>> snow to arctic air, severe weather crippling roads and grounding planes across the country. it appears to be getting colder. those are the headlines. "america tonight" is up next. remember - you can always get the latest news on aljazeera.com. see you back here tomorrow night. ♪ ♪ on a.m. the senior frank that sent kids to jail? >> an administrator grabs me from behind and h he's like i sn you throw the boughter balloon. >> our in-depth look at american education, is zero toll r*epbz reptolerancemaking schools safek students to a dead end. >> the most severe consequence is having a criminal record. >> america tonight investigates the school to prison pipeline. also tonight a.m. continuing

focus campus s*eupbgs crimes, sk youkilis nonow thewhite sox wei. and when technology brings new hope to humans a remarkable and life-changing robot rescue. it was a huge change because it gave him purpose tonight. roos using robots to try to free up paralyzed people. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ and good everything, thank you for joining us, i am joie chen. as parents we tell our children school is the path to a brighter few he should to opportunity, to success, but in our "america tonight" in-depth look at american education, we see evidence that for at least some students, cool and an increasing

focus on campus discipline can instead become a pipeline to prison. it is a trend that started in the 1990s, after columbine. when many schools nationwide adopted a zero tolerance approach to on-campus misbehavior. but it has had a disparate impact on black students, nationwide african attorney students are three times as likely as white classmates to be expelled or suspended the white house took notice recently issuing new guidelines to disrupt what critics says is a practice of criminal fool acing minor misbehave, a.m. we want to wake county california home to what is maybe the biggest line pipe light in the country. >> reporter: it's dawn in ali, north carolina, teaming with 200600 students it's known if a little bit of evening. racial and socioeconomic diversity, a magnate program that attract kids from all over the city, and a crime problem

enough that a security officer is permanently assign today the campus, today a routine school day, unlike that day last may. >> send a police officer over here in the high school because there is something going on, kids are out in the middle of the street. >> fight, or what's going on? >> i don't know they are out of the building. independents frost school. i need police officer. i. >> i got arrested and booked. they cuffed me. and we were in the detention center. >> when i got in to the office they the they were going on rest me. >> we. >> i pick up my twin daughters so i am in the car pool lane i saw a lot of police presence there and i didn't understand why at that point in time. i went inside to check my daughters out, that's when they told me that there was i guess a senior day prank water balloons or what have you. >> that's right, a massive water balloon fight is what had

triggered the 911 calm. the raleigh police department dispatched 24 officers over the next few hours to restore order. >> a police officer runs up behind me and is a really big guy, he grabs me, i snatch away from him. and i turns me around and grabs me by my neck and slams me on my back. i actually saw him getting pick upped slammed to the ground and handcuffed by a raleigh police officer, very, very disturbing. it was very graphic. >> the first thing that went in my head is i can't believe i am about to get arrested i have to walk my sister home because we ride the same bus. >> he was not ultimately arrested, but robert brown was, and charged with disorderly conduct. a misdemeanor. >> an administrator grab me from behind, grabs my shoulder and he's like, i seen you throw the water balloon and i am like, no, i didn't. so they take me to a conference room and tell me you are about

to be arrested. >> eight students were arrested that day. along with parent kevin heinz. heinz says after witnessing what happened, he entered the school to alert the principal. >> so here yo you walk in to the administrators tofs report this to the principal or whatever and outcomes the officer who you see body slam this young gentlemen. >> that is exactly correct. he radios in to two other officers and they come and swarm on me and slam me against the wall. and he says, tase him, tase him. and at that points i said for what? oh, for trespassing. i said i have daughters here. >> heinz was charged with trespassing. and then there was stephen perry. ♪ where do i go now >> when he's not composing his own scores, stephen is a senior at night dale high, he lives with his mother lynn, just around the corn are from from the school which had been his school.

until may 16th. >> so you had a knife? >> yes, i did. it was i would say about a three-inch blade. >> so it i switch blade or -- >> , went to a switch blade it was a carvin carving knife. >> why was is in your packet at school? >> the brief david it with me i forgot it was in my pocket i just threw on pants that morning. >> that morning he says he was trying to steer clear from the water balloon ruckus had & had gone outside between classes and the school's police officer stopped him. >> he push meets in order to get me to stop. when he pushes me i take my head phones off and i and him hi, how are you? he proceeds and says where are you coming from? i told him that i was standing in the grass right there in front of the cars, i did not go off campus i was just waiting for the crowd to clear out and at that point in time, is when he start today take out his hand curse and try to arrest me. he walked me to his office, after he looked through all move stuff in my bag, he asked me to

do i have anything on me that he should know about? and then i did tell him that i had a pocket knife in my pocket. >> the school called the police. so what was going through your minds when city police show up? my question was was it that serious? am i really some bad person, was i just really a criminal? did i have to go to jail, get booked and put in a cell and stay there? >> the police charged him with possessing a weapon on school property a misdemeanor and the school game live a long-term suspense initially five months. >> well, he was kicked out, he was actually supposed to be kicked out until the end of january. >> so from may to january. >> right. >> what are you supposed to do in the meantime, mom? >> right. and that was the question that i asked. >> lynn had to hire two lawyers, one to persuade wade county schools to readmit her son to a difficult school and another to work on the getting the criminal charge dismissed that she says cost her $9,000. >> you have to make a decision,

am i going to let my son have this on his record and possibly ruin the rest of his life, or am i going to pay the mortgage? >> she says the image of her son as a criminal is at odds with the choir boy he actually is. >> he's been playing piano since he was five years old and probably could have gotten a scholarship to any music school he wanted to go to. and they have killed that because of the arrest record. >> in north carolina, being arrested as a teenager has enormous consequences. it's one of only two states in the country that considered 16 and 17 year olds to be adults. which means misdemeanor charges are on your permanent record. >> they say that you can get it expunged, however, i just feel like it's an injustice to these kids, when something that should have been handled administratively is being handled by raleigh police department. >> no one from menlo high school, the up superintendant's

office, the school board or the police department would talk to "america tonight" on camera about that day. the wade county school district and the school board released identical statements. the wade county public school system is responsible for providing a safe and optimal learning en convenient for for all signed, to that end we continually review all policies and practices that affect student learning and discipline. >> wade county has one of the largest school to prison pipelines in the country. >> jason is the supervisor attorney at advocates for children's services in durham, north carolina. >> so for years they were short-term suspending 20,000 indicates year. >> 20,000 kids were out of school for up to? >> 10 days, over a thousand kids were being suspended for the rest the school year, told get out, you are on the streets, come back next year. >> those suspension numbers are coming down, he says, but according to his analysis of recent data at wade county schools, black taunt black spaoe

suspended five times as often. black students are 39% of the population but receive 92% of the long-term suggests specses. so when you look at some of the racial disparities here. it would look as though the black kids are misbehaving. >> there is no evidence to support the fact that black kids or accounting out more or more severely. in fact we found data snowing even for the same offenses the african american students are being suspended more often and more harshly. >> for example, land berg found that further 40% of black students in wake county schools caught with cell phones got suspended los angeles of year while only 17% of white students were cuts spend forked the same offense. i get suspends you getting to home with your cell phone. >> that's exactly right. students doing the exact same things are treated did living. >> as for the water balloon incident the young men we talked to, said they weren't involved. >> people might say, listen, cops had no idea what they were walking in to, got some calls, things sounded hectic. >> senior prank is supposed to be fun never hurting anybody. i didn't see really anyone

getting hurt by a water balloon, you know. no serious injury by a waiter balloon just a little water. >> just a little without fore these families a life-altering impact. >> i want people to know that we aren't bad kids, not criminals, thieves murderers, we are just going to school who got put in the wrong situation. >> "america tonight" correspond end sarah will return with solutionses in just a moment. first we want to continue our focus on the situation at schools today. we turn to dan lawson director of the center for civil rights remedies at ucla's civil rights project. we appreciate your being with us. and we want to talk specifically about a complaint you have foiled, this is a legal complaint if you could explain to me, does it particularly per finpertain to this incident or e broadly? >> it's more broadly. we are joining legal aid of north carolina and many other civil rights groups in filing this complaint. and it really addresses the

relationship of the wake county school's with school policing and it's specifically focused on issues involving black kids and kids with disabilities where we are seeing large, large disparities in terms of who is -- who is being affected by these unsound practices. >> it might be exceptional in this particular district but there is a problem nationwide? >> a slates. we believe it's emblematic of problems we are seeing in many schools and districts across the country. but it's also true that there are many schools and districts that don't have these kind of excessive policing issues and excessive use of out of school suspensions. soy the solutions around the corner sometimes in the next district. for example, though, we are seeing for schools referring kids to law enforcement, for kids with disabilities who make up about 12% of national

enrollment, we see 23% of the referrals to law enforcement for black students who make up about 18% of total enrollment, they make up about 42% of all of the kids who are being referred to law enforcement by schools. so there is a huge problem and it's a nationwide. >> striking numbers there. we want to bring mo in to the discussion, he's executive director of the national association of school resource officers. again, mr. kennedy, it may not apply to all districts, certainly doesn't apply to all officers, but is there recognition that there are abuses that may be crack down has gone too far? >> well, i do appreciate dan making the point that it doesn't apply to all districts and agencies. and i will tell you for 24 years now, nasro has been in the business of training police officers how to function properly in schools. you know, are there over policing issues in certain schools? i would suppose so.

because certainly not all police officers working in schools are trained by nasr off. as a matter of fact, north carolina unfortunately is one of the scared wher states where wiw training because we have to be invited in by local agent sis to conduct the training. i think that's an important point to make. officers have to be properly trained how to work in the school edge *pb sraoeurplt. >> it is not, under score the point here, it is not an easy thing to deal with young people, to deal with situations that might veer out of control. and particularly in an environment where we have seen really difficult situations on school campuses. >> well, that's why the officer has to be properly selected and trained and also there has to be.

this is truly designs to be examine community-based policing at itty finest. the idea is to correct with youth and bridge the gap between law enforcement and youth. >> do agree? you share in interest in seeing people trains properly. is there a difference between training, for example, law enforcement in the broad every society and school officer training would be different? in other words, you can't take a police officer off the street and just inject him in to the school. >> absolutely. in fact, that's part of the grounds for our complaint is that there is a less discriminatory way to go about this, including the training better training for police officers so that they are really prepared to work in a school environment. there can also be protocols limiting the so many of their authority so that they are only really getting involved where there are issues of safety or blatant kind of unlawful activity. but i would also point out, i am glad he mentioned the community involve. we need the data and oftentimes

we don't get it. wake county is difficult to get the data that we have and they are not report to go the federal government giving us the information about arrests and referrals to law enforcement broken down by race, race, at this time business, gentser, we need this information. it's the public's right to know and that makes a big difference in terms of the community's capacity to monitor what's going on. so training is important. but we have to be a i believ abo monitor the situation to prevent excessive policing. >> training and transparency we appreciate both of you being with us. thanks to both of you to being with us. >> thanks for having me on. >> thank you. >> wake county, north carolina has led th the in this. john powell is pioneering a new approach, if only he says, he

can get more schools in wake county to listen. >> all i knew was wham, slap across the face and it was it. me and her were tumbling all over the floor in the bathroom a girl tried to break it up but there was nothing she could do. >> tory dave davis is a very in north carolina. last year she got in a knock do you think drag all brawl with another girl over a guy. what was the conferences? >> police came and we got locked up. when we got there, we were fingerprinted and they took my picture and everything. and i did not cry. i stayed calm. the school didn't even call my mom to let her know where i was at. >> like the kids across town, davis was charged with disorderly conduct a misdemeanor and got kicked out of school for seven days, which she says caused her grades to tank. >> i ended up at the end of year failing english, and geometry.

>> these girls were 16 and 17 years old, which meant that they were in our adult system because of the rule in north carolina. >> john powell say professor at the university law school in raleigh. >> what are some of the consequences of that? >> to me the most severe consequence is having a criminal record. even if they are never convicted a charge in the adult system stays on a person's record. >> so, i mean if you are applying for scholar shipping or jobs that's the way of the world plug in name and see what we find. >> you can't do that in the juvenile system those records are sealed you can't find a juvenile's charge those records of prove hat and i think they should be if we can raise age in north carolina part of the protections would be put in place. >> powell has lobbied the north carolina general assembly to raise the age, so far unsuccessfully. he's had better luck as the

director the juvenile justice product which promotes mediation instead of the a criminal charge. >> when they keep kids out of school, the answer to success is not in having kids leave school. we need to keep kids in school. >> so zero come fence isn't necessarily the end all be all? >> no. absolutely not. i think it's a big mistake. i want to look at everything on a case-by-case basis. when we implement a vee come fence policy, we limit ourselves and take away the ability to look at everything. and respond appropriately. >> so who has been hurt and how have you been hurt? once we understand that, resolution becomes fairly simple. >> luckily for tory davis, her high school is one of the handful of public schools in wake county that signed on with his approach. >> we let them in.

let them know how everybody was affected and also in a lengthy conversation to help them understand each other better. some of the challenges that they were facing. >> did you ever think that you would be hanging out with the person you had beef with? >> honestly, no, but we got through it and like now we -- i wouldn't say we are the best of friends but we are really cool. >> and more importantly, powell brokered ideal. well, the agreement between the public defender and the district attorney was that if we could reach a satisfactory resolution, the criminal charges would be dismissed. >> davis plans to graduate in may and attends winston salem state with a clean record. >> when you hear the stories about with the water balloons and how people were arrested and those boys still have that record on, that arrest on their record, what goes through your snowed. >> that could have been me. >> america tonight sarah rejoining us in studio. in a situation like that, everybody talks about it, everybody has heard about it and there were a lot of rumors ahead of time, too.

some that maybe it wasn't just going to be without never those water balloons. this is serious, for officers. >> that's right. here you have chatter on twitter. facebook, where people are freaking out saying, listen there might be some other substances, you are inning, bleach, who knows what, so it's kind of hard to say are you surprised that there was in reaction? by then what we are hearing today from the people we spoke with, with also this complaint is that but does it have to go that far afterwards? okay so the police show up but aren't the schools and the law enforcement agencies between a rock and hard place, do they have to go to jail? do they have t have a record? does it have to stick with them for the rest of their lives that's part of the complain. they are trying to say, listen, we need to slow down and figure out is this fitting of the crime. >> sarah hoye, correspondent following the story, thanks very much for being with us. >> thanks for having me, joie. join "america tonight" air hoye and special correspondent soledad o'brien and leading voices in education online as

they discuss inequality in education, log to aljazerra.com/americatonight to watch the conversation develop. and tell us what you think. you can also weigh in on twitter, using the #gettingschooled and we'll continued our in depositing look at education next time on "america tonight," we'll do the math, and see if honester to keep kids out of trouble through algebra really adds up. >> if a kid passes ninth grade math he or she will graduate from high school. if they fail ninth grade math, they are likely to fail high school. >> is al gentleman from battaglia thalgebra the answer?e academy on how his may already be changing the way our kids learn math. world's top documetary directors. >> it's the world's most powerful financial institution. >> i think we're mysterious to people. >> what really goes on behind

closed doors? >> the fed is kind of this black box. >> it's your money... >> somebody screwed up. >> ... or is it? >> i worked to save that money and now i get nothing. >> inside the fed. on al jazeera america.

>> evey sunday night, join us for exclusive, revealing, and suprizing talks with the most interesting people of our time. >> our journalists are the best journalists in the world. >> she's the first female executive editor of the new york times. >> there's no question that the editorial stance is a liberal point of view. >> the head of the paper of record goes on the record with talk to al jazeera. only on al jazeera america. and now there is more to it. an issue i "america tonight" has

focused on extensively, campus sex crimes, sexual assault and rape and what colleges do to protect students from attacks by their own classmates, with the help of the students who have become activists and bravely spoken out in our town hall and our on-campus reporting we have spotlighted' epidemic of campus sexual assault. that' em that epidemic hasn't gh attention until recently. the president is launching a grounds-breaking i appreciative. creating a task force called the white house kah council on womed girls. the president described sexual assault as a priority personally for him. >> i promise i will keep fighting for you and your families. and i will keep pushing for others to step up across my administration and from congress and state capitals and college campuses and our military bases and all across our country. this is a prove or at thi priort

only as president and chief of the united states, but as a husband and father 22 extraordinary girls. >> one in five female students are sexually assaulted on u.s. college campuses, shockingly, only 12% of those victims report the incidents. the president also said the response by authorities is offense inadequate. president obama linked the inadequate response to police bias and the lack of training in dealing with sexual assault. the report also reveals that some 22 million women in this country are raped in their lifetimes. but even as the president announces bold new steps to a address connection up crimes some victims are taking matters in no their own hands with a novel legal strategy. >> my head was slammed in to a bathroom do are and then again next to the toilet and you know, the assault proceeded. >> i remember like put paying hands on the sink and just looking at myself in the mirror,

and not even being able to fully comprehend what had just happened. and it was just like i need to get out of here. >> these women say that they were raped. at a place most of us assume will be a haven of learning and of safety, college. annie was a freshman and andrea a sophomore each attending unc. the muster of north carolina at chapel hill. each says the university failed to protect them in the first place. or give them the support that they needed to cope with the experience afterwards. >> the last thing i would want to do is to walk in to an office, immediately after, and say, this happened to me this happened to me, this happened to me and to be questioned about it for hours upon hours. >> i know when i did report, because i did, i was blamed for my own experience. >> what what does that mean blamed? >> i was told that rape was like a football game and i should look back on my experience if i

was playing this game and what would i have done differently to avoid that situation. >> there is depression, eating disorders cutting, there is this internal blame. and a lot of that burden is placed on the victim to change her lifestyle because, you know, it's your fault, you gotta get over it. figure out what you can do to make it better. >> since 1972, the u.s. department of education, under title nine of the civil rights act, has said institutional receiving federal funds must insure an education free of sexual discrimination. the how haw is usually associated with the equality in sports, but many colleges and universities say they were unaware of their legal obligations under title nine to also protect students from sexual assault. historically critics say schools have generally looked the other way. or worse, covered it up. melinda manning is a former unc dean who was dissatisfied the justs handling of assault

complaints. >> i think we were reluctant to classify as a sexual assault because it would bethed in the official numbers. we absolutely put much more emphasis on preventing plagiarism than rape. that was a reality. >> though annie graduated in 2012 she and andrea found each other through the unc community. they began to talk about the issue of rape at the university of north carolina and made the decision to take a stand. >> the frame we intentionally used is saying this is not a unc problem it's not because somebody messed up in the offers. it's a representation of a larger cultural problem. >> the women began researching title nine, interviewing other victims of rape, utilizing social media and in january of 2013, along with former unc administrator melinda manning and two others, they filed a federal complaint against the

university of north carolina at the department of education. >> i think this is a microcosm of what a is happening across the country. we are seeing these crimes are committed, universities sweeping them under the rug, the department of education not holding anyone accountable, and students are being the ones who say this is not okay. so when you have 18 and 19 year old men and well, who are holding the government accountable for rape, like it just -- it boggles my minds. >> as for annie and andrea, they have turned their ordeals in to a mission, a mission to bring light in to a part of campus life that has been too long in shadow. in the shadows not too much longer we hope, president obama is giving the task force 90 days to recommend actions that colleges can take to prevent rape and sexual assault and respond to allegations. coming up next, keeping the focus that chemical spill in

west virginia. doctors warn there are new signs that the trouble isn't over. the stream is uniquely interactive television. we depend on you, >> you are one of the voices of this show. >> so join the conversation and make it your own. >> the stream. on al jazeera america and join the conversation online @ajamstream.

now a snapshot of stories making headlines on "america tonight." detroit's familiar woes getting a boost from the state but with strings a tam the th attach. $350 million over 12 years to help it get out of bankruptcy sooner but it will not make pensioners whole. the planned execution of a mechanics cal national is on hold while the u.s. supreme court considers appeals from his attorneys. he was set setoguchi to die wednesday evening for killing a houston police officer 20 years ago. this case has drawn christ criticism from the next can government and the u.s. state department. israeli officials say they have interrupted an al quada plan for attack the u.s. em bass embassl

aviv. three were arrested on christmas day after online recruit think by al qaeda. more west virginians are using their tap water again after a frightening chemical school in the elk river in charleston. doctors are continuing to warn about their concerns. especially about how little is known about the risks created by the spill. now the cdc acknowledges it should have done more to warn pregnant women about drinking the water. and residents are hearing there is more too to that spill than the early alarms indicated. ating new fears the displeasure a second chemical leaked in to the elk river at the same time as the noxious licorice-scented licorice that point unked the waters. >> it's called pph it's' ahead at this something that they mixs with the mchm and the according for the folks from freedom who revealed this yesterday they thought they had stopped mixing that material and just recently discovered that it was in the

tank with the mcahm. whenever the leak occurred. >> already faced with worries about what did or didn't reach their water, west virginians like felicia chase wonder whether they are getting the full story now. she heard the latest news on facebook. >> how scary was that that nobody knew what was in the tank and how to respond to the emergency once the stuff came out of tank that should have never came out of the tank in the first place? >> and indeed, even now, officials admit that there is plenty of uncertainty. >> there is a little bit we know, we know what it's not, we know it's not a carcinogen, we know it's not highly toxic or a hazardous material. >> the latest water sample show more areas have been given the all clear but it doesn't remove the doubt. >> when i saw there is this new chemical one of male i am sure, i am surety point will prize surprise me and i will never use the tap water here again, ever.

>> we spoke with a local doctor helizabeth brown who treated soe of the doctor patient when the y first broke. there is concern about what people don't know now. is there honester under way by fed or on or state official to his get the information from you doctors on the frontline when you are seeing and treat something. >> i am not so sure that there is. i have not been approached by anyone from the local health department or from the cdc asking for what i am seeing. i have kind of taken it a upon myself to report to the local media the concerns that i am seeing from my patients and some of the symptoms because i think that is important to make the population informed. i really wish that the physician community would work together in conjunction with the health agency to his work on this and hopefully prevent it from ever happening again. >> sure. and other doctors, i mean, is there any other way for doctors nto know, just any patients you

see you see and individually try to assess whether there is any connection between the patients you see. but there is no database, there is no way to monitor this in a broader sent? >> that's correct. that's my understanding. i have not heard of any such database, what i have taken a upon myself to do in my office is to create a spreadsheet for use only in my office, of the patients who are coming in with suspected symptoms due to the chemical leak. >> which are like what sorts of things are you seeing? >> i well, i am seeing the itching, rashes, especially with people doing their laundry and now taking showers i still see people who are having some of the nausea and the sore throats, the flu-like symptoms, di sptoms, dizziness, so i am keeping track of all of these patients and the out come of their blood work and other physical findings and i am

going to be following them over the lifetime of my practice, hopefully 20 to 30 years just so that we can learn from this and hopefully figure out how to avoid it in the future. >> and have other physicians come forward to you and said, dr. brown i heard you had some, we have had this too? >> i haven't had any communication from other physicians directly, but i have seen signs on some of the ob-gyn doors that say if you are pregnant, we recommend an alternative waiter source for drinking and cooking. i heard of pediatricians making automated phone calls to their parents of their patients asking them not to give them to their children. the water that is. but no physician has been in contact with me and none of the local agencies have either. >> we appreciate your follow you would and continuing to talk to us about all of this. dr. elizabeth brown in west virginia, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> now onto the cold. you'll notice that dr. brown was indeed cold and out in the

winter weather that blast the winter chill which has already blanketed so much of the midwest and north east has come and gone and left behind bone-chilling temperatures. millions of americans digsing out thi -- digging out this mor, almost six-inches by the way fell in chicago, new york city buried in almost a foot of powder. but it's not the snow that that is people schiffering it's the wind chill. deep freeze expected to last the rest of this month. oh, no. newark tick blast on the way as well hay here from al jazerra meteorologist kevin who is watching all of this. you can't tell us there is more colt on the way. >> meteorologist: it's here, joie, the arctic blast is already here especially the northeast, but let's go back 24 hours ago when we were dealing with the snow on the radar, let's put in to motion it lasted until about, 6:00 a.m. when it finally cleared out. this is what we are left with. but this is all of that arctic air. we saw a lot of snow in the area. let's look and show you what

with he did see up towards parts of massachusetts 18 this the three-inches central park almost a foot of snow there but now we are dealing with the very cold temperatures in the morning new york will be six degrees, tomorrow, the high temperatures are not going to get that much warmer boston 18 agrees but by the time we get to the weekend we'll be back to normal. also the deep south dealing with hard freeze warnings take a look at some of their morning temperatures atlanta 21 degrees tomorrow morning over towards on orlando 37. as we go towards friday morning these temperatures are actually going to be lower. atlanta we expect to see 17 degrees as the morning low on friday morning. we expect to see a lot of water mains breaking in in area. that's one of the problems down in the southeast. joie, back to you. >> al jazerra meteorologist kevin corvo, thanks very much for being with us. coming up next, military leaders make a plea to the

president. to keep a promise he made five years ago. will the rest of those being held at guantanmo bay ever be freed? >> no doubt about it, innovation changes our lives. opening doors ... opening possibilities. taking the impossible from lab ... to life. on techknow, our scientists bring you a sneak-peak of the future, and take you behind the scenes at our evolving world. techknow - ideas, invention, life. on al jazeera america

consider this: the news of the day plus so much more. >> we begin with the government shutdown. >> answers to the questions no one else will ask. >> it seems like they can't agree to anything in washington no matter what. >> antonio mora, award winning and hard hitting. >> we've heard you talk about

the history of suicide in your family. >> there's no status quo, just the bottom line. >> but, what about buying shares in a professional athlete? just days in to his first term, president obama signed an executive order to close the detention camp at guantanamo bay cuba, that was, though, was five years ago today. as we know the controversial prison remains open. guantanmo hold 15 detainees from 21 country says. just some of 800 who have spend time since it first opened in 2002. half of the 155 men have been cleared for release by the pentagon, but they remain behind bars. a mass hunger strike by scores of did h detainees a your ago bt attention and pressure to should it down. 33 are still refusing to eat.

many are being force fed in a facility that costs u.s. taxpayers $454 million a year to maintain. in a letter to president obama on tuesday, more than 30 retired military brass called on the president to release all of the cleared detainees as as soon as possible and it reads in part: >> one of the signees is retired army brigadier general stephen, who is also a psychiatrist and joins us here now, general, i am struck by this. men at your level, military leaders coming forward and saying, look, mr. president, we appreciate where -- what you have said so far but we would like it to move forward. why was it so important for you to do that? >> we think it affirms what we

stand for as a country. and what we are recognized as a country that we are a democracy that follows the rule of law. we have confidence in our judicial system. and we clearly feel that these men can be tried in the american courts in the united states. and we think that guantanmo is a -- it still detracts from the safety and security of your country r it endangers americans and we think in the broad he have picture it's important to close it. and show the world that we abide by our word and we are confident in what we are we can do. >> you know there was another element to the letter and that refers to a report, a very, very extensive, very, very detail report in to the interrogation tactics that have been iced. and this could be quite explosive, but you have called for the full release redact

today whatever extent it needs to be, but the full release of this some 6,000 pages. >> right. this is a report that was done by the senate select commit on intelligence. 6300 pages, it cost $40 million it has really documented the interrogations and the treatment that many of these men had. when apprehended even before they came for guantanmo. we think it should be disclosedd and the world show know that we will own up to what has hamm happened. >> even if it was awful. >> even if it was awful. we admit whatever mistakes were made. we will no longer commit such acts. and that we are going to own up to it. we are not going to in any way continue those policies and practices. and we think the world should understand that we are going to be transparent about what happened. >> you continue to go for guantanmo yourself quite often, if fact, most recently a few

weeks ago in december. what is the life of these men like now? >> it is difficult for many of them, particularly since the hunger strikes. because the reaction that the authorities had to the hunger strikes was to put them in separate cells, to isolate them. this is a culture where the men live in communities and they lived in groups and even though they were outside and transplanted out of their homes in areas that they were familiar with, they did have a chance to congregate. many of them now don't. and so it's been very demoralizing for them. and it's continued to affect their quality of life. >> and you are a psychiatrist as well. you know that this is really devastating on the psyche even on some people never tried for anything. and certainly not convicted. >> right. and so overtime, these people are wondering what is going to happen. it's no wonder that many of them decided that they are going to on a hunger strike because they are hope little. they don't see an end to this. they see it continuing forever.

and it needs to stop. >> thanks very much for being with us. >> thanks so much. ahead in our final segment this evening, a look at some remarkable technology bringing new mobility and hope. it's robots to the rescue, coming up next.

while you were asleep news was happening. >> here are the stories we're following. >> find out what happened and what to expect. >> international outrage. >> a day of political posturing. >> every morning from 5 to 9 am al jazeera america brings you more us and global news than any other american news channel. >> tell us exactly what is behind this story. >> from more sources around the world. >> the situation has intensified here at the border. >> start every morning, every day 5am to 9 eastern. >> with al jazeera america. al jazeera america. we understand that every news story begins and ends with people. >> the efforts are focused on rescuing stranded residents. >> we pursue that story beyond the headline, pass the spokesperson, to the streets. >> thousands of riot police deployed across the capital. >> we put all of our global resources behind every story. >> it is a scene of utter devastation. >> and follow it no matter where it leads - all the way to you.

al jazeera america, take a new look at news. finally tonight, tweaking life's unexpected and dramatic turns with a robot. imagine the suddenbility to access the world you know. making it impossible for you eat a mill, button your shirt, hug your children, it's almost incomes presence i believe to understand. but for one man it inspired a man to do almost anything. from los altos hills, california, here is jacob ward. >> reporter: for more than a decade, henry evans has started the day with help from his wife jane. >> do you feel like i have missed anything?

>> reporter: in 2002, at the i e of 40 evans an athletic father of four suffered what is called a base her artery dissection a hemorrhage in his brain stem cause booed a rare congenital defect. overnight he became mute and quadriplegic. >> he is completely paralyzed. a little bit over a month afterwards he gained some movement in his index and thumb. >> reporter: with therapy, evans regained some movement in his head and thumb, and communicates now with his wife through a letter board. tell me how this works. >> what i tell people when they are doing this letter board it's all in order, go ahead and say something on the board. so you see, his eyes are right around here. >> right. >> reporter: right. >> let's say gets a letter and it's wrong. so let's say "g" he shakes his head and i know it's wrong. w, e, g, on. we got a lot.

faster. whe when. she decides when she decides to put words in my mouth. like i just did. >> reporter: they have been communicating this way for sewing, that they really don't even know the board anymore. she can guess the words he's telling are spelling just from the movement of his eyes. they met at teenagers in their hometown of st. louis, missouri. >> our first date it was like everything click. the jokes, the humor, i knew after that first date i was going mary him. >> reporter: they got married off college and moved to california. where evans earned an mba from stanford and took a job in silicon valley. they began a family. life was clicking in to place. >> henry was a doer. he was achieve financial officer, everything was done 100 miles an hour.

>> reporter: today evans communicates with people outside of his family mostly through e-mail. >> do you want that closer, henry? a device on his lap top tracks his head movements using a mall dot on his glasses allowing him to control the curser and type out words. he responded through audio software to interview questions that we sent him in advance. >> tell us about your life before the base her artery dissection? >> i had a full life before my illness. of the last thing i expected was page or health problem when i finally opened my eyes i all my parents who lived 2,000 miles way. and my siblings had all flown in and the doctors told them to expect a funeral. all literally all i could move were my eye. >> reporter: that sews or i can circumstance to work up to. how did it affect you emotionally? i was i a wreck for three years of the stroke mostly because the

emotional center of my brain had been destroyed. i either broke out laughing uncontrollable or crying despondently several times an hour. >> he describes to me once i file like i am a ghost looking in on my family. just complete isolation. he begged me to take his life. begged me. he had it all planned out. that i was to shoot him. and bury him in the backyard. ready one, two, three. >> reporter: slowly evans came to terms with his situation and began to think about how he could use technology to participate in the world outside his home. >> i was lying in bed watching cnn, when professor charlie kemp from georgia tech came on and demonstrated a robot. >> let's move to you. you can move to the side and it would follow you. you'll find that it turns. >> reporter: that's interesting. >> i immediately thought of aing it as a boyd surrogate and emailed the company to my surprise, they answered right away. >> reporter: it was the first of many e-mails that evans sent to

scientists around the country to launch a project called robots for humanity. >> we are actually working on a three-pronged program which will greet grately expand the worlds of people worldwide. we hope to make devices which are physically located in interesting locales throughout the united states available to people from around the world. >> robots for humanity was a huge change because it gave name purpose in life. we are using robots to try free up paralyzed people. it could be something as small as holding a plastic device so that henry could had you been his head on it and scratch his head for the first time. >> reporter: at brown university in rhode island, chad general kins studies human robot interaction and learning. >> our work is about enabling anybody that wants to use and control robots, take the access for robots from research laboratories and the small number of companies and make

them broadly accessible to the public. >> reporter: his team created software for people like evans to control robots as body surrogates using a web interface. >> everybody knows how to use a web browser on any platform that you can think of it works with so many different devices such as the devices that are used by the physically disabled. >> reporter: one recent project produced a web interface to control a quad copter drone equipped with a video camera it unables likunables like evans tt places that he can't. >> to explore the word i just needed my retinas. cameras perfect. within a few weeks i was flying chad's drone. >> reporter: after so much time in one place, it offers a feeling of freedom. henry is actually a very aggressive flyer, very aggressive pilot. we have had any number of crashes. he wants to do all sorts of things that we have never imagined before.

and henry wants to fly and land a drone on his basketball hoo the. he wanted to go inspect the solar pam on his his roof. i had never thought about flying on a roof. and going and looking at things soloinso closely it's his imagin pushing us in new directions. >> reporter: evans visits the lap several times a week by remote presence we vice, sometimes just for a game or robot soccer. what do people in your position need from robotics? what would it take for you to feel truly independent? >> i don't see anyway to become completely independent through the use of robotic technologies, however, if you are familiar with any quadriplegics you know, that it doesn't take much to significantly improve their plight. body surrogates means a mechanism which allows a pleatly paralyzed person like me to ma minute nate layer environment without the help of another person it's the physical aspect of exercising free will which is what makes us feel fully human.

>> you could sigh why are we spending the time and the research money to do all of this when it's cheap tore hire a caregiver or me that i come free? but it's the independence of knowing i did this for myself. that is huge. and that is what a big thing that i saw that robots did for henry. >> great way to end the night. we'll are more of "america tonight" tomorrow. check check >> good evening. welcome to al jazeera america. i'm thomas drayton. here are the top stories we are following at this hour. the ukrainian opposition leaders have given president viktor yanukovych an ultimatum - to

call for elections in 24 hours or face more fierce protests. it follows the deaths of three protesters killed in clashes with police. opposition leaders are ready to go on the offensive if demands are not next >> a rough start to syria talks. there was a clash over the future of president bashar al-assad. secretary of state john kerry says bashar al-assad is clinging to power. syrian government delegates say bashar al-assad is staying. >> israel says it prevented an attack by al qaeda on the u.s. embassy. three palestine men have been arrested. they were recruited by an al qaeda operative based in the gaza strip. the state department says the u.s. has not been able to verify the claims. >> target announces it is dropping health insurance for part-time employees because they are eligible for benefits under

the affordable care act. they are one of a number of companies. >> from snow to arctic air, the severe weather crippled roads and grounded plains across the country. >> those are the headlines. "consider this" is up next. you can get the latest news on aljazeera.com. >> syria strikes back at critics. former ambassador to syria, wayne crocker, weighs in on the peace talks. >> why can't america's military win wars outright? >> should violent rap lyrics but their author behind bars >> you might want to thing twice before buying a small car >> i'm antonio mora, you might