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CNN Live Saturday

Gay and Lesbian Students Cite Harrassment at School; "Minutemen" Still Trying to Strengthen the Border

Aired May 06, 2006 - 17:30   ET

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

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Port Authority agents are questioning five passengers from an American Airlines flight in Newark, New Jersey. That plane was coming from Dallas when it was diverted to a secured area in the airport. Now a TSA spokeswoman says the five were acting suspiciously.
And Sacramento's California state prison is in lockdown right now as authorities try to negotiate with an inmate who has taken a female jailer hostage. The situation has been going for the last seven hours.

And in Miami, three construction workers are dead and a fourth is injured after falling from a high-rise construction site into a pit of wet concrete. The workers were apparently pouring concrete when the floor below them collapsed.

And no deaths, boy, but plenty of damage in Texas where strong storms smacked parts of the Lone Star State, and what you are looking at right now is the video from Austin, the capital, which really got hit by severe weather. And then in Waco the situation was so serious after thunderstorms, maybe even a tornado, that they don't have any power and the mayor has declared it a disaster area.

Now we're an hour away from post time for the 132nd running of the Kentucky Derby. Brother Derek, that's the favorite, in the field of 20 horses running for the roses at Louisville's Churchill Downs.

Right now, rival demonstrations in high schools across the U.S. On one side, gay students who claim they are being harassed. And on the other, conservative Christian kids opposed to homosexuality.

Here's CNN's Jen Rogers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEN ROGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If this doesn't sound like 50 students at lunch, that's the point. These high schoolers in Berkeley, California, are participating in a National Day of Silence, an effort to raise awareness about harassment of gay students.

SAMANTHA SYLVESTER, BERKELEY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: I've had soda poured on me, I've been kicked, I've been called names all the time, too many times to count, and I know that there are so many students here who don't feel safe. ROGERS: Samantha Sylvester, a student and lesbian, organized other students and teachers at her school, one of an estimated 4,000 that participated.

(on camera): The Day of Silence began 10 years ago at the University of Virginia, with calls for an end to hostility towards gay students. This year, organizers say some 500,000 students took part.

(voice-over): But as the movement has grown, so, too, has the controversy surrounding it. Two years ago, Chase Harper, a conservative Christian, wore this t-shirt to school in Southern California as a counter-protest. Harper was unavailable, but he talked to CNN affiliate KSWB about the T-shirt incident two years ago.

CHASE HARPER, POWAY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: I'm simply expressing my beliefs. I mean, it's my freedom of speech. And that it isn't a message of hate, but a message of love, and love the sinner, but hate the sin.

ROGERS: Harper refused to remove the shirt, which red "Homosexuality Is Shameful" after being asked by school officials. He sued, saying his freedoms of speech and religion were violated. After a recent defeat in federal court, his case is on appeal. Harper's was just one incident that inspired Christian organizers to create their own event, the Day of Truth, to counter what they call the promotion of a homosexual agenda.

BRAD DACUS, PACIFIC JUSTICE INSTITUTE ATTORNEY: The purpose of public schools is for education, not indoctrination. And when a school only allows one perspective, i.e. promoting homosexuality, and not allowing alternative perspectives like, for example, those of Christian students or kids who have moral beliefs, that's exactly what public schools are becoming, indoctrination camps.

ROGERS: Promoters of the Day of Silence say they don't want to squelch free speech, but they do want to create a safe environment.

KEVIN JENNINGS, GAY, LESBIAN & STRAIGHT EDUC. NETWORK: I'm all for young people expressing their views on every issue and I think the greater diversity of views we encourage the more we teach young people how to be citizens in a democratic society.

ROGER: This year's dueling days brought more lawsuits from Christian students, moving the front line of this debate from the classroom to the courtroom.

Jen Rogers, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Now, after this next story, you might ask, is it vigilante justice or a violation of privacy? A New York woman snapped a photo with her cell phone of a man exposing himself on the subway, and she posted it online. What happened next? Our Deborah Feyerick has the story that first aired on CNN's "PAULA ZAHN NOW."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ladies, you know this guy. The obscene gestures, rude comments. "Hey, baby!" Who he is and what he looks like doesn't matter. He's that guy who harasses women thinking he will get away with it because you don't know him. But this picture may change all that. It was taken by 22- year-old Thao Nguyen, and it has sparked something of a revolution against street harassment.

(on camera): So Thao, you were sitting there and he was sitting here.

THAO NGUYEN, STREET HARASSMENT VICTIM: Yes.

FEYERICK: OK. How did you first notice him?

NGUYEN: Well, he got on the train, and he kept staring at me.

FEYERICK: So he is just looking like this, just right at you.

NGUYEN: He was like this, like, you know, locked onto the target.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Nguyen showed us what happened the day she stepped onto a New York City subway last August. It was 3:00 in the afternoon, when a stranger sat across from her, and ignoring others nearby, unzipped his pants.

NGUYEN: And then I looked in the glass and I could see him rubbing his crotch. And then I took out my phone to look busy.

FEYERICK: What she did next surprised even her. Using her cell phone camera, she took his picture.

NGUYEN: I snapped it really quick. It happened really quick, like one, two, and then he zipped up and left.

FEYERICK: When a police woman wouldn't look at the photo, the young Web designer posted the image online, on a girl power site, to warn others.

NGUYEN: Maybe they could go to the police and say, oh, I know this man, and I was just afraid he would do something else.

FEYERICK: The picture shot from Web site to Web site, striking a very deep nerve.

EMILY MAY, FOUNDER, HOLLABACK NYC: It's incredibly scary. Women don't know who these strangers are. You don't know if some guy who is street-harassing you is harassing you because they're going to follow you home, because they're going to kidnap you or rape you or hurt you in some way.

This is one of the first postings we got.

FEYERICK: Emily May and her friends in Brooklyn saw that picture when it was picked up and printed on the front page of a New York paper. They had talked about street harassment. Now they knew it was time to act. And though they never met Nguyen, they created a Web site, Hollaback, as in "holler back," with the motto, "if you can't slap them, snap them."

MAY: Women who have done it just said that it's taken the power out of the street harasser's hands and put it into their hands.

FEYERICK: On its busiest day, the site got 75,000 hits. Hollaback EU just started up in the European Union. And the group has been contacted by others who want to set up similar sites.

MAY: We're not trying to single out these men for their ignorance, but we're trying to educate men and women that street harassment is not OK.

FEYERICK: But that guy in the picture, the one who ultimately turned himself in, didn't see it that way. His lawyer, who says his client is really a good guy with some issues, says posting the picture online went too far.

MICHAEL BACHNER, DAN HOYT'S ATTORNEY: To have all of a sudden know that your picture is on an Internet site without authorization has got to be one of the most horrible feelings you can have, especially if it's labeled as stalker, immoral, you know, harasser. It's -- the punishment sometimes far exceeds the bad behavior.

FEYERICK: Nguyen sees it differently.

NGUYEN: If he didn't do it, I wouldn't have posted it. I didn't even know who he was, so, it wasn't like I was out to get him.

FEYERICK: Thao Nguyen, the cell phone photo snapper, and Emily May, the Web site founder, did finally meet. They recently faced down the subway flasher when he showed up in court for sentencing after pleading guilty to public lewdness, a misdemeanor. The judge gave him two years probation and ordered him to see a therapist.

(on camera): Do you feel empowered by what you did?

NGUYEN: Yes, I do. I felt like, you know, having the cell phone, taking the picture -- after I took it, I felt so much better.

FEYERICK: How often do you ride the subway?

NGUYEN: I ride it every day.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Thao Nguyen doesn't know whether she would do the same again, but she keeps her cell phone charged and ready.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: You can watch "PAULA ZAHN NOW" weeknights at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

Breaking gender barriers on the links. Michelle Wie reaches a milestone in her quest to compete with the men.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: One of the big stories this past week, the immigration marches across the country. And as lawmakers in Washington wrangle with the idea of building a fence along the U.S./Mexican border, another group is beating them to its actual construction, legal or not.

CNN's Anderson Cooper explores the Minutemen, their message and the handiwork in this story which first aired on "AC 360."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who's coming to a neighborhood near you?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR, "ANDERSON COOPER 360" (voice-over): Saturday morning in a Southern California trailer park, Tim Donnelly (ph) addresses a group of Minutemen volunteers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a great day to be a vigilante.

COOPER: Vigilantes is what their critics and President Bush have called them, but the Minutemen say they are merely being vigilant, patrolling the border, alerting authorities when they spot illegal immigrants crossing over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The vigilante word for us is now a badge of honor. Because we know we're not vigilantes. We don't operate outside the law. But we are filling a gap.

COOPER: Today, however, the Minutemen are stepping up their actions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Patriot 10, this is Patriot Two, do you copy?

COOPER: For the first time, they plan to build a fence along the border. It's a new front in their battle against illegal immigration. About 100 volunteers have shown up, and they're driving to an undisclosed location along the U.S.-Mexican border. They don't know how authorities will react when they start to build the fence.

(on camera): This part of the border where the Minutemen are working today, there is a fence, probably about 12 feet high. But the problem is, it just stops where these rocks are. Then the border is just completely open.

When you see this, what do you think?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why? Why does it stop? It wouldn't be that hard to build it across the rock.

COOPER (voice-over): Armed with fence posts and barbed wire, the volunteers quickly begin construction. A Border Patrol helicopter flies overhead, but authorities make no attempt to stop the fence building.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, yes, it's symbolic in a way because we want the government to see us actually building the fence. But take a look right there. It's wide open. So if there's a fence there when we leave here, then we will have left the border more secure than we found it.

COOPER: While volunteers build the fence, others prepare food.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's more American than hot dogs?

COOPER: Hot dogs and apple pie. The atmosphere is festive and patriotic. There are American flags on napkins and banners, in flower pots, even on dogs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need to get our country back.

COOPER (on camera): In what way?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Illegals are illegal. At least it was when I went to school.

COOPER (voice-over): For many of those here, it's their first time volunteering with the Minutemen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel very passionate about the issue itself, but also, it's one of the few issues I can effect because I can't do anything about the deficit, or I can't do anything about the war in Iraq.

COOPER (on camera): You don't seem like a vigilante.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope not. I'm not. I don't think any of us do. And there's a lot of women in this organization.

COOPER: Shelsea Scavenger picks up trash left behind by illegal immigrants. She finds water bottles and booties.

SHELSEA SCAVENGER, MINUTEMEN VOLUNTEER: These are booties. People who cross over put these on their feet. See, this is very nicely made. They've got the tie thing so it doesn't fall off their feet, and they leave no tracks.

COOPER (on camera): Why are they wearing booties? Why not shoes?

SCAVENGER: Because then they can get their footprints more easily and Border Patrol can find them.

COOPER: So if they're wearing booties, they don't leave footprints?

SCAVENGER: Correct. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm looking around, and I see a whole lot of Americans that are willing to do the job that the American government and even the illegal aliens don't want to do.

COOPER (voice-over): By the end of the day, the Minutemen have finished a makeshift fence some 150 yards long. For Tim Donnelly, it's both a symbol and a start.

(on camera): What do you think you accomplished today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As I look down this line, I am overwhelmed with just a sense that this is an idea whose time has come. And I think we have -- probably the most significant thing we will have accomplished today is we're sending a picture to the Senate. You know? We're going to e-mail them a message that just says, here's what Americans want. Americans of all backgrounds, Americans, some of whom are legal immigrants, young and old alike, they're just Americans out here expressing themselves without using words. They're using posthole diggers, they're stringing barbed wire and they're saying, we want our border to be secured.

COOPER: Anderson Cooper, CNN, along the U.S.-Mexican border.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: If you liked that story, you won't want to miss tonight's "AC 360" special, "24 Hours on the Border." That's tonight at 10:00 Eastern, 7:00 Pacific, right here on CNN.

He is expected to be the next CIA chief, but could General Michael Hayden's impending nomination hit a snag in the Senate? I'm going to explain why at the top of the hour.

Up next, Michelle Wie's milestone on the links. The golfing phenom breaks her first gender barrier.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: We have been working on this developing story out of Newark, New Jersey. The Port Authority is questioning five passengers from an American Airlines flight that had to be diverted to a secure part of the airport. Christopher King standing by live in Newark with the very latest.

Christopher, how serious was the situation? Did they think that it might have been an attempted hijacking?

CHRISTOPHER KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, serious enough to bring the plane and passengers over to a secure part of the airport and to question those five men. Now according to the Port Authority, they say those five men are in custody. They say that they were passengers on board American Airlines Flight 1874. It was headed from Dallas here to Newark Liberty Airport.

The Transportation Safety Administration says that the passengers were, quote, "acting suspiciously." The TSA says air marshals were on board the flight. They say the cockpit was secure at all times. Now the FAA tells us that the plane, an MD-82, landed safety around 3:15 Eastern time.

Authorities say law enforcement officials met the plane and took those five suspicious passengers off the flight. Now, a number of the other -- or I should say all the other passengers were taken to a secure area, a remote area here at Newark Liberty Airport. Dogs were -- dogs went through the bags of those passengers.

We spoke with some of those passengers not too long ago, because a busload of them came back here to Terminal A. And here's what one of those passengers had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pretty much an ordinary flight, ordinary passengers. They each had a glass of wine, and they talked to each other, and I think they took a nap.

KING: Did they do anything that struck you as unusual?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, they did not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now, that passenger, Sherrie Morris (ph), was on her way back from Mexico via Dallas here to Newark Liberty Airport. Now she said she was a former flight attendant, she also says that at least one of those men had what appeared to be a navigation kit, but she's not sure if that's exactly what it was.

Now the TSA says that the men did in fact have flight manuals and that they had recently attended helicopter flight school -- Carol.

LIN: All right, Christopher, thank you very much. We're going to be watching this story as well tonight.

On a much lighter note, boy, this gal, 16 years old. She's not a household name, at least not yet, but give her time. I'm talking about golfer Michelle Wie. She's only 16, and this weekend in South Korea, she made the cut in a men's professional tournament. Men's professional tournament. And her career could make her one of the biggest names in all of sports. Connell Barrett is senior editor at Golf Magazine. He joins me now from New York.

Connell, how big is a deal is this that she made the cut to a men's tournament?

CONNELL BARRETT, GOLF MAGAZINE: It's a very big deal. Michelle Wie has made a career out of breaking barriers, and I think this is just the beginning. She stated publicly that she doesn't just want to play with the men and occasionally compete on their level, she wants to beat them.

And I think it will take some time, but there will come a day when we'll see Michelle Wie walking down the same fairway as Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, not just playing with them but even beating them.

LIN: You're talking about the Masters?

BARRETT: I'm talking about the Masters or...

LIN: You can see her at the Masters? What tells you that?

BARRETT: Well, she's 16 years old, and right now she's already better than Tiger Woods was at 16. I don't mean better as a girl, I mean, a better player. And she is working with one of the top swing coaches in the game, David Leadbetter, to get even longer off the tee than she already is. And if she continues to improve at the current rate, the sky is the limit.

LIN: But, wait a second, she hasn't even beaten her peer group consistently on the women's circuit.

BARRETT: She hasn't. She turned pro last October, and she's had a couple of top finishes and she's yet to win. However, she has finished better in tour events than many, many dozens of PGA tour pros. She's also longer off the tee than a lot of guys that are 200 pounds, and six-foot-three.

As soon as she kind of gets her head together and gets her mental game up to where her physical game is, I think she'll be -- have a very good chance of being competitive on the men's tour.

LIN: So what do the men on the tour think?

BARRETT: Well, some men have had some critical comments of Michelle. I think they see her as sort of a danger, someone who can eclipse them in notoriety, but Tiger Woods himself has said that he welcomes Michelle Wie. He loves to see everybody playing as well as they possibly can. And frankly, anything that gets people talking about golf and gets people who don't follow golf to pay attention to these athletes, I think that's a good thing for the game.

LIN: Wow. To take a look at this young woman, she's six feet tall, I mean, she's as tall as some of the guys, even taller.

BARRETT: She's six foot, she's all muscle, but what I really like about Michelle Wie is she's still very much a 16-year-old girl. She likes to gossip, she likes roller coasters. She has a crush on Brad Pitt. She's just a kid when she's off the course, but when she steps between the ropes, she displays this awesome power and ability that we've never seen in a female player before. And she's going to be something to watch for many years to come.

LIN: So what scares the men the most about the possibility that a Michelle Wie could actually take the Masters?

BARRETT: Well, losing to a girl is not something that a lot of male golfers can handle. They get a lot of ribbing. You know, Michelle has played the Sony Open a couple of times and has finished ahead of a lot of guys, several dozen players. And you know they are hearing in it the locker room. The only thing worse than losing on the PGA tour is losing to a girl, but she has the talent to do it.

LIN: Well, you know what, pretty soon they are going to be losing to a woman, all right? And that's going to be a whole different game is what you're predicting. Connell, thank you very much.

BARRETT: My pleasure.

LIN: Deciphering the new online slang of America's teens. We're going to show you how in the next hour. Find out what your teenager is keeping from you.

And former President Bill Clinton is helping change the diet inside America's public schools. But he wasn't the first champion for a healthier fare. I'm going to talk with a principal who made her school the first in the nation to go sugar-free.

The day's top stories right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: This is CNN SATURDAY, and I'm Carol Lin. Straight ahead in this hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: One of the CIA's core missions, of course, is supporting our military forces. It's the core mission of any intelligence agency. And General Hayden has vast experience at doing that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: And that general is on-deck to replace outgoing CIA Director Porter Goss. But is General Michael Hayden qualified?

Twelve nights and counting. Now rescue teams help to pull out two Australian miners trapped 900 feet underground.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We took out everything that was obviously sugar. We took out chocolate milk. We took out sugary desserts. We took out ice cream, all of those things that kids just like to gorge on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Taking the sugar out of schools. You wouldn't believe how controversial it is. I'm going to speak with one educator changing diets and making a difference.

But first, the hour's headlines. President Bush has reportedly chosen Air Force General Michael Hayden to head up the CIA. Outgoing Director Porter Goss is still tight-lipped about why he is stepping down.

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