. We've got details, next.
[15:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLACKWELL: We've got some good news now about Utah little league player Easton Oliverson. He's out of the ICU now. He is able to stand and eat and drink.
CAMEROTA: His family released this video of him today walking with the help of nurses. The 12-year-old fell from a dorm bunk bed last weekend and he fractured his skull. And now his family is opening up to CNN about Easton's recovery. CNN's national correspondent Jason Carroll is in Williamsport, Pennsylvania where Easton's team is playing its first world series game. In Jason, we understand that Easton's dad said that when Easton woke up, the first thing he asked was if he could play.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it was really quite a moment, as you can imagine. They had to tell him no. They had to tell him that he had to sit there, but that someone else was going to play in his behalf. We'll get to that in a moment.
But first, just have to tell you what happened out here just a short while ago, as things were getting underway. They called out Easton's name and the entire stadium stood up to applaud him. The opposing team from Tennessee were actually wearing snow canyon baseball caps during a pregame ceremony. That just goes to show you the type of spirit that folks are seeing out here. I mean, no matter what happens during this game, Easton has already proven himself a winner.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, buddy, food.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): With every scoop, Easton Oliverson is defying the odds.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just like you're scooping a ball in left field.
CARROLL (voice over): He's awake, alert and communicating.
[15:50:00]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you feel like it's going the right way, or does it feel like it's getting stuck?
EASTON OLIVERSON: It's going the right way.
CARROLL (voice over): The 12-year-old little lighter now out of intensive care. His father says it was just days ago when doctors told him he may not survive.
JACE OLIVERSON, EASTON'S FATHER: Doctors are saying he's 30 minutes max from dying with so much pressure on his brain stem, that here we are, not even three full days later, he has his mobility, his brain function, and it's not by coincidence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go Easton.
CARROLL (voice over): Easton is a player on the Snow Canyon Little League team, the pride of Utah. They're the first team from the state to make it to the Little League World Series in its 75-year history. So, you can imagine all the excitement the team, his family had leading up to it. All that crushed Monday morning during an unimaginable accident when Easton fell out of his bunkbed while sleeping and hit his head.
J. OLIVERSON: It was so heart wrenching and couldn't believe what we had just experienced hours before, living the highs of highs, and now having to feel like Easton is now fighting for his life.
CARROLL (voice over): Doctors told them Easton had severely fractured his skull and punctured an artery outside his brain.
DR. FRANK MAFFEI, CHAIR OF PEDIATRICS, GEISINGER CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: There are some children that arrive in a very, very poor neurologic state. And Easton's state upon arrival was among the poorest I've seen.
CARROLL (voice over): Despite the injuries, Easton surprised doctors at Geisinger Janet Weis Children's Hospital, when hours after surgery he showed signs of improvement.
DR. ODED GOREN, NEUROSURGEON, GEISINGER MEDICAL CENTER: He's making tremendous strides toward recovery. And we're expecting him to have a really near complete or complete recovery. We're all so happy.
CARROLL (voice over): His family says well wishes have come in from all over the world, including from Easton's favorite players.
MOOKIE BETTS, LOS ANGELES DODGERS: Hey, Easton, it's Mookie Betts. I just want you to know that we are praying for you, thinking of you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love you, man. We're praying for you. Hoping that your recovery goes well.
CARROLL (voice over): The family says it's not just doctors they have to thank.
J. OLIVERSON: The only reason that he's at this point in such a short period of time is -- is because of our heavenly Father and the way that he is showing people now that miracles do happen.
DEREK OLIVERSON, EASTON'S UNCLE: We 100 percent attribute that to the prayers that we've been receiving across the nation. We know, and the doctors agree, there was divine intervention here.
CARROLL (voice over): Just one more thing, there will be an Oliverson on the field during the game. Easton's 10-year-old little brother Brogan will take his spot and says he's ready to represent his brother and take on Tennessee.
BROGAN OLIVERSON, EASTON'S BROTHER: Be ready. We're coming.
J. OLIVERSON: That's right.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (on camera): And Brogan got himself a huge standing ovation out here at the stadium as well. But you know, when you showed that video that the family had sent us of him walking down that hallway with the nurses there, again, just think about this. Just a few days ago, doctors were not even sure this young man was going to survive. Now he is going to have another surgery in the next coming weeks. That brain injury that he got was so severe. He'll have a follow-up surgery. But once again, they're expecting him to have a full recovery. Back to you -- guys.
BLACKWELL: It really is remarkable in this short window to make that much progress and he's up on his feet and talking. Jason, thank you.
CAMEROTA: What a miracle. And of course, he will need still a lot of prayers there for his recovery. OK, we'll lighten it way up. Because as you know, they're business in
front, party in the back. Meet the kids at this year's USA Mullet Championship. They're so good, Victor and I will choose our favorites and you can choose yours.
BLACKWELL: It's not even close.
CAMEROTA: OK.
[15:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: Millions of students are heading to college. But for many with intellectual differences, higher education is not an option.
BLACKWELL: This week's CNN hero Deana Pursai is working to change that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi everybody.
DEANNA PURSAI, CNN HERO: College of Adaptive Arts is a lifelong equitable collegiate experience for adults with special needs of all different abilities who historically haven't had access to college education.
We have ten schools of instruction and they get the same access to the array of classes that any college student can select. I want for every student that walks through our doors to be treated like the thinking intellectual that they are.
PURSAI: I love you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you, too.
PURSAI: My experience with my sister Angel has helped me be a better, more authentic transparent person. I am so humbled each and every day by their depth and ideas and ways to make the world a better place.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: It's good work. To see Deana's full story, go to CNNheroes.com.
CAMEROTA: OK meanwhile, today is the final day of voting in an important election.
BLACKWELL: The National Mullet Championship. More than 600 kids -- 600 kids have mullets -- submitted photos their business in the front, party in the back hairstyle. The contest has been narrowed down to 25 majestic names. Here are some of them. Landry Turpan from Duncan, Oklahoma, taking a patriotic approach there. It's nice.
CAMEROTA: These are so good. This is Emmett Daily who was featured on his local TV station.
[16:00:00]
BLACKWELL: Who is your favorite?
CAMEROTA: OK, my favorite was Rustin. I don't remember his last name. But if we can get to it right now. There it is. OK, because this is more than a mullet, I feel. This is mullet meets mohawk, you know?
BLACKWELL: So, I picked Nolan. I mean, look at this. These are completely different haircuts. And this is fantastic. It's not even close.
CAMEROTA: OK. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.
