captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc ev >> woodruff: gooing. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonigh >> i started facebook, i run it, and i am responsible for what happens here. >> woodruff: mark zuckerberg in the hot seat. the facebook c.o. testifies before senators, amid serious privacy concerns for millions of users. then, president trump lashes out at special counsel robert mueller, aft an f.b.i. raid on the president's personal lyer, michael cohen. and, securing schools in the wake of the parkland shooting. how a district in texas is taking precautionary measures to protect students against the worst. >> i think parents are open to it. they've seen that times have changed, unfortunately, and they do see we're putting children's safety first. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight'sbs newshour.

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> kevin. >> kevin. >>cievin. >> fin services firm raymond james. >> babbel. a language program that teaches real-life conversations in a new language. >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular. >> and with the ongoinsesupport of tnstitutions:og >> this m was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs

station from viewers like u. thank you. >> woodruff: we have two major stories tonight. first, the white house now says that president trump believes he has the power to fire the manru ing the russia investigation, special counsel robert mueller.n that followsb.i. raid on a member of the trump inner circle: his personal lawyer, michael cohen. it was based on information from mueller's team. we will have a full report, after the news summary. meanwhile, the head of facebook, mark zuckerberg, says his comapny is working with the special counsel's probe of the russian election meddling. that was one a range of issues raised as zuckerberg faced off with 44 members of the uniteden statese today. lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> reporter: for the social w media maveri's often behind the scenes, a very public

lesson in scrutinyilas lawmakers d facebook's mark zuckerberg with quesulons. >> why swe trust facebook? >> i believe you have the talent to solve these problems, but do you have the will? compies began with an apolog >> reporter: the c.e.o. of one of the internet's most dominant companies began withology. >> we didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. and it was my mistake, and i'm sorry. i started facebook, i run it, and i'm responsible for what happens here. >> reporter: this, one week after facebookevealed up to 87 million users' personalio informcould have been improperly accessed by cambridge analytica, a political consulting firm hired by the trump campaign in 2016. cambridge analytica then use

that data to direct trump campaign content toward individual users. knew aboutmits this kind of data harvesting for at least two years, but only addressed it last month. today's rare joint hearing by the senate judiciary and commerce committees was just one sign of the fury over the revelations. zuckerberg's message: his company is changing. >> we need to take a morero proactiv. enough to build tools, we need to make sure they're used for good. at the end of the day,is something people will measure by results. >> reporter: but that didn't satisfy senators. billelson, a democrat from florida, pressed zuckerberg about why facebook waited years to tell users about the breachwi cambridge analytica. >> you apologize for it, but you didn't notify them. t you think that you have ethical obligatinotify? >> we considered it a closed

case. r rospect, that was clearly a mistake. >> did anyone notify the f.t.c.? >> no, senator. >> reporter: some also honed in on repeated mistakes and apologies by facebook over the years. commerce committee chairman john thune: >> how is today different? >> so we have made a lot of mistakes running the company. >> reporter: other senators, like minnesota's amylobuchar, shed for specific fixes.ou >> you support a rule to notify users within 72 hours of data breach?ke >> that sense to me. >> reporter: this aschar and others push something called the honest ads act-- one of a long line of bills nused on digital platforms like facebook. it requires the company to make re no foreign interests can

post campaign ads, and that the public be able to see who is behind every election ad facebook says it is now doing that, and more-- launching easier ways for users to block access to their information, and promising to restrict how much da any outside company can access. but as facebook tried to looor forward, senpointed backward. connecticut's richard blumenthal asked about facebook's deal with alexander kogan, whoseave cambridge analytica its access. >> i want to show you terms of service that kogin provided to facebook. i want to note for you that in fact, facebook was on notice that they could sell that data. did you see this? >> i did not. >> who was responsible for this?

>> our app review team. >> was anyone fired from this team? >> not for that. >> reporter: illinois senator dick durbin: >>ould you be comfortable sharing with us the hotel you stayed ilast night? >> ( laughs ) no. >> if you messaged a, body this weuld you share with us the names of the people you've messaged? >> senator, no, i would not choose to do that publicly here. >> reporter: zuckerberg was twice pressed on whether facebook tracks users across devices and after they leave the platform. he hesitated to answer. >> there has been reports that facebook can track a user's internet browsing activity even

after that user has logged off the facebook platform. can you confirm whether that's true? >> senator, i want to make sure i get this accurate. it's better to have my team follow up. >> you don't know? >> i know that people use cookies on the internet, and you can probably correlate activity between sessions. >> reporter: zuckerberg gave more specifics on a different topic: the threat from russia.as facebookaid that sent fake sempaign ads to more than 100 million facebook in 2016. >> what is facebook doing to prevent foreign actors? >> this is one of my gt priorities in 2018, is to get this right. one of my greatest r in

running the company, we were slow to i.d. new operators. >> reporter: zuckerberg was also pushed on if it feeds global crisis-- the u.n. and human rights groups accuse facebook of allowing hateful anti-muslim vios and other posts that facilitated violence against rohingya muslims in myanmar. >> senator, what's happening in myanmar is a terrible tragedy and we need to do more. >> we all agree with t >> okay. >> but you and investigators blamed-- you blamed facebook for playing a role in that genocide. how can you dedicate, and will you dedicate resources to make enre such hate speech is t down in 24 hours? >> one is,e're hiring dozens of more burmese language content reviewers, because hate speech is very languae-specific. it's hard to do it without

people who speak the local languageth >> reporter: ahearing ran into the evening, one theme was constant: facebook's power, and how it handlck that power. berg will be in washington at least one more night. he testifies before a house committee topbrrow. for thnewshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: and now, amna nawa lorther at some of what we learned today, and some questions that remain. >> reporter: and for that,'m joined by franklin foer, a staff writer for "the atlantic," and author of, "world without mind: the existential threat of big tech." thanks for being here. >> pleasure. >> reporter: you watched the testimony today. it's faierto say mark zurg went in a bit on the back foot. how dwro think he did? >> well, six months ago if you looked at facebook, mark zuckerberg was discussed as a potential presidential candidate, facebook disavowed that it was the worild'sgest gatekeeper. facebook pushed back against the prospect of government

regulating it,, and if you look at today's performance, while he was technically i think very proficient in swatting away some of the concerns of senators, their role in the world has fundamentally changed. ebooks conceding that fac is going to be regulated by bevernment, and that regulation might ultimatelood for facebook and facebook's use ers. he conceded that facebook is a publisher, that it has responsibilities for the content that it pubsolishes, an the zeitgeist has shift dramatically he's trying to preserve facebook's dominant position,s nopoly. he would rather this discussion be about the regulation rathersi than a disc about anti-trust and breaking up the company.ou >> reporter:mentioned him swatting away some of those questions. what did he not answer today thatou thought he would or should have? >> welk look, he was disavowing facebook's role in collecting people's data. he portrayed facebook as being a system where people were making all sorts of conscious choices

to have their data collected by facebook. so i think he was being fairly disingenuous. there was a questu just showed where he said he doesn't know whether facebook tracks you across all their devices. well, of course he knows that. one issuet' think thareally important that he didn't discuss is the role of manipulation in facebook's system. it came up very narrowly in thef casecambridge analytica, but facebook is a system that is a feedback loop that is designed to keep users asga enged as long as possible, which means keeping them addicted. rayed in such fashion to keep people addicted. so he's not feeding peo information based on what they share. he's not feeding it based on what's good for them orfo goodr democracy. he's feeding it based on what will keep them addicted. >> reporter: he's also fee it based on the data they do track. he was asked specifically abo that. we saw one of those moments in lisa's report, basically how and when and where his platform

collects data from their users. what d you make of ho he handled those specific questions? ttyi thought he was pre effective in dealing with the senators. i think we were at a moment where senators, a lot of the senators are, if we're frank, they're older. they're not necessarily facebook's core demographic, or they're senators who are busy who are nofacebook power users, so they didn't understand the system. so when it came toin pre zuckerberg on a lot of the questions about the collection of data, i think zurberg was reasonably effective in pushingu them away, i think in ways that will ultimately be seen as disingenuous. >> reporter: a few of the senators zero in, what they knew and when and how they share they knew in 2015 cambridge analytica improperly shared. da they banned them, but they didn't tell users and they didn't report it to the f.t.c.? should they have? how do you think zuckerberg

handled those questions today? >> i think they should have. part of the issue is when we step become and you look at these questions, the cambridti analytica qus, the questions of giving access of data to third-party developequ, thtions about facebook being careless in their handling of this precious cargo, really these are systematic problems that facebook has. so this was one glaring example of facebook screwing up. zuckerberg admitted failure but really it's part of a systematic failure. >> reporter: along those same line there is an inherent business model tension. they're pledging to protect the data, at the same time thir business model is built on profiting from it. can people trust them moving forward? >> their business model is always about commandeering as much of the attention of their users as possible. so they're always goibe collecting as money data as possible in order to keep people's attention for slabl and

erto allow advertto target that attention as much as possible. i don't see how they will eap this arms race they're in when they have to keep pushing the boundariesilof surnce on their users. >> reporter: franklin foer, thanks f t being here. ank you so much. woodruff: and in the day's other news, the president of china renewed offers to lower a series of trade barriers. his statement eased fears of aan trade waset off a stock market rally. xi jinping told a conference in southern china that beijing will "significantly lower" automobile tariffs this year, and strengthen intellectual property protections. >> ( translated ): we are taking efforts to make the outcomes of opening-efit chinese enterprises and people, as well as enterprises of variouss countr the world and their people in the shortest possible time.gh i believe, thrhese efforts, the competitiveness of chinese financial iustry will be greatly improved. hechina's opening-up will in a brand new prospect. >> woodruff: china has announced many of the reforms before. but in a tweet this afternoon,

president trump said that he is thankful for wt he called xi's "kind words." xi's words also played well on wall seet. the dow jones industrial average gained nearly 421 points to close at 24,408. the nasdaq rose almost 144 points, and the s&p 500 added 43. on syria, the international "organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons" announced that it will investigate a suspected chemical attack by the assad regime. that came as video on social media purportedly showed the site of the attack that killed 40 people, and a missile that allegedly contained gas. meanwhile, at the united nations, russia vetoed a u.s. call for a full, u.n. investigation, and u.s. ambassador nikki haley had this reaction. >> today, some countries decided to stand up for truth, accountability and justice for

the syrian people. history will record that, on this day, russia chose protecting a monster over thes li the syrian people. >> woodruff: a competingy resolutionssia also failed. president trump said on monday at he is considering a military response in syria. sparately, an aide to ira supreme leader warned that israel will pay for monday's strike that killed seven iranians in ria. an's state media quoted ali akbar velayati as saying, in"t damascus crimes will not remain unanswered." israel has not confirmed that it carried out the missile strike on a syrian air base. the u.n. cultural organization, unesco, has condemned monday's mass killing at a famed wildlife park. five rangers and a driver were slain at virunga national park it is home to about a quarter of

the world's mountain gorillas. the attack, by an armed militia was adliest since the park was established in 1925. in britain, one of two victimsge of a nerve attack was released from the hospital today. lia skripal was taken to secure location. her father, sergei skripal, a former russian double agent,re ins in the hospital. britain, the u.s., germany and france blame russia for the attack.th back i country, the president's homeland security adviser, tom bossert, has f signed unexpectedly, in the latest in a stringite house departures. the announcement came a day ter john bolton began as national security adviser. he has been expected to put hist own stamp national security council apparatus. and, national guard troops from three states have begun arriving at the u.s.-mexico border,en answering prestrump's call. as of today, republican governors om arizona, texas

and new mexico had committed 1,600 guard members. sthe president says he wa 2,000 to 4,000. california's democratic gootrnor, jerry brown, has n said if he will also deploy the guard. still to come on the newshour: the latest on the f.b.i. raid of president trump's lawyer's office and residence. how one school district is taking measures to secure its students. a new book chronicles the humano of the syrian civil war. and, much more. w, woodruff: we return to our second lead story he fallout after f.b.i. agents raid the office and the hom president trump's personal lawyer. john yang begins with whatt e know abis unusual step and the many questions swirling around how mr. trump mightsp d. >> are you thinking about firing puty attorney general ro rosenstein?

>> reporter: today, president trump was not speaking to ialevision cameras about the fate of the russ investigation. but white house press secretary derah sanders said the pre thinks it's "gone too far," and that he has the power to end ies >> does the ent have the power to fire mueller? >> he certainly believes he has the power to do so. >> reporter: theresident triggered the speculation about special counsel robert mueller last night: >> why don't fire mueller? well, i think it's a disgrace, what's going on. we'll see what happens. many people have said you should fire him. >> reporter: mr. trump's anger was sparked by f.b.i. raids on the manhattan office and hotel room of michael cohen, the president's longti personal attorney. >> i just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys. good man. it's a disgraceful situation. it's a total witch hunt. >> reporter: it's widely

reported the f.b.i. seizednd thouof cohen's records, dealing with two women who say they had sexual affairs with mr. trump in 2006. tin 2016, cohen paid $130o adult film star stephanie clifford, known as "stormy daniels," as part of a non-lo dire agreement. the other woman, karen mcdougal, was paid $0 for her story, n the "national enquirer's" parent company eough it never reported it. 'sme of the documents are said to involve mr. tru communications with cohen. the disclosure prompted the president protest today, that "attorney-client privilege is dead!" in fact, not allbeommunications een lawyers and their clients are privileged. thers the so-called "crime- fraud" exception, for communications made with the intention of covering up a crime. a third-party team of investigators will likely be tasked to decide whether cohen's arssages with the presiden protected or not. cohen's lawyer said in ast

ement that the raid was carried out by the u.s. attorney's office in manhattan, based on a referral by mueller. the search was authorized by deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, who is overseeing the special counsel's investigation. democratic senator richard blumenthal of connecticut called it a "seismic" step. >> this kind of raid is extraordinary. it could not have been done if there were not near-certaint that he was going to either destroy evidence, or plan or commit a crime that involved obstruction of justice, and that there was evidence that would be destroyed. >> reporter: republican senator lindsey graham of south carolina brushed aside speculation tha l e president would try to dismiss the specunsel, but added a word of warning. >> i'm not concerned that he'll fire mueller. i don't think he'll fire rosenstein. that would be the beginning the end of his presidency, and he's not going to do that. >> reporter: legislation toha protect muellestalled in the senate, and leader mitch mcconell says he sees no need to act on it. jor the pbs newshour, i'm hn yang.

he woodruff: our white house correspondent, yamlcindor, is here with me now to help fill in the pictu. so yamiche, you've been reporting on this all day. where do things stand right now with regard to michael cohen and what... this f.b.i. raid? >> michael cohen and his lawyer have been tight-lipped all day. i called his personal cell phone today, and someone hung up on me wh i roduced myself. michael cohen told cnn he is very wthried about raids that happened. he says he wants all of this to be over. with he said if he had todo it again, he might have handled that $130,000 payment to stor daniels differently, but there is this ideraa that sanders also said that the president is growing very wary of mueller's investigation and thinks hs going too far, so the president is tired of what's going on andi that these could be something that's really scary for michael cohen. >> woodruff: but it's

interesting that he's saying he would haver one it anoty. i think that's first time we've heard him say that. >> it's f'rst time weve heard him say, that and unlike in the past where the president is doling down and saying tat the f.b.i.'s breaking into his offices, michael cohen has actually said they were very courteous to him and that he really is just veworried. he said he's worried about his family and how this could affect them. he's not someone saying, i did everything right. he says he believes he did everything legally right, buts there is thea that he feels something could go wrong, and these investigations don't have to focusust collusion or russia. if they find something that's i improprietarthey find something that's wrong financially, it could be something completely unrelated, that could hurt michael cohen and the president if he's involved. >> woodruff: so separately from all this, there has been talk, yamiche, as you know, deabout what the pre is thinking about robert mueller, a lot of specklation about whether he may fire him?y >> sources are telling me and sarah sanders said today thaten the presbelieves he has the power to fire robert mueller

and that he has been advised thate can do that. that's very, very important, because the white house has always said that the preside was not thinking about firing robert mueller, but that is confirmation that he's been advised about how he could do t . the problem is thuld set off a constitutional crisis. legal experts that i have talk to say the department of justice rules show the president himself cannot dirfire robert mueller. he would have to go through chain of comt mande d.o.j. to do that. if he didn't do that, that could be a really big problem. and sarah sanders said that she didn't think he was going to have any intention ofring robert mueller right now, but she did say that he's frustrate ed with both the fb.i. director and jeff sessions, so there could be changes to come. woodruff: a lot to follow. yamiche alcindor, thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: well, to answer some of the legal questions volved in the raid on th office and home of the president's lawyer, i spoke a short time ago to paler, a former federal prosecutor and law professor at georgetown

university; and, mark zaid, a washington d.c. lawyer who specializes in government investigations. we started with mrbutler, on how this kind of raid is extraordinary. >> judy, barging into a lawyer's office and his residence, looking rough all of his papers and e-mails and documents into his representation of the client is among ths mot sensitive things a federal prosecutor can do, and for that reason, the department of justice has very high levels of authority for who has to approve it. it has to go through an assistant attorney gene al, in this cportedly it was the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, and then there has to be a showing made to a federal judge that there is crobable cause to think there is evidence of aime where f.b.i. wants to look. it's extraordinary. in years of federal practice as a prosecutor, i nev did this. you rarely see it in a case,us beit really impinges the

heart of our adversarial system. it's almost like cheating. there are very serious concerns about attorney-client privilege that have to be respected. >> woodruff:ark zaid, wh is so special about attorney-client privilege? >> well, it is one of the sacrosanct privilege, rabbi priest privilege, mit privilege, attorney-client privilege. the fact is that we as attorneys know lot of things thour clients do, good and bad, and in order to brable to poperly defend them under our constitution, we need to be ale keep that away frongthe pryi eyes of the government. >> woodruff: so paul butler, does this mean the prosecutor would have had to present to the justice department, present to the judge evidence, whatever evidence there was, tht something was wrong, that either a crime was committed or could be about to be commitmented? >> yeah. so reportedly they said that mr. cohen is a subje of the

grand jury investigation, which means that he has not forlly been charged with a crime, but he's undersseri investigation. and so they'd have to make that showing. then they have tot esablish how they're protecting attorney-client pre.ivil usually it's done by one set of investigators and prosecutors who are called the tank team or irty team. so they actually conduct the investigation. they go in, they seize the documents, and then they review them. they remove the prileged document, and then they turn it over to a clean team. that's a separate set of investigators who actually pursue the case >> woodruff: but just to back up a moment, mark zaid, michael cohen and his attorney have been saying, well, we've been cooperating fully with the investigation with the mueller investigion, so we don't understand why they would need to do this. >> you would think, and i'm sure to the public that resonates a great deal, but i can tell you

from practice, it really doesn't make a difference. i had a case involving c.i.a. case officer a couple years ago, thd we were fully cooperating with f.b.i., coming in for every meeting they requested, tellg them and answering every question they asked, and lo and behold they show with a no-knock warrant, meaning they just barge into the house at 6:30 a.m so this is common. sometimes it comes up because there are ncerns ththere might be destruction of evidence, that it might be occurring, but there could be a number of reasons why. but that by itself is not unusual at >> woodruff: paul butler, there is reporting tha the special counsel, robert mueller, referred this case, and we read rney, to the atto prosecutor for the southern district of new york. what does this say, do you think, about th mueller investigation, what it is or is not pursuing itself? >> what's been reported is that

special counsel mueller uncovered evidence that michael cohen might be involved in criminal activity, and he went to rod rosenstn, and apparently rod rosenstein's decision was to refer it to the new york feeral prosecutor. so it may have been that they thought it was outside of the purview of the special counsel llvestigation, which is about ion and obstruction of justice, or, on the other hand, they may just be goingto new york for this clean team, so it may be that new york will use the doc, umenmove all the privileged document, and then actually turn over t non-privileged documents back to mueller. we just don't know. again, special counsel mueller seems to be doing a very good job at avoiedingks, so we really have limited information about this. it may be about bank fraudment it may be about stormy danls we'll have to wait and see. >> woodruff: mark zaid, what wod you add to that in terms of what this may or may not say

haout the mueller investigation, understanding there been sheri few leaks? >> there is more than just thele muinvestigation that is touching on parallel issuesia involving ruome the f.b.i. is conducting a number of investigations that are parallel to what mueller is dong. so it is possible, as was said, that the -- whatever was go wng th michael cohen might fall outside, so it was sent to the southern district of new york. i think one of the things that both michael coh and the president perhaps have to be concerned about might not be what actually the f.b.i. was searching for specifically, as we'll see one day in the affidavit that was used before the judge, but what they actually might fine. because very often they can separate the prege issue through the dirty team and give it to the clean team, there may very well be evince of crimes that the f.b.i. wasn't even aware was going on, and oftentimes that can be the worst and most dangerous part for

someone who has their house or office raided. >> woodruff: paul butler -- >> judy, if i could. >> woodruff: go ahead. >> i'm nodding, because that could be a relionship between the michael cohen investigation and robert mueller's investation. we've seen that special counsel robert mueller, one of his tactics is to get incriminating information about somebody who might be a witness against president trump or someone higher up inis campaign, gt that person to plead guilty and esseially flip that pern. so if the investigation uncovere substantiadence of wrongdoing by michael cohen, ain, he reportedly is president trump's fix it. he didn't take the loy pledge. so he may have loads of information about president trump that special counsel mueller would like to know, and prosecutors share information all the time. even if there is one prosecution or investigation of cohen and another about collusion that is operated by mueller, they could share

information and possibly use the information about cohen to flip to get him to turn on his client, president trump. >> woodruff: so many strands here to follow. gentlemen, thank you both very much. paul butler, mark zaid, we thank you. >> thank you. >> great to be here. >> woodruff: in the wake of the school shooting in parkland, florida, that left 17 students d educators dead, there is a growing effort to make sure schools are better protected. such shootings are actually rare, statistically speaking. the chance a student will die at school from murder or suicide is nearly one in two million. but school oicials know they have to plan for the worst, and are under increasing pressure to add physical security measures and armed staff. correspondent lisa stark of our partner "education week" reports from san antonio, texas,

for this week's segment on "making the grade." >> reporter: it's a typical day at harlan high, on the outskirts of san antonio-- a bustling lunchsproom, a.p. classes, orts teams working out.e but just lery other day, security cameras, classroom doors that lock fromide, armed officers keeping watch, and a single open entrance into the sprawling building. >> i mean, we don't live in mayberry anymore. >> rorter: officer shane allard oversees safety and security for theorthside independent school district. >> we know that there's a more violent world out there, and we're going to, we have to do sawhat we can to ensure thty of our staff and students. >> reporter: here at northside, they even have their own police force. more thaner 100 armed off covering 117 schools and 106,000 students. is this office up and running 24/7? >> 24/ >> reporter: chief charlie carnes say dispatchers can

monitor any of the district's 7,500 cameras. two officers are assigned to every high school, one at each middle school, and roving officers make checks at elementary schools. >> we want to present a hard target. that's why we expressed to our officers, you make foot patrols around your school. you park your patrol vehicle in a highly visible place and let people know that there are police here. >> reporter: while most districts don't edhave aated police force, 48% of schools do have sworn law enforcement officers on campus at least once a week, up from 36% a decade ago. now, aftethe parkland tragedy, calls for adding more armed officers. y civil rights groups worrat will hurt poorer black and lawhno students especially, are more likely to face arrest at school. in some districts, there's talk of adding metal detectors or even arming achers, an idea

touted by the presidt. >> if you had a teacher who was adept at firearms, they could v eery well the attack very quickly. >> reporter: but a recent gallup poll found 73% of teachers are opposed to carrying guns. travis weissler teaches historyh at harlan >> personally, i am a gun owner, but i just feel like there's too many scenarios that could happen when you add a teacher's having weapons in the classroom. the amount of training a police officer gets and how to respond to a situation is above and beyond what a teacher could learn. >> reporter: northside superintendent brian woods says any new security measures must bearefully thought out. >> there's always a reaction after a really scary incident like parkland for the pendulum to swing towards a much more hardened building, and that is completely understandable. but i think we've always got toc bathat with, what's the

core mission of this space, and what can we do that's reasonable and yet keeps the school not a prison.ef >> reporter: carnes agrees. >> in a free america, you know, do wput serpentine wire arou our schools, do we put bars on our windows? done put soldiers out front the front doorstep and question everybody that approaches? no, we d't do that. >> reporter: michele gay learned first-hand how school security cafail. she lost her daughter josephine at sandy hook elementary. >> she's still, to ty, the light of our lives and the center of our family. >> reporter: after sandy hook, gay co-founded safe and sound schools. its purpose? >> making sure that we have reasonable precautions, that we have layers of security in place. >> reporter: gay bristles at the teng "hardening schools," sa schools can be welcoming and still use common sense measures to help protect students. i there a gate there? is there a camera that will aleroffice staff that

someone is now coming onto the campus? >> reporter: and at the school entrance: >> it needs to be locked. it's not open. it's not open to the public. has to be a system where you are granted access. >> reporter: that's what they're doing at northside's elementary schools. at villarreal elementary, everyone is screened. every parent, every visitor, heasked the reason f viyt, kept in a secure lobb while i.d.'s are checked, a photo badge is issued, then staffers must unlock the doors to the school halays. nationwide, 94% of schools now report they control access during the scol day. do you think that makes school less w icoming? >> nhink parents are open to it. they've seen that times have changed, unfortunately, and th do see we're putting children's safety first. >> reporter: and principal roxanne gutierrez says thereye another new of security here-- the lobby itself-it renovated tohstand bullets.

>> before this, we still had this entrance, but it was made out of glass. >> reporter: so it wasn't bullet resistant? >> no, it wasn't. >> and this glass is bullet resistant. >> yes, it is. >> reporter: the idea? to try to prevent another sandy hook, where the gunman shot his way into the locked school. rthside has spent nearly $4 million for bullet resistant lobbies at about half its 78 elementary schools. it's asking voters in may to okay money for the other half. meantime, other security measures are required. the cdistriducts lockdown drills, as do 95% of schools nationwide. here, securing the classroom s takeseconds. >> the all call is made for lockdown, th window is covered, the teacher does ovme here and removed this.en and he door is locked. and if someone is on the outside, they are not able to gain entry. >> reporter: adding modern security measures to schools can be costly. by one estimate, a minimum of

$10 billion nationwi security experts will tell you that technology only goes so far, that what hools really weed to do is create a culture where students feeome and respected, and willing to flag anything that seems threatening. harlan high principal robert harris says, that's key. >> i think creating that culture where it's okay to communicate to adults, create a culture where it's okay to call the safeline-- that's something we tryo from day one. >> reporter: the northside district has a 24-hour tip line, but it'snly as good as the follow-up. how do you determine if something is really a threat or noreat? >> it's always real. if it's a threat, it's taken seriously, as if it's real. >> reporter: after parkland, schools around the count faced a flood of shooting threats. harlan r.o.t.c. student kendall duepner says her school was targeted. >> there was a fake instagram page made, and it said that they were going to shoot up the

scacol. kids camss this, and they were reporting it to the safeline and emailing the princitel. >> rep the district and school police scrambled to investigate.ju or james williams picks up the story. >> it turns out it wasn't true. it was false. they did announce it to everymi , that it wasn't credible, and it's okay to come to school. >> reporter: despite that, some 40% of harlan students stayed home. did you come to school that day? >> i did not come to school that day, because i feel like, fake or not, you never know what's going to happen. like, any past shootings, i'm pretty sure they didn't go to school thinking, i might lose my life today. because you, you never truly know when someone's joking, when someone is serious. so any, any chan like that, you nnt to make sure you're i the safest position possible. >> reporter: the uncomrtable fact is that schools, d students, can never be 100% safe, but districts say they're always looking for way to surround students with security. for "education week" and the pbs newshour, i'm lisa stark in san antonio, texas.

>> woodruff: as president trump weighs a potential response to the chemical weapons attack in syria last weekend, it is worth remembering how this disastrous war began, seven years ago. williaamm branalks with the author of a new book that takes a very intimate, personal tok s most-brutal conflict. it's part of our "newshour bookshelf." >> brangham:grom the very ning of the syrian uprising, rania abouzeid has been one of the conflicts earliest and closest chroniclers. she witnessed the first days of peaceful civilian protests against bashar al-assad, and utthen his government's br crackdown. she was there for the rise of groups like the islamic state, saw how the intervention of the russians changed the tide of the conflict, anwitnessed the transformation of a hopeful

revolution into a grinding seven-year war. she's now publhed a new book called "no turning back: life, loss and hope in wartime syria," and it tells the story of thi conflict through the eyes of those who endured it and those who fight in it. rania abouzeid joins me now. welcome to the news hour. >> thank you very much. >> brangham: so let's start at the very beginning. you open the book with the story of a young man named suleman who is benefiting from all the privileges of life in ass syria. this is in 2011. and yet as the protests start to begin and his moment comes, he chooses to join the protests. i wonder, explain why? what wasriving even men like him to rise up against the government? >> suleman was man with everything, as you say. he had nections to the regime. he came from family that had money. he had a great job. he had prospecteds, but he was dery aware of his privilege an he knew that most syrians didn't have the opportunities he had. for suleman that was enough to get out on the etst i chose suleman, because there

is a misconception perhaps thaot people with nothing to lose noe the ones who take to the streets, but that'often the case. >> brangham: as you document in the book, it seemed apparent to both sides, to the protesters and thgovernment, that right away this was a very serious matter, this was no idle iotest. >> no was exestem cell research from the very ginning. protesters knew when they went out on the streets, lie one of the protest, told me, we will be hunted. they will be hunted if they don't succeed, if they lose. and the regime knew it was also a fight for its survil. >> brangham: the way you tell this story is threw en door so different characters. and you toggle between them in time, chonologically, and'm just curious, when you set out to do this, did you know thawat how you would tell this story, through so many different vignettes of so many different people. i knew i wanted to show how history shaped people d how people shaped history.l al these differing elements

of their uprising were happening concd rently. you ople out on the streets. we also had some islamists who were planning, who had daca motivations, and they planning for their moment when they could come forward and bring about some of the plns that they had for syria. >> brangham: very early on in the heocess,yrian government blacklisted you and said you can't enter the country. that must have complicated the whole ocess for you. >> yes. in the summer of 2011 i learned, the syrian govrnment didn't even tell me and i don't mow why was blacklisted, but i learn through human rights organizations who had leaked lists of syrian activist my name was on that list. that's how i learned of it. i don't know why. i have no wayto appeal it, but i know that i am banned from the untry. that's information that the regime, some members of the regime who i know have also nfirmed, and i am wanted by three of the state's four intelligence agencies, but it's

also an indication of how the syrian state operates. somebody can be branded a spy and can be wanted without any means of recourse and without any understanding of why. ry brangham: one of the characters, very, triking character, is this nine-year-old girl, rouha. >> yes, yes. >> woodruff: why did you want her in this stor >> inted to show how war can affect a regular family, and i wanted to tellhit through little girl's eyes, because she just was so procious, and sh was so aware of what was happening around her, and she would explain that in ways that would stumme. she would really leave me speechless. some of the phrases that she would use to describe what was and i followed the family for six years. i wanted to focus on her. i saw how she chadnged how war affected even little girls.

>> brangham: for americans who have been following this conflict largely through newspapers anda televisions, you help them understand why this conflict has been going on so war? >> the syrian war has cea ased o out syrians. it's an international proxy war with te sians and iranians and zbollah on the regime siou e turkeys, the u.s. and europen the opposition side. so it's much bigger than syria, and it's much bigger than syrians. and that is helping to fuel the conflict. >> brangham: do you think there is a time where somethingo d have been done that this could have been different, that the outcome for th syrian people could have been different? >> when i speak to syrians who are in this position, they point to the demand for a no-fly zone. they say that had a no-fly zone psen placed in parts of northern syria, that perhe institutions of the opposition could have started to take form, hospitals could have operate

ithout fear of air strikes, that some of the millions of refuge who fled syria could have found safe haven within their own borders. that's what some of the people in the opposition point tos a possible turning point. in addition to the red line comments about the use of chemical weapons, syrians in the oppo ttion also point toat as an example of a time when pressure could have been put on the regime. it could have been held accountable for its alleged emical weapons use. mo there were ments, and before it became such a complicated battlefield, when perhaps something could be different. >> brangham: syria, as you describe it, is deeply broken place today. but yet in the title of your book, there is still the word "hope." do the syrians that you know and you are still in touch with have hope that something can come of th horrible coict? >> the hope is in the people. and there's always hope. it's in syrians who can survive

and emerge on the other side. they don't have bitterness. it's in syrians who can leave loved ones bat who stilly they can forgive. it's in syrian physicians who could be ywhere. they could be in turkey, but they siry in theountry to treat everyone under conditions that would mae world war i battlefield medicine look pretty sophististed. the hopen little girls like rouha who just want to be hoe and cling to the idea oil fam which is the building blocks of syrian society. the hope is in syrians that trap send politics and who just want to god back home send their kids to school and know they'll be safe and that they wi com home. it's in the small things. but that's where it starts. >> brangham: the book is "no turning back: life, loss and hope in wartime syria." rania abouzeid, thank you very money. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: now, a special series on "t future of work" that comes from our student reporting labs. tonight, a new program to make computer coding part of elementary education.by it was producetudents at dominion high school in sterling, virginia. >> it's this unicorn full of magic and rainbows and butterflies, and a whole bunch awesome stuff. >> reporter: code to the future is a nationwidcomputer science immersion program that has set p shop at three loudoun county elementary schooin virginia. joshua johnson is an instructional coach and curriculum designer for the organization. >> our main goal is to provide students kind of that ark early on, in grades k. through five, to get them excited about coding and excited about computer science and hopefly open some doors for them to pursue computer science in their future.

>> reporter: at round hill elementary school, studentsr showcased thrst projects at epic build night, a community event where family and friends vited to come in and see what kids have been working on. andrew davis is the school's principal. >> the fact of the matter is, we cannot continue to do things the same way, and expect our a students to more prepared for the world that's awaiting them. >> pretty much, coding, to me, is an endless world, whe you can, like, change everything and so many different combinations to make new video games. >> reporter: principal herman miyll at meadowland element values the positive impact of coding beyond the classroom. >> in order prepare our students to access and navigate the world, and not only that, but to compete globally, we want to make sure that our students are embracing coding and that they have that experience. >> reporter: students kate taylor and xander bush were surprised to find that coding is fun! >> it has a lot to do with other

jobs, and i think even if i get a job someday and it doesn't incorporate code, then i wouldil like to have the talent to code. >> i think i would do it not for the fame, but more as in something doing i love and it's like a passion. >> reporter: back at round hill elementary school, omari faulkner has seen the positive imct of the coding program on his son. >> in an environment where everyone is all hands in, and all hands on deck, learning new things, and you canse start t the students are becoming the leaders. >> reporter: school leaders say the benefits for students participating in the program are limitless. >> kids need to be able to articulate their ideas and thoughts orally, as well as on t paper, ame, coding provides that opportunity. you want your students to compete in this global society.a yo your students to be able to access and navigate the world, and coding is a great start. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour student reporting labs, i'm grace aprahamian, in sterli, virginia.

>> woodruff: what a great project. and later this evening opbs, "frontline" presents a documentary looking at president trump's relationship with the republican party. "trump's takeover" goes behind the scenes in washington's corridors of power, examining the tension between the white hoe and g.o.p. members of congress. one illuminating example was the attempted repeal of obamacare. >> the president increasingly ghking the blame. >> can he get enouvotes? to frustrated, he heade capitol hill to confront his party. >> conservative republicans are now warning -- >> no more back-slapping and charleading. non ultimate um. >> do you have the votes, mr. esident? >> finally trump throws up his hands and says, you know what, you have until is day, u have this didline, if you can't t it done, we're moving on. >>idmr. president, d you make a persuasive case? >> it was classic donald trump. >> we had a great meeting >> the find caucus would get on

board or the president wouldy walk aom the effort to repeal obamacare and make sure they got the blame. t pressure was so massive, and this is the at most fear that the freedom caucus wain. they knew the spotlight was theirs. >> at the deadline, they decided to call the president's bluff. ryan headed to the white house to warn trump they failed. t >> i'ld ryan was ice cold, very calm throughout the whole car ride and theisit to the white house, because he had to convey a simple message: he did what he could, but the votes weren't there. >> i was there. i was in the oval office when he arrived. speaker ryan was very candid and very forthright. he said, we're going to pull the bill. we don't he the votes. >> donald trump is man who llpects action. this notion of g the bill was unacceptable. you told me we're going to get it done. we promised the american people we're going to repeal and replace obamacare some when he hears we have to pull the bill es,ause we don't have the vot

"'s beside himself. >> woodrufontline" airs tonight on most pbs stations. and that's the newshour forni t. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again right here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language program that teaches real-life conversations in a new language. >> bnsf railway.me >> concellular.al >> financi services firm raymond james. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worlide. >> carnegie corporation of new york supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancementt ofnational peace and security.

at carnegie.org.th >> and witongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made pe ossi the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

phil rosenthal: i'm starting to get anxiety because i want everything. ♪ on's my first time in of the most populated cities in the world: tokyo. kanpai! (slurps) i'm going to find e spiciest ramen... whoa. ...the sushi of my dreams... (chuckles) anything and everything that makes this mysterious and amazing place a must-visit destination. if i live, i'm going to really like ts. it's all next on... - i'll have what phil's having. there were things i never tasted growing up, like food with any flavor. in our house, meat was a punishment. when i went to the real world, i was like a man coming out of the desert. ri then i startting comedy and traveling to other lands to eat.