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Nancy Grace
Louisville 1st-Grader Dragged by School Bus; The Obesity Debate. Aired 8-9:00p ET
Aired May 18, 2015 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight. We go live, Louisville, where in the last hours, we learn a school bus driver slams the bus door on a
little 1st-grade girl, dragging the child an estimated 100 yards.
Bombshell tonight. As the school bus takes off, the little girl trapped by her own backpack, screaming, crying for help, to no avail. And
it`s all caught on video. What was this bus driver thinking?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shocking video of a little girl being dragged by her school bus.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bouncing around in that door all the way down the street. It was bad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And her backpack got stuck in the door of the bus.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just don`t see how he didn`t know that the girl was dragging.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And live, obese people targeted, bullied, publicly shamed, even physically abused. But then, on the other hand, convicted felons,
even murderers working the justice system, claiming they`re too fat for jail and too fat to kill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have not seen obesity at this level.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Overweight people have been ordered off planes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Too fat to fly?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They`ve been denied certain jobs. They`re made fun of in movies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You wasn`t obese when you pulled the trigger.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t apologize for my size.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s hard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That video from TLC.
Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to that you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight, live, Louisville. In the last hours, we learn a school bus driver slams the school bus door on a little 1st-grade girl,
dragging the child an estimated 100 yards. As the school bus takes off, the little girl trapped by her own backpack screaming, crying for help to
no avail. It`s all caught on video. We have the video. What was this school bus driver thinking?
I mean, take a look at the video. You see the school bus doors aren`t clear. You can`t see the backpack stuck in the doors, the child being
dragged along about inches from those wheels? Look, look at the little 1st-grade girl! She`s dragged an estimated 100 yards, practically the
length of a football field, that child only 6 to 7 years old, screaming bloody murder.
Apparently, that school bus murder in la-la-land, hearing nothing, seeing nothing, knowing nothing!
Straight out to Will Clark, anchor with WHAS. Will, what happened?
WILL CLARK, WHAS (via telephone): This child on Friday afternoon was trying to get off of this Jefferson County public school bus in her
neighborhood. And the driver, as the video shows, just shuts the door on the backpack and drags her. There`s been a number of estimates, some just
say 100 feet. We`re now saying that it`s possibly into the thousands of yards that this dragging happened.
GRACE: Oh! Oh! Will, we`re showing the viewers right now the little 1st-grade girl. She`s trapped in these glass school bus doors by her
backpack. Know how when you step out of the bus and they shut the doors behind you? Well, I guess the school bus driver wasn`t even paying
attention, slamming the doors on the little girl`s backpack and taking off!
Both of my 1st-grade children wear a backpack every single day. You think the bus driver, who`s about three feet from the door, would notice a
child screaming and flailing? Look, it`s all caught on video!
Back to Will Clark, anchor, WHAS. So tell me again, you`re now estimating it into the thousands of feet. Why didn`t the school bus driver
notice what was happening, Will Clark?
CLARK: District officials here in Louisville are looking into that right now. And it took a second -- just somebody who was following the bus
to -- and it`s the car you see there in the video, the...
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. whoa, wait! Back it up! Back it up! I want to see that video again. You see a Camaro go by, and they are
honking, honking, honking at the school bus, oncoming traffic honking, honking, trying to get the school bus driver`s attention. Passerbyers
(sic) waving, waving.
What -- I mean, I`m concerned. To Matt Zarrell, also on the story. What, was the school bus driver in some kind of a daze, they couldn`t hear
people blowing the horn, people screaming at them from the street that the child is trapped in the door?
[20:05:02]MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): It`s not only that, Nancy. In addition to the Camaro following the bus, the
Camaro had to jump the curb and cut through a yard just to get next to the bus driver and honk loud enough and scream at the bus driver to get her to
stop.
GRACE: Whoa! We`re showing that right -- right now. We`re showing the red Camaro as it pulls up beside the bus, sitting on the horn,
screaming, waving their arms, begging the school bus driver to stop the bus. The driver did not stop.
Back to my original question. What was going on with the school bus driver? Unleash the lawyers. Joining me, Troy Slaten, defense attorney,
LA, Marla Chicotsky, defense attorney out of Miami. Welcome to both of you.
First to you, Slaten. What`s your defense for the school bus driver? Because while we don`t have criminal charges yet, I mean, how could they
not -- how could they not happen?
TROY SLATEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, it doesn`t look like he did anything criminal or even civilly negligent here. Have you ever been on a
school bus, with the kids yelling and screaming, and he`s trying to manage that and trying to keep the bus going properly? This bus is not equipped
with any kind of sensor or alarm that would alert him to...
GRACE: Put him back up!
SLATEN: ... someone being caught in the door.
GRACE: Troy Slaten, you asked, have I ever been on a school bus. Yes, I went to public schools. My grandfather was...
SLATEN: So you know.
GRACE: ... a school -- as I was saying, my grandfather was a school bus driver. That was one of the many jobs he had to make a living. So
yes, I rode the school bus with him as a little girl before I was even old enough to go to school. And yes, I rode the public school bus many, many
years.
And you claiming that there are children screaming in the background is not going to be a defense to you. Marla Chicotsky, so are you telling
me with a straight face that the defense is you couldn`t hear the little girl screaming? You couldn`t hear the horns? You couldn`t see people
waving at you? The little girl is about three feet away, caught by her backpack. You couldn`t see the backpack? Marla, what`s your defense?
MARLA CHICOTSKY, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, they`re going to have a really tough time proving intent, that they intentionally drug this little
girl. Obviously, this was an accident, if anything. It`s 300 feet, maybe a yard. They just don`t know how long...
GRACE: Whoa! Whoa! Put her back up!
CHICOTSKY: ... the bus driver was unaware.
GRACE: You know, Marla, I hear what you`re doing, and I appreciate it as a former prosecutor. What you`re trying -- both of you are doing a
great job at trying to minimize what happened and getting me to focus on something other than the fact this 1st-grade child, who happens to be the
age of my twins, was dragged mercilessly along a public highway -- look at this, trapped by her own backpack. It`s a miracle that that didn`t wrap
around her neck, in addition to what else happened to this child.
But as far as you saying there`s no intent, I`m sure that you have heard of criminal negligence or depraved and abandoned heart, both of those
requiring no specific intent as to the actual crime. Of course, the bus driver didn`t wake up that morning, Marla, and say, Hey, I think I`ll try
and drag a child to her death with a school bus today. No, I don`t think it was part of a well thought out plan.
Back to Will Clark, anchor with WHAS. Will, let me ask you, has there been any investigation into what was going on with the school bus driver?
CLARK: There has not. We have learned that that driver is being suspended without pay and that the Jefferson County public school district,
which was the operator of the bus, is looking into it. But as far as to what level that investigation is at, we`re told it`s in the early stages.
GRACE: Well, this is what we know. I have no doubt in my mind the bus driver -- I agree with Troy Slaten and Marla Chicotsky to the extent
that there`s no doubt in my mind this bus driver did not intend for this to happen.
But unleash the lawyers once again, Troy Slaten, Marla Chicotsky. Do you think it might be a good idea, Troy Slaten -- you`re saying the noise
pollution, the noise pollution in the bus was just way off the chart. Of course it is. There`s probably about 40 children in there. But those are
the working conditions.
But don`t you think it might be a good idea to make sure the child`s all the way off the bus before you slam the door and take off? I mean,
when I see a school bus, they put out the stop signs, they wait for the child to get off the bus and walk off the street. You don`t open it and
then slam it while the backpack is still on the bus and the child has one foot off and take off. That`s not the way it works, Troy Slaten.
SLATEN: This was a horrible accident, but it doesn`t make it a crime. It certainly doesn`t look like it rises to the level of criminal
negligence. I mean, the kids are screaming.
[20:10:08]GRACE: So?
SLATEN: He`s trying to...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: ... probably screaming, You`re dragging our friend down the street for about 1,000 yards.
Will Clark, you state that there is an investigation ongoing -- WHAS. Everyone, look at this video. Caught on video, the school bus driver drags
a 1st-grader down the street about 1,000 yards. Will Clark, was the school bus driver tested for drugs and alcohol? We have no suggestion that he or
she was high or drinking, but I`m wondering if that precaution was taken.
CLARK: We`re not sure if that did happen. We do know that the Louisville Metro Police Department was involved in the investigation. In
Kentucky, it`s pretty standard procedure if something like that to happen, but we`re not sure if that has happened, or if it will happen.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:15:24]GRACE: Obese people targeted, bullied, publicly ashamed, even physically abused. Then on the other hand, convicted felons, even
murderers, working the justice system, claiming they`re too fat for jail and too fat to kill?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Too fat to dance? A woman accuses a nightclub of weight discrimination.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) human beings.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Overweight people are constantly discriminated for jobs, at school, even by doctors and nurses.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three different airlines refused to fly his morbidly obese wife, who weighed more than 400 pounds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A morbidly obese woman, almost 1,000 pounds, says she crushed her 2-year-old nephew, Alessio (ph), to death.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Incredible stories of fat shaming, some that end in death. That`s right, girls as young as 12, 13, 14 actually committing suicide
because of fat shaming? On the other end of the spectrum, there are convicted killers, murderers who claim they`re too fat to kill, others that
claim they could not have committed the crime because they`re, quote, "too fat."
But joining me right now, two very special guests. In addition to our panel and our reporters, joining me is Melissa Morris, who once weighed 670
pounds, featured on TLC`s "My 600-Pound Life." Also with me, Richard Widmark, Jr., joining me out of Richmond, weighed 669 pounds at his
heaviest.
The public shaming that the obese endure -- off the charts. First to you, Richard Widmark. There was a point in your life that you actually
considered suicide. What happened?
RICHARD WIDMARK, JR., CURRENTLY WEIGHS 600 POUNDS: It was in 2006. I got severely depressed, and I wanted all the pain to go away. I did more
than consider it, I actually went down to the James River here in Richmond and loaded a gun and put it to my head and pulled the trigger. And
luckily, the gun didn`t go off, and I just didn`t have the strength to pull the trigger again, so -- and since then, there`s been a lot of thought of
suicide, attempting again, but you know, I haven`t been able to go that far again.
GRACE: You know, it`s amazing to me you went so far as taking the gun and putting it to your head, and it didn`t work. Now, that is a sign,
right -- that is a sign from heaven, Richard Widmark.
Now, you state you weighed 669 pounds at your heaviest. What was your normal day like? How did people treat you?
WIDMARK: Well, first of all, the 669 pounds is that I know of. And the only reason for that is because I had a surgery and the hospital bed
could weigh me.
So my normal day -- being over 600 pounds, you don`t go out a lot because of the name-calling, the stares, the being uncomfortable around
other people, not knowing, like, if you`re going to break a chair at a restaurant or not. So I kept to myself a lot.
GRACE: Would people actually call you names right to your face?
WIDMARK: Oh, absolutely. They still do to this day.
GRACE: Like what?
WIDMARK: You know, it`s just -- I mean, the typical things, fatty, you know -- you know, a lot of things I can`t say on TV. But you know, I
mean, it`s the typical point, giggle, you know...
GRACE: But why? I mean, what circumstance is there that lends itself to someone saying that to you?
WIDMARK: I mean I just see it as a reflection of how people feel inside of themselves, that they need to feel better by shaming somebody
else. I mean, I`ve been there myself. I was a bully in middle school, so I understand...
GRACE: OK, that`s hard for me to believe, Richard. That`s very hard for me to believe. You were a bully, and now you`re having to put up with
bullies. You know, when you`re overweight, you know you`re overweight. Having people tell you and comment on it makes it even worse.
Richard, in a typical day, when you were at 669 pounds, what would you eat?
[20:20:03]WIDMARK: Usually, I would start the day with a box of cereal, an entire box. Then, you know, for lunchtime,I would go to Taco
Bell and have, like, 12 tacos or something. And throughout the day, like, a 2 liter of Coke or something. And dinner -- I mean, it was all takeout.
Everything was takeout. I mean, I could eat an entire pizza, a 12 piece of wings, bread sticks and a 2-liter in one meal without a problem. So there
was no healthy food.
GRACE: With me is Richard Widmark, Jr., out of Richmond. Also with us, and you know her well, Melissa Morris, the star on TLC`s "My 600-Pound
Life." Melissa, thank you for being with us.
MELISSA MORRIS, WEIGHED 670 POUNDS: Thank you for having me.
GRACE: You have struggled with your weight since childhood and...
MORRIS: I still struggle with my weight.
GRACE: ... I`m just wondering -- yes, you know what? Don`t we all because, you know, Melissa, I`m sure people come up to you -- everybody,
you`re seeing video from TLC.
After I had the twins, I was just exhausted and I -- the last thing on my mind was trying to lose weight. And you know, on the front of every
magazine it says, Are you bikini body ready? You know what? I`d just go - - when the twins were swimming, I`d just jump in the pool in my clothes, OK? They know that now at the pools. I just jump in. I take off my shoes
and get in because there`s no way I`m going to put on a swimsuit, OK? Not going to happen.
It`s as if I don`t have time to focus the way I used to before my twins were born with the exercise journal and the food journal -- you know,
crazy!
But people come up to you, Melissa, out of the blue and make fat comments! Why? Why do they do that?
MORRIS: They see that it`s OK because we, as America, thinks that everybody should look like those magazine covers, like we have a standard
set (ph) for our young ladies. Like all the little cheerleaders on all the football teams, they`re not heavier-set girls. We set standards off young,
really, really young, that you`re only pretty if you`re skinny.
For instance, I love my parents. I love my sister. My sister was always tiny. People used to refer to me as the big one. Even at 5 and 6,
I was the big one because she was skinnier than me. She was a cheerleader. She was the prom queen.
It`s just what we say that`s OK. It`s what we justify as beautiful in America. And that`s why.
GRACE: Everybody, you`re seeing video of Melissa, who is staying with us, along with Richard, from TLC`s "My 600-Pound Life."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:26:47]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tens of millions of Americans are obese, more than one third of all adults. That`s a lot of people who may be
subjected to possible prejudice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our society says thin is beautiful, thin is hip.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We deserve to fit in this world and be beautiful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Fat shaming to the point little adolescent girls commit suicide? On the other end of the spectrum, convicted killers claiming
they`re too fat to kill or too fat to commit a crime?
Joining me today, special guest Melissa Morris of TLC`s "My 600-Pound Life," Richard Widmark, Jr., weighing in at at least 669 pounds at one
point.
But joining me right now, the founder of the National Action Against Obesity, Me-Me Roth joining us. You`re seeing video from TLC. Me-Me is
joining us out of New York. Me-Me Roth, Richard Widmark and Melissa Morris, to all of you, thank you for being with us.
Me-Me, you have heard what Melissa and Richard have been through. I want to hear your response.
ME-ME ROTH, FOUNDER OF NATIONAL ACTION AGAINST OBESITY: Nancy, it`s hard to understand any justification for any bullying, abusing people,
whether they`re too fat or too thin. That I can`t understand and in no way can justify that.
What I do hear, though, is that it`s not skinny that is perceived as beautiful, thank goodness, anymore. We used to have models that were rail-
thin, would faint. We`ve shifted, I think, somewhat culturally, and we`ve gotten back to the norm of healthy being beautiful...
GRACE: Wa-wait! Wa-wait!
ROTH: ... not too heavy and not too thin, and that`s the right place to be.
GRACE: Me-Me, when did you notice a shift? Because every time I look at the front of a magazine, it`s photoshopped out the ying-yang to make the
people look skinny. In fact, a lot of times they have girls that I`m pretty sure are younger than 15, and they look like they need to go to the
-- not those people, but they look like they need to go to the hospital because they`re so thin.
ROTH: Well...
GRACE: Their -- their -- their bones are actually sticking out.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Where are you seeing this?
ROTH: I think you`ve seen a real shift with Jennifer Lawrence, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez. Kim Kardashian, who`s probably the most followed
and considered the most beautiful woman in the world by many standards is certainly not rail thin. So I do think...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: You know, it`s funny that you brought her up, Me-me, because you`ve got Kardashian with the obviously big booty, and she`s fine with
that. But then you`ve got her sister, who is rail thin, who`s trying to be a "Vogue" model...
ROTH: Yes, well, that...
GRACE: ... really needs to eat something.
ROTH: You said it right there. You said it right there. I think the catwalk, the "Vogue" models, the couture models, it is still problematic.
They -- those is where -- that`s where you`re going to see the super-thin on the magazine stands.
But if you look at the wide array of news available to you on the magazine stands, you see Hillary Clinton, you see Nancy Grace, you see a
lot of brilliant women who aren`t on there for being rail thin, they`re being on there for myriad reasons to be on the cover of magazine. And if
we`d stop hyper-focusing on couture fashion, that might help us all a little bit.
GRACE: OK, I want to go back to Melissa Morris and Richard Widmark. Melissa, weigh in, please.
MORRIS: I don`t know what Me-Me`s talking about because I have a 5- year-old and a 14-year-old, and both of them are healthy weight, as she would say. But both of them feel like they`re fat or overweight because
every "Seventeen" magazine, every "Cosmopolitan Teen," you don`t have, excuse me, Nancy, no Nancy Grace or Hillary Clinton on there. You have
these rail-thin girls.
GRACE: You`re right, you`re right. I don`t know what magazine Meme Roth is looking at.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m a parent of a 16-year-old and a 14-year-old and I do think --
MORRIS: You don`t start with adults. You have to start where it matters. You need to start with the children because let me assure you in
Dr. Nowzardan`s practice, he has had many parents calling and begging and asking to please help my 12-year-old, please help my 13-year-old, please
help my 16-year-old. Every one of them want the same thing. They want to be normal. Because you`re wrong, Meme, there`s no everybody is normal,
everybody wants to be healthy. Absolutely.
GRACE: Everybody, you`re seeing video from TLC.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:35:20]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have not seen obesity at this level.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Overweight people have been ordered off planes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Too fat to fly?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have been denied certain jobs. They`re made fun of in movies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You were obese when he pulled the trigger.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t apologize for my size.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s hard to live like this. Suicide is not an option.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Myra Rozales (ph) is 31 years old and weighs an incredible 74 stone. An astonishing size tests the justice system to
breaking points.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`re saying you`re the one that killed the baby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is Myra really a murderer?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`re making me feel like I was a monster. I`m not what they`re saying I am.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Or is she actually a martyr.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That video from TLC of Myra Rosales, morbidly obese and accused of murder. Thanks for joining us, everyone. Joining me, Melissa
Morris, who weighed 670 pounds on TLC`s, "My 600-Pound Life." Richard Widmark weighing in at 669 pounds. Joining me, Meme Roth and Dr. Younan
Nowzaradan, who actually treated Myra Rosales you`re seeing right here. Obesity expert featured in TLC`s "My 600 Pound Life." Doctor, thank you so
much for being with us.
DR. YOUNAN NOWZARADAN: I`m glad to be.
GRACE: Doctor, we are going to show later photos of little girls that actually committed suicide after fat shaming, but as far as Myra Rosales,
we were just showing you the video. Liz, if you could pull up Myra`s photo, she was actually charged with the murder of her nephew. Would that
murder have been impossible because of her weight?
NOWZARADAN: That`s correct.
GRACE: Why?
NOWZARADAN: That`s correct. She couldn`t do that because there was no mobility on her.
GRACE: How did she live? How can she live at that weight? What was her highest weight, Doctor?
NOWZARADAN: Her highest weight was around 1,100 pounds.
GRACE: Doctor, how does an individual get to 1,100 pounds and maintain that weight?
NOWZARADAN: Well, you know, this is a genetic defect. This is not in their control. That`s not their choice. This is something with the
genetic disposition that controlled their eating habit, and they can consume these calories and they can store a lot of fat, and this morbidly
obese condition is a disease. It`s not a choice of person that they can eat, because they can`t control this without surgery. The only solution
for these people is surgery.
GRACE: Doctor, everyone joining me off TLC`s "My 600-Pound Life" is Dr. Younan Nowzaradan. When you say a genetic defect, give me an example.
What genetic defect would result in a weight gain like this?
NOWZARADAN: Well, morbid obesity is like diabetes. It`s a genetic defect which is a dominant gene. And unfortunately in every next
generation, we`re going to see morbidly obese people. This genetic defect controls the hormones that control the patient`s metabolism, and these
hormones, they cannot be controlled with diet and exercise.
GRACE: Everyone, this is Dr. Younan Nowzaradan off TLC. To Dr. Dar out of New York, Dr. Dar, how much can your heart take? A human at 1100
pounds plus, how does your heart continue to function?
NOWZARADAN: Well, the heart -- it`s a tremendous strain on your heart. For every pound of weight gained, there`s blood vessels that the
heart has to pump blood through. So someone weighs 1,200 pounds, what pressure on that heart to pump her entire blood volume through all that
fat, so that would lead to heart failure and of course heart disease.
GRACE: But Meme Roth, you claim it`s not genetic?
ROTH: Show me the genes that has Taco Bell delivered to her house. That`s ridiculous. Most of human existence has had to survive scarcity, so
we all have the genetic makeup that says we like to eat, and we like to eat more than we can and more than we should. If we didn`t have that component
to us, we wouldn`t be surviving today. So it`s absolutely demoralizing and misleading and dangerous to tell people that it`s all genetic, when in
reality the crime I see on the television is the accessory to the long-term slow murder of the woman. Who`s feeding her? If she`s 100 percent
immobilized, somebody is delivering that food to her, and it wasn`t genetics.
GRACE: Why did you say she was getting Taco Bell delivery?
ROTH: I was being flippant, and what I mean is somebody is feeding her the food that`s put her at that size. Clearly if she is immobilized,
she was not delivering the food, so whoever is feeding her is a criminal for that. By the way, one thing that I could say, Nancy, if we are making
our children fat, we are responsible, and we are making them targets of bullies. It`s never okay to bully, but we as the parent are responsible
for ensuring our children are a healthy weight. Genetics is the most ridiculous thing I`ve heard. I come from a long line of obesity, and I
never like to hear a doctor say something so irresponsible, that a reduction in food and an increase in exercise will have no impact. If you
know anything about war camps or reality TV, you know when you remove food, people lose weight.
GRACE: What about that, dr. Panchali Dar and Dr. Younan Nowzaradan, is that true, that there`s no such thing as genetic obesity? First to you,
Dr. Dar.
DAR: There may be a small genetic component in families that tend to be a little bit heavier than other families, but -- but, eating is a
learned behavior.
GRACE: To Dr. Younan Nowzaradan, Meme Roth insisting there`s no such thing as genetic obesity.
NOWZARADAN: Well, I would suggest for that doctor to read my book that is going to come out, because I`ve got four decades of experience.
Now, I can tell you that these 600-pound people, when we operate on them, we manipulate their hormones, insulin resistance. You know what, after
five years, their genetic defect, it correct itself.
GRACE: Let me go to Melissa Morris, who weighed 670 pounds, featured on "TLC`s" 600-pound life. Melissa, when you hear Meme Roth insisting
there`s no such thing as genetic obesity, response?
MORRIS: She`s an idiot. I`m saying it politely. Because she has no clue. I guarantee that she has never been a day overweight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:46:30]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The hardest thing about being in public at my weight is you get lots of looks. Some are sympathetic. Some are, oh, you
dirty waste.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was your last weight, do you remember?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 776.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Myra has to have ten men to move her, and it takes an extra wide ambulance. They don`t put her on a stretcher, they just
slide her in on the floor. She doesn`t move.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: You know, Meme Roth, the founder of National Action Against Obesity, can talk all she wants to about there`s no such thing as genetic
obesity, and how, hey, if you look on the front of any cover, you don`t see skinny people. I guess I`m reading a different magazine than Meme Roth is.
But this is what I know. I know children are actually committing suicide because of fat shaming. And I want to go to Dan O`Donnell, anchor with
WISN. What can you tell me about Shannon Gee or Fiona Geraghty, two little girls who committed suicide.
DAN O`DONNELL, WISN: Well, these little girls were actually driven to take their own life because of relentless bullying over their weight. It
was a tragic --
GRACE: Wait, wait, wait, I`m looking at Shannon Gee right there. She looks perfectly healthy. Go ahead, Dan.
O`DONNELL: She was called horrible names at school, including one that I can`t say on television and was just relentlessly teased and mocked.
She does look like a beautiful girl. But her classmates relentlessly mocked her over her weight.
GRACE: Called a fat bitch and a fat cow.
O`DONNELL: Yes.
GRACE: This is a little girl. The fat shaming started when she was like 10 or 11 years old.
With me, Richard Widmark Jr., Melissa Morris, and Meme Roth. You know, Richard Widmark, you`re a grown man. Melissa Morris, you`re a grown
lady. You`re overweight. People bully you. People fat shame you, as it`s called. These are little children. Richard, they committed suicide over
fat shaming. You yourself tried to commit suicide and the gun misfired. What is your thought on these little children that are actually killing
themselves over fat shaming?
WIDMARK: I mean, it -- it obviously breaks my heart. Anybody to take their life for any reason, it touches a special part of me because I`ve
been there. And I think the problem lies within self-worth. Nobody is taught self-worth anymore. Everybody --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t --
WIDMARK: -- looks at the magazines.
GRACE: I think I hear Roth. Go ahead.
ROTH: Well, you know, I think that one thing about the point earlier, I come from a long line of obesity. I`ve had to watch my weight my whole
life. My mother has always been over 200 pounds. My father is over 350 pounds. Obesity killed my grandmother. She was bedridden for four years.
She was nearly 400 pounds, couldn`t get out of bed, it was a tragedy.
[20:50:00]
When you grow up with that --
WIDMARK: That`s your family, that`s not you.
ROTH: Let me tell you something, there`s nothing worse than telling people that there`s nothing they can do about it. That is terribly
demoralizing. It is not easy to be a healthy weight, but you can`t take the hope away from people and let them know that if they do take control of
the way they eat, that they can make a difference. By the way --
GRACE: What we`re talking about is fat shaming on those little girls.
ROTH: It`s not okay.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: And you`re saying, Meme, on the front of magazines you see people like Hillary Clinton. Guess what, they`re not on the front of
magazines that little girls read. They`re not reading about Hillary Clinton.
ROTH: Yes, but what I said to you, Nancy, we`ve seen a significant shift away from the waif look. Jennifer Lawrence, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez,
Kim Kardashian, the list goes on and on and on of women who are not rail thin anymore, and thank goodness we celebrate healthier bodies. I`m glad
for that. But the point I`m trying to make is bullying is never okay, but as a parent we are responsible for the food our children eat and ensuring
that they remain a healthy weight, period.
GRACE: Instead of blaming these girls` parents --
ROTH: I`m absolutely blaming parents if they allow children to become overweight.
MORRIS: Excuse me, Meme, I have a 5-year-old in pre-k. She came home crying the other day and she said, mommy, so and so, she named the little
girl, she said my belly is round. Let me tell you what, my child is not overweight. Let me also tell you what, because I struggle with weight and
have my entire life, my children -- I watch exactly what they eat. We don`t eat fast food, we don`t eat fried food. I feed my children healthy.
But you`re telling me that I`m the cause of my 5-year-old getting bullied at school?
ROTH: No, I didn`t say anything about that. I said you`re responsible to parent --
(CROSSTALK)
MORRIS: You`re saying it`s the parents fault. I feed my children very healthy. I have a 12-year-old boy that comes to live with me. When
he moved in at 9, he was over 350 pounds. I just by changing his way of eating, have got this young man down to a normal -- he went from a 54 down
to a 36 pair of pants, because I watch what my children eat.
ROTH: That`s great.
Melissa, you`re saying exactly what I suggested you to do do.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Show me a picture please, Liz, of Shannon Gee and Fiona Geraghty. When you look at them, they`re not fat. They`re not fat, and
these girls were so fat shamed, they committed suicide.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:57:00]
GRACE: You know, we were showing you video earlier of Myra Rosales who weighed 1,100 pounds. She was not guilty the in murder of her little
nephew. I`m focusing right now on Shannon Gee and Fiona Geraghty, two little girls that committed suicide after fat shaming. You are seeing TLC
video. Dr. Ramani Durvasula, it`s hard for me to believe that people would attack little children to the point they commit suicide over being chubby.
DURVASULA: Bullying has sadly become more and more of an issue. We`re becoming a more visual world, Nancy. So what`s happening is, young
people are using social media, text messages, putting photographs out there, and they`re able to get attacked 24/7. We`re seeing that this sort
of overfocus on image, appearance, weight, and the chronic flow of photographs is leading young people -- it`s open season. They`re just
going after each other all the time. These are two beautiful, young, healthy girls. We don`t blame their parents, we don`t blame them. We need
to take a step back and look at our society.
I`m wondering why this is happening.
GRACE: I want to follow up on what you`re saying. Dr. Ramani Durvasula, I want to go to Melissa Morris and Richard Widmark. First,
Melissa, when you think of the 10-year-old, the 12-year-old you, and you think of this 14-year-old little girl committing suicide over fat shaming,
what is your thought?
MORRIS: It`s heartbreaking. It`s heartbreaking. We`re all beautiful. We`re all humans, no matter our size. There is caring and
compassion, and we have souls. Absolutely wasn`t her fault. It`s not that she was anything less or her parents were anything. Either of those girls
were nothing less. They were just broken down.
GRACE: With me, Melissa Morris. Richard Widmark and Meme Roth, and as long as Meme Roth is out there, I`m going to continue jumping into the
pool fully clothed.
Let`s remember American hero, Army Specialist Shane Woods, 23, Palmer, Alaska. JROTC cadet of the year, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, loved the
Alaska wild, hiking, poetry and photography. Parents Wayne and May, sister Stephanie. Shane Woods, American hero.
And a special good night tonight from our superstar Sophy and his beautiful mother Lilly, celebrating his birthday. And happy ending for
domestic violence survivor Melissa Dunn, who gets a surprise proposal throwing out first pitch Tampa Bay Rays game. Her groom, the paramedic who
saved her life.
Everyone, Drew up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. Until then, good night, friend.
END
