real people... real advice... >> you need to pay the water bill, if you don't pay it, we're shutting your water off in a half hour >> how will you survive? >> the stakes are so high... >> america's middle class: rebuilding the dream on real money with ali velshi on al jazeera america watching. on "america tonight", the weekend edition, the up and down sides of a high plains boom down. in our exclusive investigation, what came to williston north dakota and the high price of that black gold. >> this, right here, is a huge area for prostitution. >> right here at wal-mart? >> wherever the money is and the men are. >> also tonight - a push from the top. the white house joins survivors, urging colleges to act to stop

sex crimes on campuses. we continue our indepth reporting on sex crimes and what colleges are pressed to do now. bay. >> i worked on the water for 48 years. i saw a lot of changes, and not anyway of them good. >> a bid to bring back the bay faces a new change from those that say it's a threat to their love of the land. good evening, thanks for joining us. i'm melissa chan. we begin with a city problem faced by a boom town in the heart lpd. with a spike in domestic oil production bringing north america closer to energy

dependence small towns are handling what they can't handle. in our series, dirty power, we explore the risks involved in the black gold rush. >> how do you describe what the place looked like when you were mayor 20 years ago. >> i don't want to adead, but probably die -- to say dead, but probably dying. >> the sign says it all, williston north dakota, boom town. for the past five years this mayor saw his town come back from the brink of death. >> it's come back. it's amazing what oil can do, black gold. >> the race to extract the gold from the prairies of north dakota is evident everywhere. pumps dot the fields. you can here liquid money filling up the tank. trucks haul it to the nearest

train depot. and trains pulling the crude rumble through all day and night long. >> it's a great quantity and quality of oil. they had a huge success rate. it changed the community. >> all of a sudden boom. >> yes. >> next year the u.s. is expected to overtake saudi arabia and become the world's top oil producer. for those at the heart of the boom it means job security in an uncertain economy. >> we have unemployment of half a per cent per cap ita, the income is some of the highest in the upper mid west. >> bob is a life-lopping north dakota farmer. >> you were able to lease some money. >> i am not complaining. >> not everyone likes what black gold has done to williston. >> a lot of people say they wish it never happened, that the money is not words it. >> what would you say the biggest impact has been. >> there's a lot more fighting

amongst people when you put a lot of money, jealousy starts and pretty soon it's neighbour against neighbour. >> and the influx of labour made represent the highest in the nation. workers have been crowded into cramped quarters into what they call man camps. these men work as welders. >> what do you pay to live here. >> 700 a month. plus electric. >> and you supplies the trailer. >> yes. >> is there much to do. >> the only thing i do is go to bars. >> and you? >> same thing. come here, work, make money and stay out of trouble. monitor. >> yes, that was one of the trouble. end up getting into a scrap and going to gaol. >> what seems inevitable if you have this many people in one place, mostly dudes date day. >> a lot of

around. >> andrew and fabio avoid the bar scope. dui is up 15 fold there has been more domestic matters. >> as long as we keep them safe open. >> before the boom the williston crisis shelter filled up 50 times a year. now it's been at capacity for two years straight. >> how much has domestic boom? >> at one point i would have said tripled, but now i'll say quadrupled. it's christmas yea. >> why. >> they get here, find jobs but no housing.

campers. >> cramped quarters. >> that and throw alcohol or drugs in the mix. there you have it. >> the mix of men and funny is bringing another plague to will us tonne. underbelly. >> where you have lot of men and funny you'll find profit it use and trafficking. there's a website dedicated. >> what i do is i'll pump in williston and you go to escorts. >> wendy lazenko says an influx of money and men to women fuelled a boom in prostitution. they are offering wep sites like this -- websites like this. >> these are the girls that showed in, four pages.

laz engo is not just looking for prostitutes. >> oftentimes underage girls have their face covered. >> she's looking to trafficking, women and underage girls. >> i look for marks like tattoos. a lot of girls under pimp control are branded. >> really. >> yes, with their pimp's name. >> lazenko came to fight the trafficking a result of the oil boom. work? >> first and foremost i'm a human being and a woman. i have experienced things in my life. i'm a survivor of human trafficking. i was trafficked at a young child. ran away. and i turned to a friend. she was under pimp control. she took me to a party, turned it. >> how many have you helped? >> so far 10. word has gotten out. people trust me. >> how much do you drive around at night? >> often.

>> lazenko travels around building relationships - home. >> this, right here, is a huge area for prostitution and i would assume trafficking. >> right here at wal-mart. that seems surprising. >> wherever the money is and the men are. >> next stop, nearby hotels where most of the sex trafficking occurs. >> some of the hotels along the strip have floors that are brought out by pimples and the girls are in the rooms. >> i've been here three days [ bleep ]. >> how dangerous is it for the girls? if they show a sign of exiting. there's consequence force that. >> north dakota officials admit women and children are caught up in traffic k. one fbi agent is assigned to the problem, and the shelters are

obvious flowing. >> it kills me to know girls are being trafficked. i'll trust in time, raiding awareness and law enforcement that we'll offer help. >> where are we headed now. >> down to the strip clubs, we are holding a self-defence class. girls. >> lazenko continues her mission, until reinforcements arrive. north dakota's black gold will continue to flow, fuelling a drive for energy independence. the boom brought big-city problems to the small farming same. >> when you look back at how things used to be, do you have a longing for the old days. >> you do. i look at you can never go home.

we have gone through rough times. we'll work through this. it will be a good up to again some day. after the break on "america tonight". gaoling troubled minds. >> they are not trained in the nuances of mental illness, they are trained to punish. that's what they do. >> the punishment of prisoner with serious psychiatric illness and why it may exceed the crime. >> on techknow... >> we're heading towards the glaciers >> a global warning >> is there an environmental urgency? >> that is closer than you think... >> even a modest rise, have dramatic impacts on humankind. >> how is it changing the way you live today? techknow... every saturday, go where science meets humanity... >> this is some of the best driving i've ever done... even though i can't see. >> techknow...

>> we're here in the vortex... only on al jazeera america real reporting that brings you the world. >> this is a pretty dangerous trip. >> security in beirut is tight. >> more reporters. >> they don't have the resources to take the fight to al shabaab. >> more bureaus, more stories. >> this is where the typhoon came ashore. giving you a real global perspective like no other can. >> al jazeera, nairobi. >> on the turkey-syria border. >> venezuela. >> beijing. >> kabul. >> hong kong. >> ukraine. >> the artic. real reporting from around the world. this is what we do. 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? real perspective,

consider this on al jazeera america a troubled prison system and a number that may help to explain why. there are 10 times as many prisoners with mental illness. more than a quarter of the inmates have been diagnosed with mental illness - raising questions about a connection. how the californian system deals with the inmates. here is al london. >> ready. >> in the california state prison system this is called a forceable extraction. inmate a. as this mementally ilprisoner is

called -- mentally ill prisoner is called is refusing medication. he is being doused with pepper spray. this is inmate i. guards say he, too, refused orders to take medication. and this is 35-year-old joie durant, a mentally ill inmate breathing through a dub after a traky ot omy. he was doused with pepper spray for disobeying order. he was nef taken out of his -- never taken out of his cell and washed off. hours later he was found dead. >> we don't know what happened. >> joey's parents adopted him when he was five years old and sports. >> i got him into baseball, coached him for three years. we fished, camp. did a lot of things normal families do. we had good times together.

>> as a teenager joey was diagnosed with bipolar and schizophrenia. the fun-loving kid turned into an angry out of control young adult ending up in and out of gaol. it got so bad the parents believed gaol was the level place. >> i was glad a lot of tools he was in gaol. we didn't know where he was, whether he was dead or alive. when he was in gaol we knew at least he was getting food. we thought he was safe. safe. >> i didn't know they did stuff luke that to ipp mates, what they did to joey. >> they didn't know he was dead. they found out four months later reporter. >> he told me he was doing a story on joseph's death. i said, "what are you talking about?" i asked who he was. i didn't believe him.

>> they never had a chance to receive joey's body. he was cremated and ashes scattered before the durantes knew what happened. >> it's har. we didn't have a -- hard. we didn't him. >> we are catholics, we are supposed to bury our sons and daughters. we doesn't have the opportunity. that was so wrong. >> the dewar ants question why their son and others are put in prison in the first placement there should be a mental hospital where they can be watched and taken care of properly, and with people that are qualified. because i can't believe these people in the prisons are qualified to take care of the mentally ill patients. >> what happened to joey durant and others parked outrage over

how mentally ill in mates are treated within the largest prison system. >> each of the uses of pepper spray shown on the video tapes followed the rules to the t. those correctional officers didn't do anything wrong, they weren't disciplined. changes the rules was at the heart of a lawsuit brought against the californian department of corrections. michael bean served as lead attorney representing 33,000 mentally ill inmates. >> they are using force, ipp colliding excessive -- including excessive amounts of pepper spray to force the men to cuff up, put handcuffs on and move out of the cells. there has been too many. they've been held for too long. >> during the trial. it was argued that the state used solitary confinement and excessive force violating their

right against cruel and unusual punishment, but made their sickness worse. here at the californian mental facility, meantly ill -- mentally ill inmates are not getting the treatment they need. here, inmates are held instlation, without group -- isolation, without group therapy, day rooms and exercise yards. citing the horrific video, a u.s. distribute judge ruled the treatment of mentally ill ipp mates was unconstitutional and ordered the department of cbzs it revise policies and procedures, including limiting the use of pepper spray in solitary confinement. >> a significant part of the ruling was to say, "no," if someone is in segregation, you no longer have the right to keep them in segregation. he's saying i'm not telling you

you can't punish a mentally ill person, that they are exempt from punishment, but you cannot put someone into a unit where you know they'll get stick. they have to set up new kind of units that are safe or come up with a different punish the system. the department of corrections is reviewing the order and will not comment. in an earlier interview. necessary. >> sometimes things don't go the way we would like them to go and a mentally ill inmate may turn violent. in situations like that. custody staff are allowed to escalate to the point of using pepper spray. no use of force is an option. unfortunately it has to happen. >> it's admitted that the videos watch. >> staff and management of t

b.c. r were disturbed by what they saw. in some cases too much pepper spray was used too often. we already are looking at procedures to make sure that going forward that custody and clinical staff knows what needs to be done and when when it cools to use of force. >> the yards guards - officers tend to use excessive force, and that's because that's what officers are trained to do when someone misbehaves. they are not trained in the knew appses of mental illness. they are trained to punish. >> terry is a doctor of psychology and studied conditions for mentally ill inmates. he said too often the focus is an confidenty and punishment instead of treatment and care. >> i speak to a lot of prisoners with mental illness.

what i hear is a despair. that they know they have a memental illness. they are terrified that in prison their mental illness will not receive the proper treatment that they deserve, and instead they are going to be punished. it's very sad that correction department, if left to their own devices, will not do the right thing. they will not provide mental health care to people with mental illness, that's why the legal battles have occurred. >> it's a cas that we must -- case that we must learn from. i must take - i must hope, at least - i have spent so many years on this, that we can do again. >> joey liked her. >> steve and lorraine know it's too late for their son, but at

least he didn't die this vain. >> i think joey's death made a big impact in the judge's ruling. because of his death he is helping other inmates that may have been pepper sprayed. his death may have saved someone's life. >> the dewar ants may never know what happened to their son, but they can take comfort knowing that joey lives on in the warn-out snap shots. and in the pages of this ruling would seek it make sure mentally ilin mates are never treated like this again. after the break here - sex crimes on campus. we continue the indepth coverage. why the white house joined the call for colleges to do more to stop >> our current system has gone very far awry... >> there's huge pressure on the police to arrest and find

somebody guilty >> i think the system is going to fail a lot of other people. >> you convicted the wrong person >> i find that extraordinarily disappointing... >> to keep me from going to jail, i needed to cooperate. >> somebody can push you in a death chamber >> it's not a joke >> the system with joe beringer only on al jazeera america al jazeera america gives you the total news experience anytime, anywhere. more on every screen. digital, mobile, social. visit aljazeera.com. follow @ajam on twitter. and like aljazeera america on facebook for more stories, more access, more conversations. so you don't just stay on top of the news, go deeper and get more perspectives on every issue. al jazeera america. if i told you that a free ten-second test

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white house responded last week to the growing outrage over campus sexual assault, issuing a report, asking colleges to kerb the violence . one in five women are assaulted in college. a startling statistic that we are reported on in "america tonight". we know there's nor it. as the white house did, be turned to survivors to see how colleges respond to allegations

of campus rape and what might put an end to it. >> it happened so quick limit it was within, you know, two minutes that i cas - my head was slammed into a bathroom door and next to the toilet and the assault proceeded. >> i remember, like, putting lie hand on the sink, looking at myself in the mirror and not even being act fully comprehend what had hopped, and it was just here." >> these women say they were raped at a place most of us assume will be a haven of learning and safety - college. annie was a freshman and andrea a sophomore attending university of north coro linea. each saying the university failed to protect them or give them the support they needed to afterwards. >> the last thing i would want

to do is walk into an office immediately after and say "this happened to me, this happened to me", and be questioned for hours upon hours. >> i know when i did report i was blamed for my experience. >> what does that mean? >> i was told rape was like a football game, and i should look back and what should i have done differently to avoid that situation. >> one in 20 college women will be raped or attempted rape. the most recent figure was from 2000. that means over a college career as many as 20-25% can be victims. survivors. >> there's depression, eating disords, cutting, there's this internal blame, not wanting to

go out at -- eating disorders, cutting out. there's intrnal blame, not wanting to go outlet dropping out of -- to go out. dropping out of school. a lot of blame is placed on the victim "change your lifestyle, it's your fault, get over it see better." >> is the school blind. >> the only thing is the school issue. >> it's been it didn't really happen, it's not really bad. i want someone to take ownership saying we messed up, but we'll learn from our mistakes and have the level model. i want to see more than i'm sorry, not that we didn't do anything wrong. this is easy to, but a blue light on camp us and a guard. this is not the most effectively effort to end sexual violence.

it will not be a light. >> since 1972 the u.s. department of education undertitle 9 of the civil rights act said institutions receiving federal funds must ensure an education freef of sexual discrimination the law is usually associate with equality if sports. colleges and universities say they were unaware of their legal obligationses under title 9 to protect students from sexual assault. historically critics say schools have generally looked the other way, or worse, covered it up. >> melinda is a former u.n.c. dean, it's satisfied with the complaints. >> we are reluctant to classify as a sexual assault, because it would be reported in official numbers. we spent more than

preventing rape. >> i want to talk about sexual assaults on college campuses. >> in april 20th is 1 vice president joe biden announce -- 2011 vice president joe biden announce the the dear college letter. it left no doubt protecting the students was the school's responsibility. annie graduated. in 2012 she and andrea found each other through the u.n.c. community and talked about the issue of rape at the university of north carolina and made a decision to make a stand. >> the framework was that it was not a u.n.c. problem, we said it's not a bad place, it's a representation of a larger cultural problem. >> the women began researching

title 9, interviewing other victims of rape, utilizing social media and in jan 2013, along with former u.n.c. administrator they failed a federal complaint against the university of north carolina at the department of education. >> this is a microcosm of what is happening. these crimes are committed. universities are sweeping them under the rug, no one is held accountable and students are the ones that say this is not okay. when you have 18 or 19-year-old men or women holding the government accountable for rape - it boggles my mind. >> the department of education has made an effort. >> yes, but they have never really done anything. there's no real teeth behind it that we have seen. >> has any university had its federal funds withdrawnment. >> no. >> never. >> never.

>> the federal complaint against u.n.c. received considerable media tappings, and social media has given a voice to a network of survivors, many with the informal help have filed their own complaints at the department of education. the office for sful rights has opened investigations on sexual assaults on 51 colleges and universities, doubling in the last six month. to many, there is an assistance of a turning point. >> what andrea and annie did was pull people together from all over the country. that really is the fundamental contribution that they made. they took one case and made it a national issue. they helped to educate countless women across the country, and rights. >> so they take it to the next step. they go to the office of civil

rights, the department of education and filed a complaint and say my institution did not take care of me as they should. >> this is one of five full-time title 9 administrators hired since the federal complaint was lodged against the circle. >> we have to talk about violence, sexual violence. have we done that as well as we could? again, colleges and universities - i say we need to do better, more. >> despite the federal guidelines outlined, the right way forward is not clear to many universities s. part of my frustration was along with the document didn't come a training dispute. we are trying but stumbling because we are not getting the guidance we need with expectations and regulations. >> what are we looking at?

>> this is the promote i created together with my group. it was the first gallery that showcased, not anonymously. interesting the thing with this case is that this survivor's photo was targeted and vandalized. that photo is not here. >> what does it say that someone would deface. >> effectively it says keep quiet, know your place. >> annie and andrea believe sexual crimes are not underreported. every time i see zeros in a report it means that people are not reporting or the university statistics. >> more guidelines are on the way, d u kating -- edute kating assaults. >> it's no longer training how

not to be raped, but training mn and women about the issues related to sexual assault and teaching not to rape. that's where we are now. we are now starting to make the course corrections. the newer generation, officials on campus have a different perspective on sexual violence than those there 20 years ago, eptionally. >> as for annie and andrea, they turned their ordeals into a submission, a mission to shed light on part of campus life that has been in shadow. looking ahead - more open wounds and unsolved cases. >> your rehabilitation when you discovered there were 12,000 plus cases not tested. >> i don't know how to describe it. frustration. you are not talking about a little box, you are talking

about a woman, a girl in most instances, or a little boy who has been violated in the most heinous it's pickable ways one can think of. >> rape cases - backlog leaving thousands of victims waiting for justice to be served. lori jane gliha investigates and in an exclusive interview brings a story from a survivor. her story coming up monday. next, down by the bay. a clean up. why would states as far as way >> you followed their journey across the border >> it was heart wrenching... >> now see how it changed the lives of the people involved. >> i didn't go back to the person that i was before i left... >> an emotional borderland reunion >> this trip was personal to me... this is real... >> long held beliefs >>...illegal in mexico too.. >> learn the language! come here...

>>...most ridiculous thing i've heard in my life >> tested by hard lived truths... >> these migrants are being exploited >> beyond borderland... only on al jazeera america >> these protestors have decided that today they will be arrested >> these people have chased a president from power, they've torn down a state... >> what's clear is that people don't just need protection, they need assistance.

>> on real money with ali velshi, a yearlong series, america's vanishing middle class... >> i'm on a mission, that i have to keep this business going... >> three families struggling every day >> we had to pull the whole retirement fund... >> real stories... real people... real advice... >> you need to pay the water bill, if you don't pay it, we're shutting your water off in

a half hour >> how will you survive? >> the stakes are so high... >> america's middle class: rebuilding the dream on real money with ali velshi on al jazeera america the president and many of us thing of this bay as a national treasure oar, it's a treasure that has tarn eshed. pollution has taken a toll. there's a plan to clean up the bay and restore the fish and shellfish. clean water - what could be less controversial. down by the bay, and in courtrooms clean it up is the focus of a legal debate. "america tonight"'s sheila macvicar explains why. >> i worked on the water for 48 years and have seen a lot of good. >> this bay, the nation's

largest evident uary, a place where the water -- estuary, the place where the water meets the land. it is in trouble. over the years dave kir win has seen the bay overwhelmed with a combination of agricultural and industrial run-off. waste water from sewage treatment plant and sediment. >> there used to be grant. when i was a kid grass would be all the way across, in the '60s. when they used fertilisers, systeming up agriculture and the run off. it killed off the grasses. >> will baker of the environmental group says the same. >> we are talking about fish, shellfish, wetlands, the water clarity, the dissolved oxygen in the water, the way the bay supports recreation, tourism and property values. so the system is degraded.

balance. >> the populated waters of the bay are depleting more than the fish. it is changing local fishing communities, places like rock hall, kir win's home town on the eastern somehow. >> rock hall is changing from a quapt fishing -- quaint fishing village. all the people used to revolve around water business, it entered decline and other businesses are entering decline. >> the clean water act has governed the integrity of waters sunses 1972 -- since 172678. >> the clean water act roars states to -- rears states to monitor -- requires states to monitor their waters. once that don't go on a dirty water list. >> it includes the bay, home to

17.5 million people in six states. these states failed for over 30 years to clean up the bay. there were numerous voluntary agreement. without the threat of a penalty to be paid, there was nothing that forced compliance. in 2009 the nonprofit foundation sued the environmental protection agency, the epa for its failure to enforce the clean water act. president obama signed an order declaring the bay a treasure, calling on the. pa to restore it. >> it's 64,000, it's not just this body, but all the scrifrs creeks that drain into it. it's a -- rivers and creeks that drain into it. it's a big job. the epa got agreement from the watershed states to row in the

same direction, setting limits on pollutants that a body of water could receive, and a deadline of clean bay by 2025. >> it tooks epa to -- took epa to come in and say this is the law of the land, we'll set limits and give you the flex flexibili flexibility. and if you don't meet mileston milestones, you'll pay. suddenly they took it seriously. >> 21 state, mostly thousands of miles away joined an effort to stop the epa. alaska, kansas, utah and south dakota. the brief stating in this is left to stand, other water sheds, including the mississippi basin could be next. >> south dakota is a long way from the bay. why do you care?

>> what the epa is doing can have an effect on south dakota and mississippi states. we are a missouri river state flowing in. you are looking at affecting over 30 states. the concern about what the. pa is doing, unprecedented encroachment on state's rite that we are seeing. that is why 21 site attorney generals indicated that that they have gone too far. >> it comes out of a specific set of circumstances, is what the epa said. >> i don't believe them. they are setting a% department. they are en -- precedent. they are encroaching upon what is traditionally state's rights. when you look at the clean water act, it's clear.

>> the tired arguments about the government overstepping its bounds. there's something called the clean water act. the epa is enforcing the federal clean water act. >> 21 state disagreed and joined a lawsuit filed by the american farm bureau, the fertiliser institute and the national pa. >> we led the charge. we feel strongly. >> what seemed as a watershed clean up appeared as a powerplay to some. >> so it's argued that the epa overstepped the limit. >> yep, of the clean water authority and at the expense of state authority to make the decisions. they are local decisions with local um implications and more

important. congress specifically withheld in type of authority over land use conditions. >> in 2013 a federal judge disagreed saying the epa was forward. >> a judge that ruled on it found it the finest democracy. >> stakes are high. it's forward pollution will destroy livelihoods. farmers on the bay fear the fight against pollution good destroy theirs. >> since the dawn of team people needed fertiliser. they were using han mall or huge -- animal or human waste to grow crops. >> trade healers is a fourth generation grain crop. crops cover thousands of acres,

some growing to the edge of the water. not quite, not any more. the creek is on the other side of the trees. you see the wetlands. >> he no longer farms the way his grandfather did. he plants bumper strips to pollution. >> where the grasses are, you would have farmed to the limit. >> six or seven years, 10 years here. >> and you would have put pesticide right here. >> yes. >> the amount of chemicals are reduced from the past. >> there's a bottle line here. you don't want to use more of this stuff than you have toxism that's right. that's why we are investingment. >> these changes were in effect br epa agreement -- before epa agreement. he doesn't need a federal agency

to tell him how to manage theform. >> it's difficult for people to realise some things can't be changed over night. >> the epa's jeff core bum says 30 years is enough to weight. >> if we would have gotten there, we would have done it. years. >> the battle will n up in the supreme court. >> what will be the impact on lawsuit? >> we are talking about a lot less jobs. we are talking about pollution that affects people's health. swimming is risky at certain times of the year and will become more risky. we are talking about drinking water, contaminated seafood. >> there's little faith the warring parties will ever get it right right.. >> politics and pollution. i don't have the answer. i don't think the bay is ever

going come back to where it was in the '60s or '70s. i don't know whether that's possible any more. ahead in our final thoughts this hour - a league of their own. a team of all-american kids making big plays for their own futures. >> how old are you? >> 9 >> child labor in america >> in any other industry, kids need to be 16 years old to be able to work. you don't see any of that in agriculture >> low cost food >> how many of you get up at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning to go out to the fields? >> who's paying the price? fault lines... al jazeera america's hard hitting... ground breaking... truth seeking... >> they don't wanna show what's really going on... >> award winning, investigative, documentary series. children at work only on al jazeera america >> al jazeera america is a

straight-forward news channel. >> its the most exciting thing to happen to american journalism in decades. >> we believe in digging deep. >> its unbiased, fact-based, in-depth journalism. >> you give them the facts, dispense with the fluff and get straight to the point. >> i'm on the ground every day finding stories that matter to you. >> in new orleans... >> seattle bureau... >> washington... >> detroit... >> chicago... >> nashville... >> los angeles... >> san francisco... >> al jazeera america, take a new look at news.

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finally from us tonight - remember third grade, it's a critical year when learning to read becomes reading to learn. extra classroom time can edge out classroom time unless schools make a priority and put a premium on physical activity, as we found with "a league of their own", at a school in washington d.c. >> 8-year-old shennae williams. >> good, run, run. >> just four feet tall and 60 pounds dripping wet, is something powerhouse. >> well done. awesome. great job. great swing.

>> it may seem hard to believe, but despite many strikes against her, she is a game changer. living proof that sport can change the ambitious, a diagram of a girl born on the tough side of a river. >> if you play baseball you get stronger, if you play football you can get stronger. if you play basketball you can get stronger. >> chenna's school is in the anacosta neighbourhood, a mile and a half and a world away national's capital. >> if you travel through washington and pass through a bridge to the south-east it doesn't resemble the rest of the city. we are in or close to one of the highest tracks of violent crime in the city.

our kids are exposed to an awful lot. >> navigating a high crime, high poverty and highly transient neighbourhood doesn't leave a lot of room for organised sport to floor sh. >> when the ball toilet... >> enter home run baseball camp where play ball is more than a spring time expression. in many public schools, pe is not required. home run invited in by the principal uses its own resources and coaches to teach baseball tore third graders, for one period during the week and on saturdays and offers extra help with school work. baseball a the lure. >> what is the base line we want for all of our kids to have as an experience in school. so it makes thorough sense, and

the things that children learn through sports is what we need them to know. what is discipline, how do you become self motivated, how do you form a team. often the girls are left behind. >> i practice a lot. >> you practice at home. >> i always play, every day. >> very good. it shows. >> home run coach patrice errington knows about practicing. a former professional volleyball player spends a lot of saturdays encouraging a new net of athletes. her focus - the girls. >> good. >> those little girls, to them you are a rock star. >> these girls want to become great people like lawyers, doctors, architects. they don't feel they'll be able to go to the next level. there's not a positive role

model, positive feedback. >> girls in much of america may be crowding the playing foolds. in neighbourhoods like this one, girls receive little help or guidance. boys are expected to sports. >> in this community, third grade girls, title 9 has almost no effect on them. >> title 9 is supposed to be the equalizer. >> it's supposed to be. >> is it. >> not yet. the legislation went out in 1972. it gave equal opportunity. it's not seek across the board in d.c. public schools. >> people get the title 9 plies before the college level. >> i think they put the emphasis more than colleges, they don't know that you somewhere. >> by the time the girls get to hidel and upper school it's often too late for them to learn to compete.

>> a lot of sports programmes are cut and there's a narrowing of the school to focus on read and writing. you can't learn baseball skills in high school. the bus has already passed. >> i think we have got it. >> chenna's third came teacher sis there's an irony when sport is ignored. >> there's instances in test where there's a baseball analogy, and a lot of kids i taught in this part of the city, they can't access that analogy, they have no basis, hit out of the park, three strikes you are out. it locks them out of it was and litter at fewer. >> a sportsman build give the other team a chance to get back in the match. >> it's been learning to come back from defeat. being gracious in victory. being accountable.

>> home run is part of an effort experience. >> what will happen to a girl like her. >> she is has a number of hurdles. living in an area where there's jobs. >> it's a tall order for a tennis ball and a plastic bat. giving these girls a chance to difference. >> that's teaching and coaching. you'll have to ask the group in 25 years, what was it, what happened back there. >> girls can do sport like boys, like basketball, baseball. i was proud because i hit a lot of home run, and everyone was cheering for me. >> what will you be when you grow up. > i want to be

baseball. if i coach baseball. i'll get the college fans. >> they are going make it. that's it for "america tonight". please remember if you want to common on the stories log on to aljazeera.com/americatonight. you can meet the tomb and -- meet the team and tell us what you'd like to see. couldn't. we'll have more of "america tonight" >> start with one issue ad guests on all sides of the debate. and a host willing to ask the tough questions

and you'll get... the inside story ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5pm et / 2pm pt only on al jazeera america . >> seeking justice for victims of rape - a verdict is expected in a landmark trial of 39 soldiers in democratic republic of congo. . i'm jane dutton, you are watching al jazeera. on the programme - we will get them out. nigeria's president promises to free over 200 kidnapped school girls was his government faces criticism. survivors of afghanistan's landslide makes a plea for