amid racial tensions and coronavirus fears, president trump delivered the commencement address to west point graduates today that was unlike others before. more than 1,000 graduates gathered at the u.s. military academy for the ceremony, and due to concerns over the spread of covid-19, these second lieutenants wore masks and they socially distanced. cnn's kristen holmes is near bedminster, new jersey, where

the president plans to spend the night at one of his golf properties. so kristen, how did the president address these things? >> reporter: well, he didn't really address them in any meaningful way. just to note, he did touch on some of these flash points, but he did not use this opportunity to really dive into the crises that we're seeing across the country right now. for example, you mentioned coronavirus. when he was talking about the virus, he thanked the military for their help with dealing with the virus. he called it an invisible enemy that came from china, but it really stopped there. and then on the racial tensions, the president really did not address this in any way, particularly given what we have seen across the country, we've seen other leaders using these moments to really speak out about racial injustice, to talk about these racial tensions, to talk about these protests. and the president steered clear of all of that. take a listen to what he said. >> i also want to thank the men

and women of our national guard who respond with precision to so many recent challenges, from hurricanes and natural disasters, to ensuring peace, safety and the constitutional rule of law on our streets. >> reporter: so clearly there he was thanking them for what they. just a reminder, the national guard were deployed all over the country as a response to some of the unrest to help keep this in line. but i want to note two other points. one is the national guard is actually currently under a lot of scrutiny for their response in washington, d.c. in fact, there is a review going on by the department of defense at this time for those actions. the other part to mention here is all of this is coming at a time in which we have seen current and former top military officials really breaking with

president trump on his response to the killing of george floyd's death. so all of this could have been an opportunity for him to speak about that, but yet he did sidestep those issues. >> kristen holmes in new jersey. thank you so much. it's the question on most parents' minds this summer, what will school look like in the fall. can students social distance? will after-school activities be canceled? still to come, a look inside one texas school district where covid cases are climbing. al t, i brought in ensure max protein to give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you don't. [grunting noise] i'll take that. woohoo! 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar. ensure max protein. with nutrients to support immune health.

cities and states are deciding what school will look like in the fall. rhode island and vermont plan to have full in-person classes while new york city's mayor says schools should prepare for a mix of in-person and online classes. cnn got a firsthand look at changes in store in houston

where covid hospitalizations are at their highest to date. >> we're going to check my temperature first. >> reporter: this is how students at harvard elementary school in houston and like other schools across the country will be greeted when doors eventually reopen. mandatory temperature checks. next, they follow a carefully marked path to the ppe station where each student is given their own face mask that must be worn throughout the day. the houston's superintendent, who oversees the largest school district in texas with about 210,000 students, has quite literally weathered many past storms. >> i want to remind people, we're still recovering from 2017 when hurricane harvey hit and now we're being hit by covid-19. >> reporter: but safely reopening schools in the middle of a pandemic is no doubt her biggest challenge yet. >> this virus has stumped me, i will tell you the truth. >> caller: she gave cnn a

firsthand look at just how daunting that challenge is walking through the city's oldest stool to show how educators are preparing guidelines for what students and teachers can expect to see when they return. >> this is one of our classrooms. >> reporter: classrooms will be significantly smaller with two or even one student per table. >> as we think about having just about 11 students in a classroom at a time. >> reporter: cafeteria's will be less crowded with some meals served in classrooms instead. the familiar tables used to seat a large group will be used by a few students at a time. >> initially i believe it's going to be a prepackaged lunch. >> reporter: hallway traffic will be regulated and teachers will be transitioning from class to class. then there's the question about recess. >> recess will look differently and the way it will like is we will have a reduced number of students out on the playground. we'll need to make sure we're

cleaning all of our playground equipment throughout the day. >> reporter: it's a blueprint being modelled in other large school districts, including for the 2 million students in los angeles. the l.a. county office of education released its guidelines that include staggered days, one-way hallways and solo play. school buses transport more than 25 million students to and from school each day across the country. this is how social distancing will look for many of those passengers. >> as you can see, we've labeled our seats so we can space students out. >> reporter: all of this change comes with a hefty price tag. >> we creconfiguring schools an school buses, all of this costs a lot of money. how does this play out in the end? >> a little bit of federal money is starting to come down to take care of some of the initial costs, but on the horizon is

costs that are much, much larger. >> reporter: most experts envision the school year beginning with a hybrid of online and in-person classes. the priority, they say, is opening their doors for the most vulnerable. >> we're most worried about students who are economically disadvantaged, students who are english language learners, students with disabilities, students who don't have internet at home. >> we're seeing this backdrop of the playground and i'm sure children will be seeing that and saying i want to go back to school, i want to see my friends. what is your message to those kids and their families? >> to be patient. allow us an opportunity to finalize our plan to ensure that students can be on the playground, they can be in the classroom, in the cafeteria, on our buses. just be patient with us. even as some states contemplate how to get kids back in school, other states are slowing down the reopening of

the economy because of a troubling rise in new cases. i want to bring in now dr. daria long, an emergency room physician and a clinical assistant professor at the university of tennessee. good to see you, doctor. how concerned about you and should all of us be, about the rise in cases? >> yeah, frederick ka, good to see you. i'm watching this closely because i am concerned about it. i would say we have not yet exceeded the capacity of our health systems but that means that now is a pivotal moment. it means if we can start to be smart and strategic about how we're managing our risk, that is the best chance we have of keeping this under control and minimizing infection while we can maximize how much we can get back into society. >> and then there are also concerns of kind of a slow so-called second wave later on in the year, possible spike following three weeks of protests, you know, the winter months alongside maybe flus, et

cetera. what are some of the ways you think people should manage their anxieties and all of that and manage the risks? >> this is exactly the question i've been getting. i have been getting it from schools and companies, from my patients and family. i've been getting it from people on social, on instagram as well. i realized myself and a co-author of mine, dr. davkatz, realized we need to give people framework in order to make their decisions going forward. it's based on two things. one is knowing your individual risk level. are you high risk with high blood pressure and diabetes or on the low risk end of the spectrum, and then this new concept that we discussed called exposure dose level. that's really important. >> so tell me about this exposure dose level. what does that mean? >> so exposure dose level, up until this point we were in lockdown. we said you're supposed to have

zero exposure to the virus. now we're saying as people are starting to open up the economy, people are going to be exposed to some amount and it's no longer a zero, but what we're saying is you have to keep that dose low and be smart about it. think about if you've ever tried to say i don't want to gain weight. well, that doesn't mean you have no calories, it doesn't you don't want to exceed a certain amount. same way with exposure dose. you don't want to exceed the amount to get sick, and if you do, you want to keep it low because it may decrease your chances of being severely ill. there are four factors. density of people, distance from each other, duration, and degree of activity. it's the four ds. are you sitting quietly or shouting or exercising together? those four things are like a sliding scale to determine your dose level of any activity. >> so then obviously exposure dose level might be pretty high if you choose to go to demonstrations, political rallies, et cetera. what kind of advice do you have

for people who are, you know, engaging in large gatherings like that? >> so for one, i tell people in general anything that's a high dose exposure, so yes, protests with a lot of people, political rallies, concerts, large sporting events, for the most part we've got to be careful and avoid those if possible. if you do go to them, the people going should be only the lowest risk level in the spectrum and they should be wearing masks, and after they go to them they cannot have contact with anybody who is in the higher risk level of the spectrum for two weeks. they need to quarantine themselves. >> lots of restrictions still in place and more restrictions, because things are changing. dr. daria long, thank you so much. >> of course. covid-19 has created worldwide chaos since the disease emerged late last year. and while its exact origins are uncertain, scientists believe the virus came from bats.

but bats are not the bad guys here. this sunday anderson cooper explores the world of bats, their importance to our ecology and economy and how these winged creatures can carry thousands of viruses without getting sick themselves. >> in the last 20 years, some of the deadliest virus outbreaks have come from bats. sars, marberg, ebola. so what is it about these creatures and the way they spread pathogens that can be so dangerous? >> the fact that bats are carrying viruses is not in and of itself extraordinary. every animal has its normal viruses and bacteria that it normally carries. people do as well. we carry viruses and bacteria, the majority of which are benign or beneficial, some of which cause disease. it's the fact that bats do tend to carry a higher proportion of viruses that have the ability to

infect people. the question is really why do we see some of these incredibly bad viruses coming out of bats. >> fascinating creatures. how do viruses jump from bats to humans and can we stop the next pandemic? learn that and much more on cnn's special report "bats", the mystery behind covid-19. tomorrow night, 10:00 ooern eastern. >> could statues and symbols be the new protest over police brutality and racism? when you shop with wayfair, you spend less and get way more. so you can bring your vision to life and save in more ways than one.

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washington, d.c., where protesters are in a rather lively festival composure there, dancing in the streets. they are demonstrating not far from the white house, just outside of lafayette park and this is the first weekend the park has been open since it closed after protests outside the white house earlier last week. that's when federal police in riot gear fired gas canisters, tear gas canisters and using rubber bullets to clear peaceful protesters out of the way so that the president could go across the street for a photo op at a nearby church. so this nationwide movement against police brutality and racism is reopening a long debate over removing confederate symbols. could this be a turning point for that? cnn's abby phillips. >> reporter: a national reckoning on race could now mean

the end for the last remaining symbols of america's dark history of slavery. in cities across the south, statues with military leaders of the confederacy are crashing down. after the killing of george floyd, protests have swept the nation and prompted fresh soul searching. >> i believe it is a change and it's long overdo. >> reporter: it's the very issue that drew a group of white protesters, including white supremacists and malitia members to charlottesville, virginia, three years ago. virginia's governor seeking to remove an enormous landmark that commemorates robert e. lee. >> he was a man of his time to fought to continue the enslavement of black people. and in so doing, set our nation on a course towards destruction.

>> reporter: the marine corp. banning the public display of the confederate flag and nascar following suit saying fans will no longer be allowed to fly that flag in the stands. >> no one should feel uncomfortable when they come to a nascar race. get them out of here. we have no place for them. >> reporter: on thursday, the popular country group lady antebellum announcing the change of their name to lady a, telling their fans we can make no excuse for our lateness to this realization that the name referred to the war period that included savory. hbo max saying it has temporarily removed the film "gone with the wind" and will return it to the platform with materials putting it into come text. and now a push to strip names from military bases. >> i don't have an attachment to the names of the basis.

>> reporter: it is time to remove the names from our country's most important military installations, but there is also staunch resistance, beginning with president trump, who tweeted that the bases represent a history of winning, victory and freedom and he would not even consider renaming them. trump warning his party not to fall for a bipartisan amendment introduced in the senate to remove the confederate names. but it may be too late, as some republican lawmakers say the time for change has come. >> we don't want to forget what's happened in the past, but at the same time, that doesn't mean that we should continue with the names of individuals who fought against our country. >> reporter: abby phillip, cnn, washington. >> thank you so much for being with me today. i'm fredricka whitfield. "cnn newsroom" continues right after this. that's been through multiple market cycles for over 85 years? with capital group, i can.

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for the same medications as the vet, but up to 30 percent less with fast free shipping. visit petmeds.com today. you are live in the "cnn newsroom." i'm ana cabrera in new york. we begin with growing calls for police reform and an end to racial injustice. for the 19th day in a row, protesters are marching in cities and towns all across the country in the wake of george floyd's death. you're looking at the nation's capitol. demonstrators taking to the streets with "black lives

matter" signs and some wearing shirts