captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, a new study estimates more than 4,600 people died in puerto rico as a result of hurricane maria, far higher than the official toll. then, starbucks closes more 8,000 of its coffee shops for anti-bias training after two black men were arrested in philadelphia: what can employers do to tackle discrimination? and, the saving power of music: we follow the return of one student to a school in india that uses music education to bring kids out of poverty. >> music is used as a medium which is central to all that happens at gandhi ashram.

to give them their joy, to give them their confidence. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> knowledge, it's where innovation begins. it's what leads us to discery anmoask the tough questions and what leads us to the answers. a leidos, we're standing behind those working to improve the world's health, safety, and efficiency. leidos.

>> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the governor of missouri is resigning amid a sex scandal and alleged campaign finance violations. republican eric greitens announced late today that he'll step down on friday. he had acknowledged an extramarital affair, while denying allegations of sexual

assault. but he also faced a felony charge of misusing a campaign donor list, and potential impeachment, and he said today it's become too much. >> it is clear that for the forces that oppose us, there is no end in sight. i cannot allow those forces to continue to cause pain and difficulty to the people i love. >> woodruff: hours earlier, a judge ordered a group supporting greitens to release key documents to a legislative committee. abc television abruptly canceled its top-rated reboot of "roseanne" today, over a racist tweet by roseanne barr. she went after former obama adviser valerie jarrett over her politics and her looks. barr apologized, but abc said

the remarks were "abhorrent" and "repugnant." we'll take a closer look, later in the program. it's been a rough day on wall street. stocks tanked over fears that political turmoil in italy will put new strain on the euro currency. instead, investors bought up u.s. government bonds, driving interest rates down and hurting bank stocks. the dow jones industrial average turned negative for the year, losing 391.64 points to close at 24,361. the nasdaq fell 37 points, and the s&p 500 slipped 31. the trump administration says it's moving forward with new tariffs on chinese products. the white house announced today that 25% levies will take effect next month on $50 billion worth of chinese goods. beijing answered that it will protect its core interests. new signs today that president trump and north korean leader

kim jong-un are actively trying to revive summit plans. secretary of state mike pompeo now plans to meet with kim yong chol, a top north korean official, in new york this week. meanwhile, the state department said u.s. teams are holding more planning meetings with north koreans. >> i think that each of the groups that are meeting such as our colleagues who are in singapore right now, our colleagues who are at the demilitarized zone are all having meetings about different pieces in which they have an expertise. i'm not going to get into all the details of that. but i think that that's pretty impressive thinking about where we were one year ago. where we were even six months ago. now we have three simultaneous meetings taking place on this matter, to talk about the denuclearization of the korean peninsula. >> woodruff: amid the diplomacy, the state department also published a new estimate that north korea is holding 80- to 120,000 political prisoners. japan says it spotted an apparent fuel transfer to a north korean ship, this month, violating u.n. sanctions.

it's believed a chinese-flagged vessel was also involved. china maintains it's fully enforcing efforts to cripple north korea's nuclear program. the u.s. deep south got a drenching today from remnants of the gulf storm "alberto." the system dumped as much as six inches of rain as it tracked north across alabama, into tennessee. flood warnings were up in five states, and total damage was estimated at $50 million. arkansas is now free to enforce a state law that targets abortion pills. the u.s. supreme court today rejected a legal challenge by planned parenthood. the law will limit doctors' ability to prescribe medications that induce abortions. in paris, leaders of libya's rival factions mapped out a path to reconciliation today. they agreed on a framework for holding national elections on december 10th. the u.n. sponsored the round of

peace talks, and french president emanuel macron was on hand to cheer the outcome. >> ( translated ): the cmmitment is to fully and safely give back to the libyan people their sovereignty and allow them to express it on this date. the libyan people aspire to security, stability, to live better, to be able to express its sovereignty. that's what we owe them. >> woodruff: libya has been torn by conflict since moammar ghadafi was overthrown by a nato-backed revolt in 2011. palestinian militants in gaza fired salvos of mortars and rockets into southern israel today, and the israelis answered with air strikes. several rockets were intercepted by israel's "iron dome" defense system. warplanes struck more than 30 targets across gaza, in response. there were no reports of deaths on either side. and, the u.n. human rights office called today for saudi arabia to safeguard the status of women's rights activists.

six women and three men were arrested this month, but their whereabouts are unknown. saudi arabias due to lift a ban on women driving, in june. still to come on the newshour: can starbucks become a model for anti-bias training? why abc abruptly canceled the show "roseanne." a organization that teaches the skills needed to keep a job, and much more. >> woodruff: as the start of hurricane season approaches this week, a new estimate says the death toll from hurricane maria in puerto rico last year was far larger than known. a new estimate finds that at least 4,645 people in puerto rico died as a result of last year's storm and the devastation

that followed. that far exceeds the official toll from the island's government officials, which stands at 64. writing in the "new england journal of medicine," harvard researchers surveyed nearly 3,000 households across puerto rico. they found a 62% increase in the mortality rate by comparing what happened three months after the hurricane with the same time frame a year earlier. the estimate finds the death toll could range from 800 to more than 8,000. the study attributes one third of the excess deaths to "delayed or interrupted health care." hurricane maria's 150 mile-per- hour winds destroyed puerto rico's already struggling power grid, shuttering hospitals and elderly care facilities. communities were isolated entirely by damaged roads.

and, residents were left for weeks if not months without access to water, cellular service, medical care and power. initially, the territory reported only 16 people died from the storm. in october of last year, president trump visited the devastated island, and celebrated the initial numbers in comparison to those from hurricane katrina. >> you can be very proud of all of your people, all of our people working together. 16 versus literally thousands of people. >> woodruff: critics were skeptical of the official count even when it increased. >> it could be the case. >> woodruff: when puerto ricos's governor ricardo rosello appeared on the newshour last october, he acknowledged the death toll might climb but did not suggest how dramatic it could be. >> you have to brace yourself for the reality that that number could certainly increase. >> woodruff: under pressure, rosello enlisted researchers at

george washington university to review their death certification process this winter to guarantee an and make sure there was a more accurate death toll. today, puerto rico's federal affairs administration says those findings will be released soon. let's learn more about why the death toll is likely much higher and how getting medical care and treatment remains a problem on the island. sarah varney of kaiser health news is in puerto rico with our team for a joint series of stories about health care there. and she joins me now. sarah, welcome back to the program. this new estimate number is is much higher than the official count. and then there's a range. how confident are researchers at harvard that they've got this right? >> the research, say this is a very typical way that you would try and count disaster-related deaths. you would do what's called a community survey, where you would go into in this case 3,000

homes and you would extrapolate from those 3,000 homes to the island of puerto rico. they say they're quite confident. yes, the rake is quite large, but they say that's typical of these types of community surveys. >> woodruff: so what are some examples of the kinds of deaths that the researchers believe are a direct result ofhe hurricane but that were not part of the official count? >> well, if you look at the study, they believe about one-third of the deaths are the result of a delay in medical care or not getting medical care at all. i can tell you this is now my second trip down the puerto rico. i was here for several weeks a couple months ago and spent quite a bit of time up in the mountains that have been hardest hit, places that... we were just at a home yesterday, and they just got their power back yesterday. in the home is a 92-year-old woman with alzheimer's. she's had a heart attack. she's bad ridden. there are people in the mountains who need respirators or memberlizers, sleep apnea machine. people haven't had any fridge

ration because they haven't had electricity. puerto rico has a very high rate of diabetes some many people are diabetic and have had to take other measures to keep their insulin cool. we've seen a worsening of many croppic condition, whether it's hypertension from all of the canned foods that people are eating, because people can't go and buy fresh foods and keep them in their refrigerator or perhaps their asthma has gotten out of control or their diabetes is out of control. i met man who has been having a very difficult time keeping the diabetic ulcers on his feet properly clean. we've met a lot of people who are bedridden who need to be on these inflatable mattresses, and they haven't been able to inflate the mattresses, so they've been getting ulcer, which is worsening their conditions. i met another woman up in the mountains who had a gentleman who because he had sleep apnea and was unable to plug in his machine, he slept outside on his driveway at night and he died. so that's an example of a death that would not have been in the government's list of

disaster-related deaths, but clearly that's what these researchers were intending to get at, those kinds of deaths that were accelerated or exacerbated because of the hurricane. >> woodruff: so not always a lack of access to medical care or medical centers or a doctor, but often things that happen in their own home. >> there is an incredibly high burden here in puerto rico. puerto rico, if it were a state, it would be the poorest at the present time in the country. half of the population here is on medicaid. the burden of diabetes, of hypertension, of yaz mark all sorts of things is just that much higher here some then you add in hurricane maria, and you add in seven, eight months without electricity or without water or without communication. people haven't been able to use cell phones or land lines have been down. so the burden of maria plus the burden already of chronic disease and poverty on the island has been too much for so many households to bear. >> woodruff: sarah, this survey extended through the end of 2017. we are now six months into 2018.

what are circumstances right now like? >> i can tell you that the government puts out these reports every day of the%age of households that have electricity back. anit always sounds very uplifting. 92%, 95% but you have to remember that that 5%, those are individual households. you may have five, ten people living in individual households some still there are tens of thousands of people living here in premier league, particularly up in the mountains. we're right down here in ponce on the southern part of the island, but we cam down from the mountains where we were interviewing people over the last several day, and there are people up there, as i said, who just got power back or who still don't have power. the roads are still in quite bad condition. people here, you have to remember, hurricane season starts on friday, on june 1st. so you see crews now up in the mountains. they're scraping the sides of the mountains to try to prevent further mudslides from happening. but there were many communities up there that were blocked off

after the hurricane for weeks at a time. so people who had emergencies in those situations obviously were unable to get down the mountain. they were unable to get to the hospitals. i was at a hospital a while ago that was still running off of a generator just a few months ago. and, yes, power is back now largely throughout many parts of the island, but if you'll remember, just a few weeks ago there was a power out act across the entire island. more than three million people lost their power. so even people who are getting power back are very skittish. a woman i interviewed yesterday, i asked her to show me what was in her refrigerator. she was excited she could buy vegetables and milk and eggs, but i have lettuce in my refrigerator, but i don't buy too much because i'm worried the power will go back out. so people are still very skittish and very anxious, especially as we head into hurricane season, just starting this friday, june 1st. >> woodruff: that's a tough story. sarah varney with kyes reporting -- kaiser health news reporting for the newshour.

>> my pleasure. thank you. >> woodruff: more than 8,000 starbucks stores closed down across the country today so that its employees, 180,000-plus, could get anti-bias training. this comes after an incident last month that raises again the question of individual biases in all of us. yamiche alcindor begins with this update. >> alcindor: the racial bias training that starbucks is doing today is aimed at reducing discrimination and stereotypes, even those we may harbor unconsciously >> we understand that racial and systematic bias have many causes, source, un ways of showing up within each of us. >> alcindor: as seen in this video from starbucks, the training is grounded in the idea that communities thrive when there is a "third place" other than home or work to congregate. it includes an introduction by the rapper common.

>> helping people see each other fully, completely, respectfully. >> alcindor: the action by starbucks comes after an incident in april that sparked national outrage and protests. a store manager at this philadelphia starbucks called the police on two black men who were there for a business meeting. but the manager became alarmed after they asked for a bathroom key without ordering anything. the men explained they were waiting on a friend's arrival to order. but by the time the friend arrived the men were in handcuffs, arrested for trespassing. the company's released a video apology after the arrest. >> i want begin by offering a personal apology to the two gentleman arrested who were in our store. >> alcindor: today, on "cbs this morning," starbucks chairman and founder howard shultz responded to some skepticism that the training is a p.r. stunt and does not go far enough.

>> i think as i share with you in philadelphia it was a reprehensible situation we took complete ownership of something that was embarrassing and horrifying and all the issues we talked about that way. it's interesting for us to be criticized for us doing it for four hours this is just the beginning what we've said to our board our shareholders is that we're deeply committed to making this part of everything we do we hire 100,000 new people a year this is going to be part of the ongoing training we globalized this i've been through the >> alcindor: for the pbs newhour, i'm yamiche alcindor. >> woodruff: for answers to those and other questions, we turn to two people closely involved in these issues. amrita chakrabarti myers is an associate professor of history and gender studies at indiana university. she's currently on a fellowship at the johnson institute for the study of race and difference at emory university. and patricia devine is a professor of psychology at the

university of wisconsin. we welcome both of you to the newshour. amrita, i'm going to start with you. i think it's safe to assume we all have bias inside of us. we're human. how do you define it? where does it come from? >> thanks, judy. it's a pleasure to be on. yes, i think you're right, judy. we soak bias in through the very culture we live in. for those of us in the united states, we get it from our families, our parents. we soak it in from media, television, news, books, our teachers in our classrooms, and we call it implicit or unconscious because it's done so subtly that we're not even aware that we're picking it up. by the time we're adult, we have these unconscious ideas or thoughts or stereotypes.

if you were to ask somebody if they're racist or biased against a group of people, they may well say to you, no but they may well have these stereotypes. they might be something as small as thinking that all african americans like watered mellen or fried chicken or it might be something far more damaging or severe, thinking that african american men are dangerous, are criminals. people might clutch their bags, for example, unconscious limp it, when african americans pass by them on the street or when they get on the an elevator. these are things they may not be aware of, but they have picked up these ideas from the culture in which they reside. >> woodruff: patricia devine, you accept the idea that most people don't realize they have these biases inside of them. >> i do. in fact, i would argue that most people don't want to have those biases. they intend to be non-prejudiced or non-biased.

yet as the previous guest was describing, they've learned stereotypes and picked them up from cultures to the point they get so deeply entrenched in their minds that they are default or habitual ways of thinking about others. i use the metaphor of habits of mind as the starting point for understanding the problem and also as a starting point to address how one might reduce the tendency to show these unintentional forms of bias. >> woodruff: so patricia devine, staying with you, how do you get people to recognize it and get them to begin to change their thinking, change their behavior? >> well, the first thing is to get people just to notice that, in fact, spontaneously and unintentionally they make assumptions about other people. their conscious minds may not amove, but once they become tuned into these types of biases and are made aware of them, then they come to understand them as a problem to be addressed. and once they accept that, and one point to really recognize here is that having these biases doesn't make people bad people.

it makes them rather ordinary, having been socialized into a culture where these biases are embedded into the very fabric of our society. they're picking up the messages. they're not bad people. they're ordinary. and once you understand the problem that way, you can make a commitment to change and you can start to think about the change process. if they are habits of mind, they can be broken like other habits are. there are a number of interrelated factors. people have to care. they have to be motivated. they have to want to do something. without motivation, nothing will happen. they need to become tuned into, aware, and notice when they're vulnerable to displaying biases. they have to have tools and strategies to disrupted that habitual way of thinking. and then like breaking any other habit, they have to put effort into it over time. it's not something that happens all at once. there's not sort of a quick fix or a silver bullet, but we can empower people to make a change, and we can provide them with assistance in the process to

overcome these unintentional biases. >> woodruff: so amrita myers, i see you nodding while you're listening to her. both of you are saying it is possible the change behavior. it just takes work and it takes a desire on the part of the person. >> absolutely. i think you have to want to do these things. you have to be willing. i talk to my students about these things all the time. i teach african american history. i teach black women's history. i teach classes on slavery. every smesser i have students who come in who have never taken these classes before who will openly express the fact that they've never gone to school with students of color, who have never had teachers of color. they're often very resistant to the very material i'm teaching, and they'll often say they've never heard this material. they often think it's not even true. because they have come from school districts where they've actually been taught alternative material. and so they find it hard to

believe what they're reading, what they're hearing from their classmates, and their experiences. and yet over the course of the semester,ing being in small gro, reading primary documents, hearing about their classmates' experiences, hearing from me, they begin to open up, and they begin to learn another way. >> woodruff: can one session change someone? can it change your thinking? >> no. i think what one session can do is it can cause an epiphany. it's a beginning. but it has to be -- it's a start. one day cannot do anything but be a beginning, but a beginning is important. it has to be the beginning of a lifelong process. we have seen that happen with people. many of us have read stories online of stories of people who used to be white supremacists who are now engaged with organizations like the naacp and the equal justice initiative and

other wonderful organizations who are now working with others to bring about change. they have amazing transformational stories, but it all beginnings with a single step. what starbucks has done today is take an first step. but it has to be the first step in another -- in a listening process. >> woodruff: just quickly, patricia devine, you agree, one session is at least a start? it's a good thing? >> i think it's not the issue of whether it's one session. the issue is whether it engages people in a deep and meaningful way in the issues and it provides them with tools that can empower them to create a self-sustaining process of change that can last over time. >> woodruff: patricia devine, amrita myers, we thank you both. >> thank you so much. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: even as starbucks closed its doors today for that training, another major company, abc, had to deal with race and an offensive outburst by one of its stars. as william brangham reports, abc is suddenly parting ways with roseanne barr and her show,

which was the network's most popular program this season. >> brangham: barr's tweet this morning went after valerie jarrett, a former senior advisor to president obama and a black woman. it said in essence that if," the muslim brotherhood and planet of the apes had a baby, that child would be ms. jarrett." barr tried to apologize, but hours later, abc cancelled her series, which had just finished its run, but was scheduled to return next year. eric deggans covers tv and culture for npr and joins me now. eric, this obviously is not the first time that roseanne barr has said incendiary things. she has issued racist tweets in the past. she has promoted awful and vile conspiracy theories. but i guess this was too much for abc. what do you make of their decision? >> well, this was first time she had done something like that in the wake of the show's revival airing on abc. and it happened at a time when

all eyes were on diversity issues. this is the day that starbucks, for example, chose to retrain a bunch of its workers in the wake of its own problems with racism. so i think abc acted swiftly, sent a message that open racism would not be tolerated, even if it was expressed by one of its biggest stars. and given that abc is owned by disney, i think perhaps they acted to counter something that went counter to the disney brand, which is all about inclusion, inclusivity, family friendly programming. it seemed as if they had to act to preserve their larger brand. >> brangham: it seems when they recommissioned this reboot, they did the calculus that the risk of bringing someone like roseanne on board was worth the reward in esembassy, but today it seemed that calculus flipped up on its head. >> exactly.

what we're finding with social media and also the level of political conflict that's out there is that a statement like this can be recycled edlessly and can create a tremendous amount of backlash. i had heard on another news channel that the reverend al sharpton was thinking of perhaps organizing a boycott. i think there were other people who may have been considering similar things, trying to get abc's attention to go to the advertisers who had patronized roseanne. so perhaps there was a sense that they wanted to act quickly to forestall something like that, as well. >> brangham: this whole "roseanne" reboot was sold as an effort to put a prominent trump supporter on television and to give a window into trump's america. now that she is pushed out and the show is canceled, what happens to that effort among network executives? >> well, i'm not sure that the show was actually doing that. i wrote a column for npr.org

that was published last week where i called that show and that idea the biggest head fake in television. i think they had a few jokes in the very first episode of the revival that spoke to roseanne connor's character being a trump supporter, but they never really addressed it after that. i do think that because roseanne barr, the real-life person is a trump supporter, they thought it might make sense to have at least one episode where roseanne conor talked about being a trump supporter and they might get support from trump viewers if they played the balance delicately, but what we've seen is that roseanne barr the person can be volatile. i think in the end abc was caught in a situation where they gave a star a platform who had already said some insintdary things, and she said more incendiary things and they had to act. >> brangham: eric deggans of npr, thank you.

>> thank you. >> woodruff: if you are poor in america, you likely know it's a condition that can create a cycle of struggle that lasts generations. as john yang reports, to break that trend, it is not just a matter of finding a good job, but also keeping it. and new challenges can arise by having a steady paycheck. this story is part of our "chasing the dream" series on poverty and opportunity. >> yang: at a job training and coaching program in chicago ll cara, every morning begins with something called" motivations." their goal: to ring that bell-- signaling that they've gotten a job. last october, mariel corona first sought help at cara--

which means "friend" in gaelic. at first, she didn't think it was a good fit for her. >> i was kind of sitting there and thinking what the hell is going on. why are people clapping why are people thinking what does this have to do with job search. what does this have to do a professional development? >> yang: now that you've been through. what does it have to do with job placement or professional development? >> everything. it was. transformations is what we go through the first four weeks of the cara program and it's basically all begins with the motivations. it's pretty much working yourself from the inside out. >> my life took on a new beginning. >> yang: for most of the people at cara, getting a job can be a new beginning. unlike corona, many have battled addictions or been in prison. despite their differences she found a common struggle. >> we're all in the same boat as far as fixing yourself up and repairing yourself from the

inside out that we've all had. you know life throws a curveball to all of us and maybe we didn't know how to cope or how to deal with it or just didn't want to overcome it. >> yang: corona, a former university administrator, began going to work late and missing days altogether when she began dealing with a family issue. she ended up getting fired, filling her with self doubt. >> when i was terminated that was just a punch in the gut. i just felt like a failure. i had never been terminated from any position before. i was pretty much a rock star in my jobs. >> yang: and i imagine that that can't be a very good place to be looking a job but if you're not feeling good about yourself. you can't make your prospective employer feel good about you. >> exactly. you can't sell yourself you know because you're just falling a bunch of lies. you know you're saying i'm very confident i'm outgoing. and no you're not. you know it's just it's just on the surface. >> yang: now she's had three job interviews. on this day, she prepared for another one with a coach.

she's regained her confidence and refreshed skills like resuée building and time management. most in the program are looking for their first permanent job. for them, cara specializes in finding transitional jobs-- entry level positions to give them not only specific skills and work experience and a paycheck-- but also the personal attributes they'll need to hold a long-term job, what are called soft skills, like time management and handling conflicts with co-workers. there are similar programs in 25 other states. it's an idea going back to the great depression when the new- deal works progress administration, known as the w.p.a., hired the unemployed to build up the country's infrastructure." shovel ready" was the term president obama used during the recession that began in 2008, infrastructure projects ready to go.

it is now seen as part of the solution to helping people with the largest red flag to landing a job: a criminal background or a spotty employment record. cara helps with both, and the idea is if a person can hold down a job one year, they can find a job elsewhere. their success rate: about 70%. the organization says that's higher than retention rates nationally. maria kim is the president and c.e.o. of cara. what's the bigger challenge getting the job or holding the job for a year? >> you know, i really think it's keeping the job over the long term. and so our focus in that first year of employment is combating all of the challenges that might come in the way, a housing situation going awry. child care going awry. might the negative actors in your life might emerge in a new way and tempt you again. you know we really need to be able to combat those new challenges and make sure that we >> yang: you take a very broad view of preparing someone for a job.

>> we think of skills like love and forgiveness and conflict resolution as actually the harder skills. others might think oh these things that you're talking about you know time management your self-esteem all that stuff those are the soft skills. we think of them as the harder skills because if we can navigate those in the rest of things become a little bit easier. >> yang: how common is this holistic approach to prepare >> you know we could always use more. right. there are 600,000 people living below the poverty line in the greater chicagoland area. just to give you a sense of the need here but where the money is coming from for us is from private investors private philanthropy but also our own social enterprises. so we own and operate our own for profit businesses that help not just generate revenue but create jobs for our folks as well. >> yang: those business-- a street cleaning service and a temp staffing agency-- are the first destination for many of the people who go to cara, and generate about 42% of the organization's budget. emmett hasey and his wife of

five months lives in a modest studio artnt in chicag they met at a christian recovery mission. hasey spent more than a third of his 58 years in prison. he's overcome drug and alcohol addiction and has been clean and sober since 2010. >> i know that i didn't have to do things wrong to achieve the things i want to achieve in life, and what i want to achieve in life is three things, food, clothes, and shelter. that's all i want, food, clothes, and shelter. now if i can get that i'm happy, i'm happy with that. >> yang: he has all three, and found love on top of it. >> when i go to work, i love just to look up in the clouds and look at the scenery. there's a lot of beautiful things if you keep your head up in the sky. >> yang: hasey works for one of cara's biggest partners, the chicago transit authority's second chance program. people with troubled pasts work a year cleaning buses and trains.

since 2011 about 250 participants have been hired by the c.t.a. into full time jobs such as train and bus operators. some have even risen into management. >> this gives them an >> if i keep doing what i'm doing, something positive will happen. >> there's hope for many people who are hoping to get back on their feet. combined with fair wages and social safety nets, transitional jobs like these are seen as keys to helping people get out of poverty, and ringing that bell of success. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang in chicago.

>> woodruff: now, to immigration. you might have seen the headlines, but we want to take a moment to drill down on what we know about current policy and who is being effected. amna nawaz explains the situation for children trying to >> nawaz: last month, attorney general jeff sessions announced his justice department, specifically prosecutors in the southwest, would take a "zero tolerance" policy and pursue more criminal prosecutions, instead of civil proceedings, against migrants crossing the border illegally. >> if you cross the border unlawfully, even a first offense, then we're going to prosecute you. >> nawaz: but those prosecutions in general have consequences for the migrants' children. when a parent is taken into custody to face prosecution, any children with them, by law, are placed in the care of a federal agency: the u.s. department of health and human services, or h.h.s., which houses them in temporary shelters.

>> if you don't want your child to be separated, then don't bring them across the border illegally. it's not our fault that somebody does that. >> nawaz: how many children have been separated from their parents? the numbers aren't clear. "the new york times" previously reported that "more than 700 children have been taken from adults claiming to be their parents, including more than a hundred under the age of four." that was for a period from october 2017 to april 2018, the same month sessions announced more criminal prosecutions for illegal entries. and more prosecutions, means more families would be separated. once they're separated from their parents, those children become classified as "unaccompanied minors." still other children arrive alone at the border. last fiscal year alone, u.s. agents took more than 41,000 unaccompanied children into custody. and it's up to h.h.s. to place them in safe settings, with preference given to family, as the children await proceedings.

last year, h.h.s. tried to contact thousands of those kids and their sponsors but couldn't find them all. the head of the office in charge of their placement was asked about that on capitol hill. >> about 1,475 kids out of 7,000 roughly that you called, you had no idea where they were. that's not 100%. that about 19% totally unaccounted for. why did you say 100%? >> i was trying to illustrate to the, senator, that immediately upon release we know everyone is and that time and tides intervene to change that. >> nawaz: that prompted headlines and a social media outcry. h.h.s. now says those nearly 1,500 kids aren't lost, they just didn't answer their 30-day follow-up phone call, a step h.h.s. said it recently added to check on their well-being. but what do we know about those children? we know many arrived alone at the southern border, and that most were from honduras,

guatemala or el salvador, according to government data. on top of all this, of course, is the reality migrants face once in custody. and there, judy, there have been a number of recent reports documenting a pattern of mistreatment in detention facilities. everything from inhumane and unsanitary conditions, to verbal, physical and sexual abuse. that's both in the case of adults in custody, and of children. >> woodruff: certainly that will require calls for more reporting. >> absolutely. >> woodruff: thank >> woodruff: the me-too movement has ignited many conversations about changing norms and appropriate behavior in many households, companies, and also in schools. from pbs station wgbh in boston, cristina quinn went to one high school to see what students were being taught and how they're it's part of our weekly series focusing on education, "making

the grade." >> hand-to-hand. foot-to-foot! >> reporter: 10th graders at new mission high school in hyde park kick off their class with an ice-breaker game called partner- to-partner, led by jess alder and taquari milton. >> back of the head to back of nose to nose. >> no! >> reporter: the point of the exercise is to start a discussion about boundaries and reading non-verbal cues through body language. >> how many people felt comfortable hand-to-hand? what made that comfortable? it felt safe. what about when i said belly-to- belly? >> reporter: jess alder is acting program director of start strong boston, a program run out of the boston public health commission's division of violence prevention. she says she and milton use real issues and platforms like the #metoo movement to open up discussions about what constitutes a healthy relationship. >> it can be really confusing. if a young girl talks about how

some boy is teasing her at school her guardians, teachers will often say, "oh that just means they like you." that's putting the women you know in a position of like okay, it's okay for me to be treated that way. and it's also giving assent to guys that are kind of picking on somebody to get their attention. >> reporter: program coordinator taquari milton says when he talks to teens, he sees that many of them are confused about what consent really means. >> like saying oh she's playing around because you want to give it up like certain comments like that. it's like no she's just not comfortable, like you need to have consent and like actual stuff like that. >> reporter: alder and milton vit middle andigh school ughout the city and in each visit, they dress topics ranging from the various forms of abuse to barriers the lgbtq community faces. they also explore how rape accusations divide a high school through their web series, the halls. >> she wanted it. she asked for it. you don't have to start worrying about me. >> reporter: nate, a new mission high sophomore, says he

appreciates how candid the class is and admits he thought he knew more than he did about boundaries. >> before today i thought i had a strong grasp but today showed me that i really don't, because you don't always know what consent is like sometimes your consent is different from somebody else's consent. >> reporter: these are the takeaways that jen slonaker, vp of education at planned parenthood massachusetts, is hoping the healthy youth act will further cultivate. >> when young people are given the skills and the information to have healthy relationships-- whether it's friendships or relationships with trusted adults early in their life, they are going to be that much better able to negotiate romantic or sexual relationships later. >> reporter: last summer, the senate passed this bill, which mandates all sex education in massachusetts be age-appropriate and medically accurate. it's now pending in the house. but even without legislation, jess alder of start strong says the discussions around consent and sexual assault has helped changed students' attitudes over time. >> what i've noticed most with young people that are able to stay in our program for a handful of years is the direction that they go from

victim blaming to becoming an upstander in the field. >> reporter: something most agree we could use more of. for the pbs newshour, i'm christina quinn in boston. >> woodruff: finally tonight, hitting the right note. special correspondent fred de sam lazaro returns to a remote himalayan community in india for a story of promise and success. >> good morning everyone! >> good morning, father. >> today we have a very special guest. she's not really a guest. she's one of our own: kushmita! >> reporter: kushmita biswakarma came home to her alma mater one recent morning, an unlikely journey from an unusual school, that we first visited 14 years ago.

we arrived in early 2004, just as the school's founder, canadian jesuit priest ed mcguire was choosing his next kindergarten class, screening a crowd of five year olds and their anxious parents, most of whom had never set foot in a school. father mcguire was looking in particular for the last name biswakarma, as in kushmita biswakarma, which is common among people on the lowest rung of the traditional social hierarchy. >> we're trying to pick the poorest we can find, you see. if someone comes and tells me, "my name is something biswakarma," then they've met 80% of our entrance tests that we have here. >> reporter: admission meant a meal ticket. >> it's a rather well-balanced meal: plain but very nutritious. >> reporter: good nutrition was essential for learning, father mcguire said, but good learning to get children to love school would take something more.

so, every child almost from day one, was given a violin. most of the students had never heard the instrument before. but their progress was easy to measure as you went up to higher grades. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> i would bet you that 95% of the children i have here have never owned a toy. all these children can do is sit around and play mozart. lucky kids. >> reporter: the luckiest, perhaps, was kushmita biswakarma, whom we visited with her parents, sharecropper farmers, living in a tiny tin- roof home. >> ( translated ): we are happy, very happy. >> ( translated ): we, of course, did not have a chance to study. now they are able to get an education; they can have a better life than we did.

>> reporter: kushmita was well on her way as a protege of a german volunteer teacher. an eighth grader here she would soon make an unimaginable leap for someone of her background: high school, in germany. she lived with the family of her mentor margaret klein. besides high school, she was also accepted to a prestigious munich conservatory, getting a formal music education. she also used her keen ear to rapidly pick up the language, excitedly telling a friend on home video about how her exam went. but back home, just a few months

later in 2005 there was terrible news. father mcguire, the school's founder, died suddenly of a heart attack. he was 77. >> he was a much loved person by children here in kalimpong, so it was a big loss for everyone and more so because it was so untimely. >> reporter: and it fell to your shoulders. that must have been very tough on you? >> yes, it was, i mean, i really had to tell everyone that i am not father mcguire. >> reporter: father paul d'souza says the transition was painful and there was very little money, especially after the school's original building became unsafe following earthquakes in the region. money from german jesuit organizations built a new and expanding campus. through it all, father d'souza says, the school has tried to be faithful to father mcguire's mission. >> we don't expect all our kids to be musicians, but music is used as a medium which is central to all that happens at

gandhi ashram. to give them focus in life on their studies. >> reporter: you like the violin? >> yes! >> reporter: father d'souza says music can start these children dreaming, aspiring to futures their parents could never fathom. >> i would like to become a nurse army doctor engineer teacher or doctor. >> reporter: however, the poster alum for the school, fittingly, is now a professional musician. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> reporter: kushmita biswakarma went on to earn bachelor's and master's degrees in music performance from the university of nuremberg. she's performed before audiences across germany and europe.

but doing so at gandhi ashram was something different she says. >> i'm sorry. >> reporter: the tears brought on by a flood of memo of a profoundly special childhood, she said... >> takes me back to my days when i entered the school, very new, fresh, i got the violin in my hand. it reminds me of where i come from and that keeps me grounded. i feel home >> reporter: her german education is geared more to a career path in europe and western classical music. but that urge to feel grounded and home drove her to return permanently to india, two years ago. she's worked to expand her repertoire after settling in india's music capital, mumbai, where the bollywood film industry is also the main source of popular music.

>> i needed to find out myself, like where exactly i at last belonged because it is quite difficult thing in the middle of two big cultures like india and germany. in the end, you have to be you. >> reporter: a year ago, she married tilok kc, whom she met on a flight to germany. a native of neighboring nepal who also grew up poor, he got a scholarship to attend college. he now teaches economics at a private high school in mumbai and edits videos of his wife's performance. >> it still blows my mind to be honest about what she has done. because very few people can claim to have started from the point she did and have achieved this. >> reporter: kushmita's parents still live in the same home, happy they say, for the future of their three daughters and particularly proud of their oldest. >> ( translated ): we were very fortunate to get them into gandhi ashram. >> ( translated ): kushmita is both like an eldest daughter and eldest son.

she's done everything and everything possible for the family. >> i would want to build them house, buy land for them because they don't have their own land and they have been staying in other people's land and my people, my parents work for those people and i don't want them to do that anymore. >> reporter: giving back is part of the culture here, kushmita saysto family and to the school community, whose pupils are often the first in their family wi a real chce to escape generational poverty. music touches the soul, she told them. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ and showed them. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ for the pbs newshour, this is fred de sam lazaro, in kalimpong, india.

>> woodruff: fred's reporting is a partnership with the under-told stories project at the university of st. thomas in minnesota. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> the ford foundation. 6working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide.

>> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by 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

elyse: we're the history detectives and we're going to investigate some untold stories from america's past. wes: this week, could the story behind this 70-year-old saxophone reveal an unknown episode in the life of legendary jazz genius charlie parker? tukufu: could this old brass plaque in a philadelphia prison be a rare relic of a remarkable recruiting drive run by the army during world war i? gwen: and could these faded entries in a 200-year-old schoolbook contain unexpected evidence about the history of islam in america?