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Teen To Mom: "Please Just Send Me To A Mental Institution; U.S. Likely To Delay Russia Sanctions, Fearing Impact On Prices; Parents Furious As Detroit School District Moves To Remote Learning On Fridays. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired December 09, 2021 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:32:27]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A 45-year-old mystery may finally be solved. Twenty-two-year-old Kyle Clinkscales was last seen leaving his hometown of LaGrange, Georgia and making the 45-minute drive back to Auburn University in January of 1976. He never got to school.

This week his 1974 white Pinto, wallet, I.D., and some human remains were found in a creek in Chambers County, Alabama about three miles from the road he would have taken to school. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is sifting through all the remains to determine if this is a case that can finally be closed.

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SHERIFF JAMES WOODRUFF, TROUP COUNTY, GEORGIA: For 45 years we have searched for Kyle and his car. We have followed hundreds of leads and never really had anything substantial develop from those leads.

His mother died just this year in January and it was always her hope that he would come home. It was always our hope that we would find him for her before she passed away.

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BERMAN: Clinkscales' father also passed away back in 2007.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: A mother of three is speaking out about the potentially dangerous effect that social media has on some minors. Sabine Polak's daughter developed anxiety and depression, even asking her mother to send her to a mental institution to get a break from school, from friends, and from her phone.

And Sabine is with us now to talk about this. Sabine, thank you for coming on to discuss this with us. I think this resonates with so many parents.

Tell us about your daughter's experience with social media.

SABINE POLAK, PARENT CONCERNED ABOUT IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA: I mean, basically, for us, it started with a call from her school counselor that pretty much came out of the blue for us. The call was that she had come down to the office and had described how she was feeling very depressed for quite some time. She was feeling a lot of anxiety and she was just reaching out for help at this point.

She had -- you know, she had voiced to the counselor that she knew this was going to be a big shock for us as her parents, kind of coming out the blue, but that she wanted -- it had gotten to the point where she didn't want to keep this inside anymore and she didn't want to be alone in being able to deal with these emotions that she was facing.

KEILAR: So, Sabine, what was her social media consumption like? What was her interaction with certain apps like?

[07:35:06]

POLAK: I mean, it was pretty much all-consuming. I don't think I was really -- I mean, I know I was not really aware of exactly what she was experiencing on these apps. To me, I think like most parents, I just had the very basic knowledge of what these platforms were and how these teenagers were using them.

I mean, what I -- what I do know is that we were becoming increasingly concerned with just how all-consuming it was becoming. How there was not really -- there was no in-between. There was pretty much school, afterschool sports, maybe hanging out with a friend, and there was social media.

KEILAR: And you single out Snapchat as being particularly detrimental to her. Why?

POLAK: Yes. I wish that I could give you some more specific answers that I'm going to be able to. I mean, I think that's one of the problems is that our teenagers, our kids are kind of living in this secret reality that we're not very privy to. I think they're just designed in that way, especially Snapchat, where things don't stay around for very long. It's designed to disappear and not be traced.

So, I mean, what I can say is that I know when she was using it that she was -- became a different person at times. I would look over and know that she was using that specific app and I would notice the change in her demeanor.

When she was in the partial hospitalization program, especially where she did not have access to her phone during the day, there were days that I would -- she would be one person when she got back in the car with me to ride home. And then as soon as she would take her phone out and I would see -- I would look over and see she was on Snapchat and she was just a different person.

KEILAR: I know --

POLAK: She went --

KEILAR: She just went to a completely --

POLAK: Go ahead -- sorry. KEILAR: -- different place.

But I know, Sabine, that there are so many parents who are connecting with what you're saying and they're watching their children sometimes get lost in all of this. It's horrific I think if you're a parent. You've pulled her completely off of social media.

What would you say to other parents who are watching this and experiencing something similar?

POLAK: I would say that for me, I don't really believe that there -- in the way that social media is designed right now I don't really feel that there is a balance. I don't feel like there's the right amount of limitations on screentime -- you know, this magical number of 30 minutes a day or an hour a day. I think that -- I think that the solution is to delete the apps.

KEILAR: Sabine, I thank you for discussing this. This is really just the beginning of a discussion that we're having about this. Sabine Polak, thank you.

POLAK: Thank you very much.

KEILAR: And up next, there's brand-new CNN reporting on what Joe Biden may not be willing to do right away if Vladimir Putin invades Ukraine.

BERMAN: And parents furious at school districts for keeping kids home on Fridays. You're going to hear from one of these parents.

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[07:43:08]

KEILAR: President Biden warned Vladimir Putin personally of the consequences if Russia moves to invade Ukraine. While the administration considers a range of options, they're likely to hold off on energy sanctions, fearing the impact that would have on U.S. gas prices.

CNN's Kylie Atwood is here with some new reporting on the administration's approach here. What is it, Kylie?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well -- so, Brianna, the administration is drafting multiple rounds of very severe sanctions on Russia. They may not do it all in one swift action; they may do it in multiple different iterations.

But one thing that is viewed as the last option here -- the last resort is targeting Russia's energy sector, and here's why. They're fearful of the impact that could have on the international global markets, on international finance, and the like. And also, therefore, the impact that there could be on U.S. domestic gas prices.

And there are administration officials who say there's a direct correlation between President Biden's approval ratings and what happens at those prices at the pumps. As those prices go down, his approval rating goes up. If you go after Russia's energy market you may see those prices potentially go up in the short-term -- maybe a longer amount of time. So there are some concerns about that.

This doesn't mean that they don't have any options, right? There's still a tremendous host of options. President Biden said yesterday that if President Putin does choose to invade Ukraine, which we still don't know if he's chosen to do, he will face the most severe economic consequences that he has ever seen.

So they are being very blunt about the fact that there's still a lot they can do. They can go after those who are close to President Putin -- his inner circle. They can go after Russian oligarchs. They can go after Russian sovereign debt. They can go after Russian banks. There's a whole host of options.

But this energy sector is a very important one because it makes up about 40 percent of Russia's federal government budget. So those exports -- that amount of money that they get from their energy and oil exports is significant.

[07:45:08]

So the fact that they'd use this as a last resort is part of the conversation going on right now inside the Biden administration as they figure out what sanctions they can do, what they can do alone, what they can do with European allies.

KEILAR: They could really hurt Russia with this. But look, they're going to be shooting themselves in the foot as well if they were to pursue that.

Kylie, thanks so much.

BERMAN: So, this month, the Detroit Public School District is making every Friday a remote learning day. No in-person school on Fridays. The superintendent says the decision comes in response to quote "...the need for mental health relief, rising COVID cases, and times to more thoroughly clean schools."

Now, CNN has reached out to the Detroit Public School District and the Detroit Federation of Teachers for more of an explanation but we did not immediately hear back.

Joining me now is Caitlin Reynolds, a single mother of a fourth-grader in the district. Caitlin, thanks so much for being with us.

No in-person school --

CAITLIN REYNOLDS, PARENT OF DETROIT SCHOOL DISTRICT STUDENT (via Skype): And good morning to you, John.

BERMAN: -- on Fridays? What was your reaction when you heard that?

REYNOLDS: Well, I was driving home from work and I literally shouted "you've got to be kidding me" when the automated message came through because there was no warning. I thought it was just a regular weekly update and they were calling to let us know that -- they were calling to let us know that school was going to be out.

But I do need to say they prefaced the message by letting everybody know that they were going to offer community mental health to all the parents out there. So I didn't take that very lightly, kind of as though Detroit Public Schools was trying to soften the blow a little bit letting parents know we were going to go remote.

BERMAN: So, there were sort of three explanations there. The need to more thoroughly clean the schools, rising COVID cases -- and cases are rising in Michigan. But the third thing was overall mental health. Do you buy any of those explanations?

REYNOLDS: No, no, not by any means. The only explanation that they gave to the parents was that they needed more time to wipe things down.

As far as mental health, I really think that if they allowed these children to go back to normal that we wouldn't have such a need for mental health.

If the parents -- or if the teachers didn't have quite a strain on them to adhere to all of these protocols, which I do understand protocols. Kids are dirty in the wintertime. They get sick. That's the way it is. But at the end of the day, this is only going to be hurting the kids.

When I was growing up, and I know that when many of the listeners can say they were growing up, is custodians came in near the end of the day. They cleaned when the kids were gone because that's when they could be the most effective. And so, to need an entire Friday, I just don't buy it.

BERMAN: I learned of this yesterday from a "New York Times" story. I didn't know this was going on. And the "Times" says in the bigger picture around the country this is happening in different places because they're having a -- schools are having a hard time hanging on to teachers. And so, the districts are giving this to the teachers to try to make it easier for them -- to ease their burden.

What do you think of that?

REYNOLDS: So, I do know that there were some staffing issues last year. So, for instance, last year -- so my son goes to a STEM academy and there was no STEM teacher. There was no STEM lab. So there was already one aspect of the curriculum that was gone.

After the second shutdown one of the other teachers that provided one of the extra activities -- she didn't return when the kids were allowed to go back for the final time. And so, the kids were having to double and triple up on gym class as their only additional outlet outside of their regular day.

But I do know that the union renegotiated the contracts on June 30th. So this year my son's school, in particular, seems very well-staffed but I know that is not a universal -- a universal thing.

I do know that there is a desperate need for security guards in the schools. But, you know, for my son's school, in particular, I can say they seem very well-staffed. But I know that that's not the case with every single school --

BERMAN: Yes.

REYNOLDS: -- in the district.

BERMAN: I've got to let you run but very quickly, you think this had had an impact on your son's learnings -- certainly, on math.

REYNOLDS: Oh, yes. My son is a straight-A student. It's not very often you hear a child say that math is their favorite subject. Usually, it's recess or lunch. But my son's a straight-A student. At the beginning of fourth grade, he tested at a second-grade level.

BERMAN: Caitlin, listen, I think you're going through the frustrations that a lot of parents are right now. They want their kids in school five days a week. Be careful, get vaccinated, wear masks. But at this point, a lot of parents want -- most parents, I think, want their kids just in school.

Caitlin, thank you so much.

REYNOLDS: Thank you.

BERMAN: Just minutes from now, President Biden speaks to a global summit from the White House. Live coverage right here on CNN.

[07:50:04]

KEILAR: And did the CIA spy on James Brown? It might sound crazy, but is it? What happened when CNN started asking questions.

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BERMAN: Frustrated by the lack of news coverage about missing Black people in the United States, two sisters-in-law started their own non- profit. Their story is this week's "Impact Your World."

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NATALIE WILSON, CO-FOUNDER, BLACK AND MISSING FOUNDATION: The Black and Missing Foundation was started because of a necessity. There was a young lady by the name of Tamika Huston who went missing from my sister-in-law's hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina.

DERRICA WILSON, CO-FOUNDER, BLACK AND MISSING FOUNDATION: When she disappeared, her family struggled to garner coverage.

About six months later, Natalie Holloway disappeared. Her name and face became a household name.

N. WILSON: So we decided to do some research to see maybe this is an issue affecting our community.

D. WILSON: Thirty percent of missing persons in the United States were persons of color. That number has since increased to 40 percent. Yet, you rarely see our people on the news.

N. WILSON: We help families from A-Z and that includes creating flyers and social media posts, as well as boots on the ground.

D. WILSON: Since our inception in 2008, we have been able to bring closure to over 300 families.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was frantic when Kennedy was missing. To have an organization that hears your pain and can help and assist and not judge you is something that I think all families need.

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[07:55:06]

KEILAR: Rebel Wilson revealing that not everyone celebrated her dramatic weight loss.

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Scene from "Pitch Perfect."

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KEILAR: The "Pitch Perfect" star says that she received pushback from her own team.

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REBEL WILSON, ACTRESS: OK, I'm going to do this year of health. I'm going to -- I feel like I'm really going to physically transform and change my life. And they were like why? Why would you want to do that? Because I was earning millions of dollars being the funny, fat girl.

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BERMAN: The new permanent host of "JEOPARDY!" is no one. The show says Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings, named interim hosts earlier this year, will continue to tag team into 2022. No word on what happens after that.

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KEVIN HART, ACTOR: What you talking about, Willis?

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KEILAR: Kevin Hart delivering that iconic catchphrase during ABC's live revisit of "DIFF'RENT STROKES." Fans also got to see Jennifer Aniston star as Blair in a new take on "THE FACTS OF LIFE."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JAMES BROWN, SINGER: Singing "Living in America."

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BERMAN: So, James Brown believed the CIA was spying on him. About a year before his death Brown wrote in his memoir, quote, "I could sense them watching me, spying on me, staking out my home."

CNN's own Thomas Lake reports that Brown may have been paranoid, but it's also possible that not all his suspicions were wrong.

KEILAR: Paranoid but maybe right, Thomas

THOMAS LAKE, SENIOR WRITER, CNN DIGITAL: You know, that's very possible. This all started back in 2017 when I got a phone call from a woman who said that she believed Brown had been murdered. And as I dug into the story, we published some of those findings.

The story just kept getting stranger and stranger and it sort of veered into Brown's own claim that the CIA had spied on him. And this starts to look more plausible when you look at what was going on around the late 60s and into the 70s because it all happened when Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis, April 1968.

Brown says that, of course -- well, it's well-documented that the next day -- the next night he helped to prevent rioting in Boston. And he says that this is when his career took this odd turn. That he felt himself under surveillance.

And I've dug into this a lot. We know that from the Church Committee investigations from the 1970s, the CIA's program CHAOS, the FBI's program COINTELPRO, a lot of this surveillance of Black leaders was, indeed, occurring.

And the question is, I guess, whether it can be proved with Brown. The CIA refuses to confirm or deny it.

BERMAN: Right. I mean, you actually pressed them. You sued the CIA for FOIA, basically, for documents here. What happened?

LAKE: Right. Well, pardon me -- so we filed this and filed the law -- the request, and the CIA does what they often do. It's called a Glomar response. They say we can neither confirm nor deny that we have these documents.

And so, in March of this year, CNN files a lawsuit against the CIA, basically demanding anything you have you've got to give it to us. But the CIA is holding fast to this position, saying not only are we not going to give you anything, we're not even going to say whether we have it. That lawsuit is ongoing.

The CIA also says even admitting whether we have this could be damaging to national security.

KEILAR: Gosh, that is fascinating, Thomas.

OK, look, we know, Thomas, you aren't going to stop covering this story and we appreciate it. Thomas Lake.

BERMAN: So, President Biden speaking live any second now about democracy around the world.

NEW DAY continues right now.

KEILAR: Good morning to viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Brianna Keilar with John Berman. And it's Thursday -- hooray.

BERMAN: Hooray.

KEILAR: Any moment now, President Biden is kicking off his virtual leaders' Summit for Democracy. This is going to feature meetings with more than 100 governments. The goal, the White House says, is to defend against authoritarianism, fight corruption, and promote respect for human rights.

BERMAN: So, two countries not invited to participate, China and Russia. Both are working to undercut the message. They call this all hypocritical.

Joining us now, CNN chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins. Kaitlan, talk to us about this. This is actually something that Biden has talked about for a long time.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BERMAN: A long time. What does he want out of this?

COLLINS: He's wanted to hold it for some time. They wanted to hold it --