tonight on "kqed newsroom," the florida school shooting raises fresh qutions about how edge k educators keep student safe. berkeley declars es itself a sanctuary city for marijuana. and the mayor o of richmond the opportunities channels facing hiscity, from the economy to air pollution. plus, at 96, she's the oldest active national park ranger. she reflects on her remarkable life from world war ii to the civil rights struggle. hello, and welcome to "kqed newsroom." we begin with school safety. in the wake of the deadly shooting at a school in florida, president trump pledged to hold summit on school safety. 17 children were killed andmo dozen injured after an

expelled student opened fire on wednesday. it's th lates in a string of similar tragedies in the last few months hialone. congress been hesitant the tighten gun controls ha measures, we turn to what schools are doing to k students sa. now is jill e tucker. jill, good to see you. >> good to see you, too. i know that this morning you attended an active shooter training session put on by the .oakland school distri tell us what you heard and saw. >> oakland had been plan thing training for months. as they said unfortunate and yet important timing coming t days after what happened in florida. it was sitting there withol scachers and principals, custodians and other school staff, and the knowing that what th were learning had just happened somewhere else two days earlier.

the trainer really went through what could happen, what they should do, you know, what are some of the best aractices. >> trainer even showed video on florida. >> exactly. he really wanted tofo ree these ideas and one of the things that he showed was a video that a student took at the scol in parkland and the video showed the students crtching in corner of a classroom. and you could hear the rapid succession of gunshots just ornl boom, boom, boom, children screaming. when he turned it off, he basically -- and everybody was, you know, just had chills and just looks of, just, anxiety and fear and sadness. and he said, what was wrong? what did they do in there? what he pointed out, and really

drove the point home was that they wereng shelte in the classroom, as often is the case is what you should do. but nothing wasbarricaded. he was really driving home the point, they'reou cing in cover, but no kover if the shooter hadtten through, there wasnothing. he was driving home the point of -- >> be proactive. >> rricading, delay that entry. it was interesting watching theh faces ofe educators and absorbing the things, because as he told them, we had the dna when somebody starts shooting, you duck. that isn't the best instinct. you need to get through your denial very quicklycause we live in a world where this happens. >> what is the number one thing people should do, did he say? isyou know, what he said that is

different. and that the best thing you can do i to trained, to be prepared, to think about the things that you need to do. because in some cases, the best option is going to be and oftentimes that's not what people want to do. and if you have kinder gardners, that may not be possible, but you have think about all of your options. and just ducking and crouching is probably not your so he went through various scenariosndhowed videos of shootings and other things to drive home the point of what teachers and staff need toa thik ut. >> "the washington post" has reported that on average, there has been at least one school shooting as you look around the bay area, what are they doing in terms of responding, reviewing and

strengthening the security proceduresnd equipment? >> well, unfortunately, this wasn't the first shooting. shootings have been going on for s long time. school distriacross the country, especially in california the bay have been very proactive in many ways about these you know, they're doing active shooter trainings. they do them with the y ds. th them with the staff. they also, in san francisco, for example, they hav an emergency coordinator, somebody who has been hired very specifically. their only job is toep pre the district for emergencies, be that earthquakes shooters you know, there's debates about what is the best use of sney, what the best use, do you have armed guards at schools. in the cas of parkland, there oude it to where the shooter was. doave metal detectors.

so we go through phases different communities want thi. i think the idea that people are acknowledging this isto going happen, that we live in a world, the police chief said the school district today, in 2018, you have to go home and tell your 3-year-old, this is what you do if somebody comes to try and kill you. >>it so sad that's the new normal. we both have children, andit is sad that this is what we have to talk to kids about. i wanted to ask you, i shooter, like in the case of florida, if the shooter is a former student, in nikolaus cruz's case, and he's gone through the same security training, he knows the he procedures, knows what the drills are. how do you protect yourselfhen the shooter knows what the layout of the school is, and what the procedures are? >> right. i thinkhe that's where training comes in to try to, you

to w, you're going to have address the situation, because it's never going to be the same. columbine was not the same as parkland. all of these were very . differe las vegas was a very different shooting for a mass shooting. so i think that being prepared, being ready, what he was telling the teachers today, and the staff, is the more you think about this and make changes, the better prepared you are to d wl wiatever comes. i really want to say this, that we als need to prevent this, to look for the signs, and there were many in all of these shootings that people missed, to prevent them in the first place. >> that's the message we've been hearing over and over again. jill tucker, thank you. now to marijuana. on tuesday, the city of berkeley became a sanctuaryity for cannabis. the mayor tweeted the move was in resornse to ay general jeff sessions' "misguided prakdown on our democratic

vision to legalize recreation cannabis." across the bay, san francisco has a an to help communities affected by the war on drugs enter the lucrative cannabis industry. gore to talk about this is david downs. to have you back. >> thanks for having me. what is doeshis declaration really mean in berkeley, is it symbolic, since a federal crackdown hasn't happened yet? >> a lot of activists have noted ythat berke has long been a sanctuary city for it's definitely in response to what sessions has done in terms of the rhetoric around cannabis, but itremains to be seen if this crackdown is going to manifest in any tangible action. >> because at the end of the day, federal law supersedes city and state laws. >> that's light.

tha hasn't changed through the obama administration until now. what jeff sessions ha done is rescinded guidance to u.s. attorneys about thei priorities. so you might see u.s. attorneys make cannabis apr bigger rity. a lot of people are saying they don't expect u.s. attorneys in after state go legal cannabis. there was a big confab ofat rneys in washington talking about how to control interstate trafficking of th substance. >> you alluded to this earlier. berkeley has long before so a sanctuary city for marijuan any n 1979, voters passed a law to make marijuanaenforcemenow on the police priority. >> that's right. a number of cities passed things like this measur which downgrades marijuana enforcement k the lowest priority in the state. w that berkeley has some of the most generous laws when it comes toyour ability to grow a couple of pot plants in your backyard, which is somethihe majority of cities in california

have already banned. >> letab talt the so-called equity cannabis programs that we're now seeing in a few cities in california, in oakland, san francisco, los angeles. what is the main reasoning behind these programs? >> minities have borne a disproportional impact on the war on drugs.ks blre often arrested multiple times of the rates of whites using marijuana, even though the usage on the street . >> between the two races. >> exactly. activists are saying let's give minorities and disenfranchised groups leg up in the cannabis industry and coming up with these rules that inject more minorities intthis legal business. there's a lot of anxiety about who going to end up with legal cannabis, and it's entering traditionalis capit where we have a lot of power that's concentrated in the hands of a very few people. >> what is the makeup of th cannabis industry now? from what i read and seen, it's

still cng sort of a racial own, in that the people who primarily involved are young, white male, fairly wealthy. >> i think the traditional cannabis instry under prohibition was rather diverse. as it enters ma stream american commerce, people are hoping to head off the equity issues we already have there. and so we have studies, we have surveys where we talked to people who are running cannabis businesses. women are generally better represented in cannabis than in congress. dio forminorities. that said, people don't want toe already started to see that under the hands of people with capital. >> h do the rules for these equity programs work. how do they address that gap? >> imagine you're a small business owner and the city tells us how youoy em people with criminal records from these

bad neighborhoods and submitcu nts to us and we'll give you a license when they meet m makes it harder for small businesses to compete. so we're seeing that the big bu nesses stand ready capitalize on these capital programs and incue lahecubate minorities. but the other 85% that doesn't have the money, they're thinkin aboaving oakland. >> you seem to be saying while thse equities, good in theory, they may not in wo as planned? >> everyone knows that the road to heck is paved with good intentions it's a good headline to say we're going to do this. but where the rubber meets the ro, it's bee a real turbulent period. oakland seems to be making up rules as they go, and a lot of businesses are closing down. uncertainty is the death nil of business. thse equity programs create

terrible uncertainty for the businesses that exist. and the reports we're getting fromhe industry that are actually operating in the cities, they're pulling their hair out. >> i want to go back to the berkeley city they lowered the city's tax rate on recreational pot from % wn to 5%. what was the thinking behind d that, ayou other cities thinking of following suit? >> tax rates e ashigh as 40% in cannabis in california, when you addnd state local sales, plus regulations in the new supply chain. f when tnal bill comes due, it's higher than the cannabis available on the reet, whic sort of props up the black market, which is what we don't want to do underroposition 64. as i have been saying, taxes and regulations are going to be bad before get better, and we're starting to see locals think aboute adjusting th regulations to allow those to thrive. it takes a 2/3 vote to change

taxes at the state level, so it's going to be hard to move things at the state level. s so a bumpy start. david downs of the san francisco chronicle, thank you so much. >> thanks for having me. moving on to local politic richmond is home to a chevron oil refinery that employs 1200 people. but last month, richmond join other california cities and counties to sue big oil companies for actions that they allege harm the environment and public health. tjoining me now discuss this and more is the mayor of richmond. niceo have you here >> glad to be here. >> the city ofs, richmond joine, santa cruz and others. you're suing 29 oil companies. what are you hoping to rs accomplish? f of all, i would lo say the richmond refinery is a good corporate neighbor in

richmond. we get along they're involved in a lot of things. so this is not about them. it's about the entire fossil fuel industry. chevron corporation is a tiny part of that. i think everybody knows the story, but the story basical is, these industries concealed the fact that they knew the effect that fossil fuels would have on globalwaing for decades. and they all were involved in efforts lobbyis and other organizations. they spent millions and millions of dollars trying to convince people that climate change was a fraud and at it was not something we needed to worry about. in fact, a lot of them are still doing that. >> how does it affect your city in terms of what you have to extend to cut down on some of the effects? >> as you just mentioned,

richmond has 32 miles of shoreline, more than any other c y onn francisco bay. we have two intercontinental railrmiad tels in richmond. we have two waste water treatment we have thousands of acres of regional parks. we have neaghborhoods. we have a refinery, all of which arect to inundation for sea level rise. so we're already in the process of for that. you know, our city, along with other cities onthe water, are going to have to spend a lot on infrastructure in the future to adapt to climate change. it's going to be billions o dollars. >> and you want the oil companies to reimburse that? >> we want them to be part of the solution of part of the problem. >> chevron has said these lawsuits will not curb climate change, that itba demands g

engagement. >> they're right, but you have to start evmewhere. ifybody says it's not my problem, it's a global problem, nothingpp s. and let me just throw this out, ne of the things that's happening, i was at the climate summit in paris a couple of years ago, and one of the things they pointed out not only all of the pioneering efforts to deal with climate change, but what's going to happen in the future is, it's going to be on cities. it's all going to happen in cities and mayors are be at the forefront. >> jcpenney closed last year, a new developer came in last july. what is going to hapen? >> it's a new owner. they're in a two-step process. the first start isohey'reg to put a lot of money into the existing infrastructure there tt make more attractive and to try to get it leased up to higher level. and the second part is, they're

going to do somewhat's happening to malls all over the country, they're going to take those parking lots and bring in high density housing and create a whole community there. >> hoping for revitalization? >>co yeah, theld build up to 10,000 units there. and it would totally change the nature of it from being just a retail destination, to being a mixed use community. >> what is your biggest priority right now as mayor? richmond once was considered the most dangerous cities. over the years, violent crime has declined. but thatma still sticks for many people. how big a challen is that for you? >> well, there's good news and , this ye we had the lowest homicide -- the second lowest homicide rate in decades. and ournt vio crime rate is down also. and that's great and it's part of a trend that's been going on now for a decade.

the flip side is we still have a lot of homicides inon ric you asked what is my number one goal? my number one w goalld be to have at least one year where we do not have a sing homicide in richmond and for it to stay that way. >> you talked about rebranding richmond as a big priority as mayor. howe afforda is richmond and what is the housing si richmondt expensive place to buy or rent a home in the bay area. the median home price is just under $440,000. and the median apartment is about $2400 a month. richmond -- i mean, in san francisco, you probably know it's about $3800 a n brding study in richmond. one the elements is pushing richmond as a affordable place to live, which it is. it's a great place to comte to and from.

i took b.a.r.t. to the city today and walked here in less than an hour. >> mayor, pleasure to have you her thank you. finally, 96-year-old betty so pgeen a lot. the nnation 's1921. during world war ii, she was a file clerk helping african-erican workers, witnessed the civil rights movement, and helped create a berkeley thatn still stands today. currently, she's a park ranger at the national historic park i, richmhere she's worked since 2007. her new book chronicles her remarkable life. and betty, such a pleasure to . >> thank you very much. >> you're a ranger at the rosy the riveter nationalpark. you graduated from oakland in 1942. what did you do afterhat during the 'forts? >> among the things i did do was work at the union hall during

world war >> it was segregated at the time. yes, at that time. that would have been before the labor movement. so i worked there. all of the blackoers were put in those unions, and they paid dues, butpothey had no er, >> the image of rosy the riveter in denim, muscles, welding ships, doing this work, it was always the image of a white woman. did you identify with that? >> no, i never d. ecause i never did see a ship being launched. >> you weren't allowed to. >> no, the union hall where i itworked was in the of the hall, nowhere near thele so that w part of the home front story escaped me at time. >> so why did you decide to

become a park ranger at the age of 85? because that was not your story. >> yeh. i never did decide. i came into richmond, and thear bloomed into my district. and i began to attend those first planning meetings, because it was something that was occurringn the 14th assembly district. and veadually became inv in that planning operation. >> and you became involved for a ason. i mean, you spoke up and said look, there are nuances to this story. >> the reason that richmond had been selected, though there wer boomtowns around the country, it was here in rimond th there was enough still standing structures to interpre history. the structures that would have told my story, the african-american adstory, been long, long ago

so in order to see that history was more inclusive, there was more than the story of rosy the riveter, the white woman's story, there was the story of 120,000 japanese-americans being interned, t explosion where 320 lives were lost. the story of arican-americans who had come out of the sharecroppers, out of the south to answer the call for those stories were going untold. to see that history was inclusive, i became part of the >> you grew up in the bay area in the 1940s, 's. what was life like here? what happened when you tried to build house in berkeley? >> i grew up as a second generationlifornian, not as an african-american. i grew up knowing there were 10,000 african-americans between seaside and sacramento.

so there -- segregation was not formal as it s in thesouth. so i didn't grow up with that kind of stigma i learned after migration of so many african-americans out of the south, that this was an unreal aspect of it was something that s ply we had to grow into. >> there was some redlining, right, thaten happened w you tried to buy a house in berkeley, then you moved to walnut creek. >> yes, we built a house inw nut creek in the unincorporated area. we lived with death threats for about fyears. >> because you were an african-american family in the town? er yes, because there were only two african-an families in the diablo valley, and we were one of them. >> during thets civil ri era, you decided to become a bridge with whites innu wcreek and

the black panthers. what did you do? > participated fund-raising activities delivered them -- i was called a bag lady. because i was -- >> you put the money in a >> not literally. but that was a time of redefinition forme. i had been in the suburbs as a white family and was -- put more in touch with mylack roots than ever, than needed to be in so th was a period of redefinition much. you are a national treasure. you were honored with presidential coin from president barack obama. given the tumultuous political climate we live in today, what is your view race relations? > i think that there are new voices, exciting voices that are

coming out, of the black movement now. they're really exciting now.k blves matter and joy reed. there are many voices coming out now. i think that since i have lost my sense of ture, because i'm 96, my sense of past h been enhanced. and i am aware now that this country has been going through thes cyclical periods of chaos since 1776, and we're in another one now. but it's at those times that the democracy is being redefined, and we have access to the reset buttons. and we're one of those places right now,o that fo me, it's very hopeful and exciting, because all those things that were very negative, very ugly, are now available to be seen by the entire nation when they used to be simply things that existed in the blackcommunity. we all saw chaottesville.

>> we are so lucky to have you, and your perspective, and i wish ou the best of luck with your new book. >> >> betty, thank you for being here. >> thank you. well, that does it fors. find more of our coverage at ed rg/newsroom. thuy vu. thank you for

robert: indictments in the russia probe and par alsills in r shington on control. i'm robert costa. 17 americans gunned down in florida. another week where leaders face the question, what now? tonight on "washington week." president trump: today i speak nation in grief. robert: in the wake of another mass shooting, an emotionally charged debate. >> can you tell us when the house may muster the courage to take up the issue of gun violence? robert democrats demand action. some republicans say tougher laws would not have prevented the massacre. >> the struggle up tohis point has been that most of the proflingse enthusiasti offered would not have prevented not just yesterday's tragedy b