amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the newshour tonight. an underwater noise heard in the search for the missing submersible offers a glimmer of hope as the window for a rescue closes. amna: smugglers are detained over the deadly migrant boat disaster in the mediterranean that is renewing criticism of immigration policies in greece. geoff: and, judy woodruff reports on how local school boards have increasingly become battlegrounds for the nation's divisions on race, gender, and other hot-button issues. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by --

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together. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at macfou nd.org. 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. geoff: good evening and welcome to the newshour. the search for the missing submersible in the north atlantic ocean intensified throughout the day. amna: and the u.s. coast guard said it is still treating the mission as a search and rescue operation, even as the supply of oxygen is likely dwindling for the five people aboard. more ships and special equipment are heading to the area this evening. the day began with a surprise,

reports of banging noises detected by sonar. >> the first glimmer of hope in the massive maritime search. >> there have been multiple reports of noises, and every one of those noises is being analyzed, tracked, look for patterns and reported on. >> a canadian military plane picked up underwater noises on tuesday as the hunt for the missing submersible stretches today four. officials said more sounds were heard today, and experts are reviewing the data. >> they are trying to put all the pieces together. the noises have been described as banging noises. but again, they have to put the whole picture together in context. there are a lot of vessels in the area and they each make noise. so all that has to be eliminated. >> the submersible vanished on sunday.

the titan, roughly the size of a minivan, set off with about four days worth of readable oxygen. officials say that is enough to last until tomorrow morning. for the international search-and-rescue operation, the clock is ticking and the pressure growing. several countries are bringing in additional surface ships and underwater vessels to aid the effort. canadian ships have dropped sonar buoy's to detect any underwater sounds in the search area, about 400 miles off the southern coast of newfoundland, and following reports of the noise, french researchers dispatched and unmanned robotic vehicle, set to arrive this evening, capable of hooking the sub to a cable that could tow it to the surface. >> the ocean is inherently a noisy place. we have lots of marine mammals making sounds and there's a lot of instrumentation in the ocean,

explorations going on. sound travels pretty well underwater, so i give it a low chance of identification that in fact banging noises that we heard were from the underwater submersible. >> as questions remain about how to reach the sub, past allegations and questions about the company that runs the voyage have surface. in 2018, terminated ocean employee sued the company, raising concerns about the safety of its submersible technology. that same year, more than three dozen industry experts sent a letter with similar concerns warning a potential catastrophic outcomes. rush insisted at the time they took adequate safety measures. he is now among the five passengers aboard the missing vessel >>. oftentimes, when organizations want to push the technology

envelope, they will use materials that are uncommon, or take designs that have not been tested. >> peter is a professor at harvard university where his lab develops ocean instruments. >> what we are seeing is more and more information coming out that raises the possibility that there may have been oversights as they tried to get this experimental submersible in the water on kind of active duty, if you will. >> even as the estimated oxygen deadline looms, coast guard officials said they are not giving up. >> after you consider all those factors, sometimes you are in a position where you have to make a tough decision. we are not there yet, but we continue to search. again, we are not there yet.

♪ geoff: in the day's other headlines: federal reserve chairman jerome powell warned that inflation is still too high, and that more interest rate hikes are likely this year. at a congressional hearing, he said there's still a long way to go to reach the fed's goal of 2% inflation. but he said pausing rate hikes last week was consistent with that goal. >> given how far we've come, it may make sense to move rates higher but to do so at a more moderate pace. and now we're monitoring that pace. much as you might do if you were to be driving 75 miles an hour on the highway then 50 miles an hour on a local highway then as you get closer to your destination, as you try to find that destination, you slow down even further. geoff: powell said there's no timetable for future rht -- rate heck -- rate hikes, but economic data will dictate those decisions.

the u.s. education department says test scores for 13-year-olds have dropped again. from 2020 to 2023, average math scores fell by 9 points, the most ever, to their lowest level since 1990. average reading scores for the age group fell 4 points, to their lowest since 2004. in the middle east, hundreds of israeli settlers stormed a palestinian town in the occupied west bank today. palestinians said at least one person was killed. social media footage showed dozens of buildings and vehicles burning. the attack came a day after two palestinian gunmen killed 4 israelis in the area. this evening, an israeli drone attacked a car carrying suspected gunmen. palestinian reports said three people were killed. russia's military says it downed two drones near a base outside moscow today. it blamed ukraine, but kyiv had no immediate comment. ukrainian president volodymr zelenskyy did acknowledge that progress in his army's

counter-offensive has been slower than desired. but he said he won't be pressured to speed things up. china and the u.s. are in a new dispute after president biden likened chinese leader xi jinping to a dictator. he said last night that xi had not known about the alleged spy balloon over the u.s. in february. president biden said, that is a great embarrassment for dictators when they didn't know what happened. beijing called the comments extremely absurd and irresponsible, but the state department rejected the criticism. >> we won't hesitate to call out areas where we disagree, or to be blunt and forthright about some of these differences, and of course, one of those areas that the president and the secretary have been clear about is the differences between democracies and autocracies, and what they have. geoff: the exchange came on the heels of secretary of state antony blinken's meeting with xi in beijing, to repair relations. the air national guardsman accused of leaking classified military documents was arraigned today in federal court outside

boston. jack texeira pleaded not guilty to federal charges of willful retention and transmission of secret military information. he's been jailed since his arrest in april. e irs improved its performance during this year's tax season. a watchdog report shows the agency has cut its backlog of paper returns by 80%, and it's slowly getting better at answering phone calls. the irs received $80 billion in new funding last year. it lost some of that money in the recent debt limit deal. on wall street, tech stocks led the broader market lower. the dow jones industrial average lost 102 points the nasdaq fell , 165 points -- the s-and-p 500 was down 23 points. and in southern england, some 8000 revelers descended on stonehenge to mark the summer solstice. they gathered around the pre-historic stone circle to

greet the sunrise on this longest day in the northern hemisphere. the crowd included druids, tourists and locals, all ushering in the official start of summer. still to come, we take the temperature of voters on -- voters on some of the nation's most contentious issues. supreme court justice justice samuel alito faces scrutiny over an undisclosed luxury trip from a gop donor, new questions arise about former president trump's business ties with oman. announcer: this is "the pbs newshour," from weta studios in washington, and in the west, from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: it's been one week since an overloaded fishing trawler filled with hundreds of migrants sank off the southwest coast of greece. it left a port in libya and cross the mediterranean before becoming disabled. it drifted for hours before capsizing.

hundreds remain unaccounted for. >> this video from a european border force patrol plane shows the fishing boat drifting before it capsized and sank. around are still missing and 600 feared drowned, among them women and children trapped below decks. just over 100 survivors have been rescued, all of them men. >> i think that the sinking of this ship, this small, relatively small and seriously overloaded fishing vessel and the apparent loss of between 400 and 750 people, this is, i believe, one of the worst over recent years, if not the worst. >> gillian triggs is the un refugee agency's assistant secretary general with special responsibility for the protection of those in peril. she says the death rate among those trying to reach europe is rising. >> we are concerned that people are even more desperate now are

-- they will take these voyages knowing full well what the risks are. when we ask people who've survived these shipwrecks, they will all say that they're well aware of the risks, but they are so desperate that this is what they will choose to do, including with their families. >> the greek authorities say they will continue a search for bodies as long as necessary, but there's no hope of finding anyone alive. survivors are recovering in a refugee camp near athens. adil hussain, originally from pakistan, is looking for a friend of his brother, who was also on the boat. >> i don't know where my brother is he is i don't know, missing. , my brother left libya last friday, three days i cant find him. no one will tell me. >> hussain last spoke to his brother just after he boarded the vessel in libya, where migrants are frequently terrorized before embarkation. >> as soon as he got into the boat he said only 50 people will fit and they were putting 750 on board.

he said it's 100% sure it will take in water. i told him to get off, don't go, and he said the mafia won't let us, they have guns, they have knives, they were forcing people in. >> many of the victims came from pakistan. the family of 25 year old shehryar sultan, say he was tricked into believing the trip to europe would take two to three days. >> we just heard the news recently, about two or three hours ago that it had been confirmed that the dead body of the sultan's companion has been found. >> nine egyptian men, plucked from the water, have been charged in connection with the shipwreck and are in pre-trial custody. the traffickers charge the per $500 passenger and stood to make over the suspects all deny $3 million. wrongdoing. >> where does the fault lie? is it the smugglers or is there culpability elsewhere? >> well, clearly, we're concerned about people smugglers, crime, criminal elements, trafficking, and we fully support efforts to manage

that element of crime. but accountability rests in so many areas. and we need a joined up european and north african approach so that we have more reliable search and rescue, more reliable disembarkation and ultimately redistribution of people in need of international protection. >> greece is facing a barrage of criticism. its coastguard was alerted to the stricken vessel fifteen hours before it went down. this picture was taken from a coastguard cutter. greece has denied claims that the fishing boat capsized during an attempted tow. the disaster has appalled craig spencer, an emergency doctor from rhode island. spencer spent six months in the mediterranean on board the aquarius rescue ship where safety of migrants in distress was paramount. >> i don't think any of us can imagine what it's like getting your small child and putting them on a boat in the middle of the night without food, without water on an unseaworthy vessel that that being your only

option, and to be confronted by a coast guard that is responsible under international and national maritime law. save lives at sea. it's just it's truly unbelievable. >> greece is under fire because of its hardline anti migrant policy, including proven cases of so called pushbacks, where rescued refugees have been taken back out to sea. in stark comparison to the italians who honour their obligations under international law. >> as far as you can tell, is this a consequence of greece's well documented pushback policy? >> i can't give you a definitive answer to that until we see the results of the investigation. but what i can say is that countries on the front line, some of them in particular, have not accepted their responsibility for search and rescue. they have pushed back both at land frontiers and at and sea borders. >> the european union has

pledged more than $15 billion to bolster its migration policy. much of europe is exasperated by the never ending flow of migrants. but despite the risks, they keep on coming. for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant. geoff: this week marks the anniversary of the supreme court decision overturning roe versus wade. it also marks critical final days in the current supreme court term, with major rulings expected soon on affirmative action and religious rights, among others. that's as trust in the court remains low. according to a new npr pbs newshour marist poll. lisa desjardins is here to unpack that finding and more. it's great to have you here. confidence in the court dropped significantly after the dobbs decision last year. set a short-term reaction, or does this poll show that the

sentiment persisted? lisa: that's exactly what we wanted to find out. this does tell us a little bit about the country. the past year has been one of his lowest points. let's look at where we are right now. here are the numbers over the years, that last number on the right is the number from our poll, 39 percent approval rating. it's exactly the same as it was a year ago. you see that drop-off point there in the middle, that is of course when we learned about the dobbs decision. basically just to say that opinion has not changed in the past year, it took us hit -- a historic jump down after we learned about the decision and has not come back up. we did find some interesting outliers in the poll. you got to look at the broad sweeps of it, and i saw something in the politics and gender of how people react to the supreme court.

let's look at some of the numbers. the group that seemed to have the least amount of confidence in the supreme court are democrats, that is not a surprise. this is always been a political sort of question. however, what was surprising to me, republican men were the ones who had the most confidence, by quite a lot more than republican women. those republican men are really the ones who are backing up the supreme court the most. has anyone's opinion about the dobbs decision changed? 57% of americans, clear majority, oppose the decision overturning roe v. wade. a year ago, exactly the same. geoff: our team also ask about affirmative action. what did we learn? lisa: this has obviously been a long-running issue in american society. look at the top number, we asked, should those programs be continued?

57% of adults said yes, affirmative action should be continued. again, the outliers tell us something. trump 2020, completely the opposite. that is the group that most opposes affirmative action programs in our poll. we dug in a little deeper, looking at gender in this poll specifically. it is men who really most want to abolish those affirmative action programs. trump voters, that stood out to us as we were looking at the numbers. geoff: there are some major findings and it comes to how people see gender and gender identity. lisa: this is increasingly a political issue. we asked the question, should gender be the sex that is on your original birth certificate only, or should people be more open, is that an out of date concept? only 36% of adults in the

country said it is an out of date concept. 61 percent, almost two thirds said ginger as the sex listed on your original birth certificate is the only way to see male and female in society. so let's dig down a little deeper here and look at the change. a year ago, the numbers were more even, the country was more a 50-50 on this question. no surprise, in particular republicans have been pounding away at this. it also came up in hearing today, the human rights campaign president, back and forth. let's listen. >> and how many genders are there? >> i think that gender is expansive, and the definitions are always growing. you know, today i can tell you. >> more than five? >> people talk about non binary. >> more than 5? >> gender is not a binary. >> there's an infinite number of

genders? lisa: today on capitol hill. geoff: thank you for that analysis, and this poll is on our website. ♪ amna: in 2008, supreme court justice samuel alito took an undisclosed fishing trip to alaska with billionaire donors, including hedge fund manager paul singer who later had business before the court. coupled with previous reporting on the relationship of justice thomas and republican megadonor harlan crow, it raises serious ethical questions regarding the high court. josh kaplan is one of the propublica reporters who broke the story, and he joins me now. josh, welcome july 2008 trip that alito took to alaska, traveling there under private plane, paid for by that

billionaire and stayed at a lodge also paid for by another major donor on the trip. neither of those things was disclosed. tell us a little about what you're reporting revealed about that trip and why people think it should have been disclosed. josh: singer was not just another guest on the trip. he provided a private jet to fly him across the country to alaska. if alito had chartered that playing himself, it could have cot easily more than $100,000. alito did not disclose any of this. it has been secret until now, and experts have told us it appears to have violated a law passed after watergate that requires justices to disclose to the public. amna: that billionaire later had a case before the supreme court. why did the experts you talk to say that in this case, alito

should have recused himself from that case? >> he did not recuse himself in any of the at least 10 cespe that singe they had never heard of another example of a supreme court justice sitting on a case after receiving an expensive gift from one of the parties. there is a law that governs when justices must recused himself from a case. it is a high standard, but a subjective standard, that if there is the appearance of impropriety, then the justice must recused. but when it comes to the supreme court, the only person that interprets that standard, the sole arbiter appointed justice should recuse him or herself is him or herself. amna: in brief he says he doesn't believe his relationship with paul singer warranted

recusal. he doesn't think the hospitality provided needs to be reported. he claims that pro-public a misleads its leaders and he writes, it was and is my judgment that these facts would not cause a reasonable and unbiased person to doubt my ability to decide the matters in question impartially. so this is one of the central questions on impartiality. do we know if his relationship with singer or anything else had any impact on his decisions? >> we don't know if it had any impact in terms of a quid pro quo case one way or the other in terms of this trip. there is no evidence of that. justice alito wrote the op-ed saying it was misleading, the article had not come out yet and he had not read it. in terms of recusal, one expert put it to us as, it's fairly

simple. if you were on the others of the case in any court in this country and you learned that the person that you were fighting against had given an expensive gift, taken the judge sitting on the case on vacation, you would have questions about that judge's ability to sit. they said that means that alito clearly should recuse in this case. amna: we ask an attorney about this report, about your last report about justice clarence thomas and the gifts he had received. here's what she had to say. >> it is a systemic problem, a problem for the entire institution. the court has failed to adopt and apply ethics standards, and until it does, or until congress imposes those standards, we will

continue to have stories about an ethical supreme court justices. amna: josh, what does all of your reporting say to you about the court's ability to police themselves on these issues? josh: i think one of the root issues in all of this is the lack of transparency and oversight on the high court, that really is a stark contrast to other branches of government. in the executive branch, there's an ethics office that analyzes the sort of problems when they come up. there are strict rules on what gives you can accept. there are extremely strict rules on what you must disclose. the justices are more or less left to police themselves, and they always have been. when alito went on this occasion and accepted this private jet ride that could've cost $100,000 to charter from a person he

didn't know who had just had a case in court, that was completely within the courts rules. experts say he violated the law by not disclosing it. but there were no restrictions on this. and then if a potential conflict comes up, the only person who decides if the justice should recuse is the justice. amna: that is josh kaplan of pro-publicly joining us this latest report. thanks for making the time. geoff: we are shifting our focus to the remaining major decisions were expecting from the court, including those that can reshape higher education and immigration policy. we've got a handful of big cases left, many see the most significant one being the affirmative action case which centers on whether colleges and universities can continue to consider race as part of their admissions decisions.

remind us who brought the case and what court arguments are the justices weighing? >> well, he is not a lawyer, but he goes out and find someone to challenge the preference. he hires and pays the lawyers. he was behind the courts major decision in striking down the key section of the voting rights act in 2013, and he created the organization, students for fair admissions, that brought the challenge to the harvard admissions policy and the university of north carolina's admissions policy. so it got to the supreme court, and the charge is that these two colleges are discriminating against whites, asian americans, and native americans. harvard in particular, the

scrimmage and against asian americans. the lower courts found against them after really detailed trials and looks at the policies involved. but they came back to the supreme court and this time they are asking the court to basically throw at the key precedents that have upheld the use of race as a factor in a holistic examination of each applicant to the college. geoff: they're also expecting ruling on president biden's student loan forgiveness program. 92% of student loans are through the federal government. there was a question as to whether the plaintiffs in this case had legal standing. how might that affect the outcome? >> this is a very serious question. states that have brought the challenges, the red states led by republican governors, and two individuals who brought a separate challenge, whether they

actually have with the court requires for standing, and that is a concrete injury. it really is very attenuated here, especially with the two individuals who brought the suit out of texas. so it could kill the case if the justices decide that they don't have standing, and the case will be gone. geoff: there's also a pair of immigration cases that could affect deportation decisions. >> right now, both sides agree, the two states that are brought the challenge to the department of homeland security so-called guidance agree that congress has never given the department the resources it needs to seek, detain, and deport 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country. so what is the department to do? it came up with a guidance that prioritizes who they really should be going after.

most likely serious criminals, people with terrorist backgrounds, perhaps also repeat people who come in and out and then get deported, come back illegally and get deported again. but texas and louisiana claim that this guidance violated the administrative procedures act and the department did not follow the rules for putting out the guidance, and that the statute, immigration law, says clearly that the department must detain and deport these undocumented immigrants. the court has to take a look here at the realities as well as with the language of the statute is, and whether texas and louisiana really have an injury here if the guidance goes into effect. geoff: one of the rulings we are waiting for focuses on this legal theory that could limit the ability of state courts to review election laws passed by us -- passed by state

legislatures. unpack that for us. >> north carolina has pressed the theory that it supreme court has no authority whatsoever to look at what north carolina does with elections. and that includes redistrict. the north carolina supreme court said, no, this is not constitutional, and ruled against them. the state came to the supreme court to argue this here. in the meantime, the north carolina supreme court switched from being democratic led to republican led, and the republican led north carolina supreme court reversed the ruling of the democrat led supreme court. so the u.s. supreme court has a bit of a mess on its hands to decide whether the case is moot and should be dismissed, or whether it should continue and rule on the merits because this theory may come up against them at some point. so we have to wait and see what they do with it. geoff: public confidence in the

court is waning and sits at historic lows. the court is facing fresh ethics issues. why hasn't the supreme court come up with its own ethics? >> you will hear a variety of reasons. they say there are separation of powers concerns, especially of congress were to mandate or come up with its own code for them. they say there are recusal problems. a court of nine justices, if one has to step aside, eight or left, and that really heightens the risk of deadlocked decisions. doesn't seem to me that these are insurmountable obstacles. my don't they adopt one at least sort of lower the temperature for a while? i really don't know. i'm sure we will learn more after the news today. geoff: marcia coyle, thanks so

much. ♪ geoff: as former president donald trump x another run at the white house, he is partnering with the key ally on a new business venture. laura barron-lopez has more. laura: the multi-billion dollar deal between trump, the government of oman and a saudi firm will develop a luxury complex, according to a new new york times report. and the project is raising serious ethical questions. joining me now is eric lipton of the new york times. he's investigated trump family international deals since 2016. eric, thanks so much for joining. you have traveled overseas to investigte this, and you report that this deal is unlike any international deal so far that the trump family has signed. why? eric: in this case, instead of

simply having their name so to help increase the value of a golf course or condos, they are actually in business with the government of oman. the government of oman owns the land and is going to be taking a cut of the profits from this deal. so they are now a part of a government entity that is doing this multimillion dollar project that has a 30 year contract with the trump family. it is not only for their name, they will be reviewing the hotel design, they will be helping build the golf course and the golf club and they will be managing the hotel and golf club for decades. so they will have a significant financial state that involves the government of oman itself. laura: mr. trump was at the deal signing in new york city at trump tower with saudi real estate executives in november, just befor he announced his presidential bid. he has already brought in some $5 million from this project. how much does the former president stand to benefit? >> the trump organization the

saudi real estate company that is the lead developer on the project would not tell us how much they are going to be paid. it's going to be in the 10 submit ones of dollars over the course of the life of the contract, but we just really have no idea because they won't tell us. if he is reelected as president, he will have to file financial disclosure reports at least annually, a we will get some idea of how much he is making in the next several years, but we don't know in total how much he is going to make. but it's one of the biggest projects trump family internationally has ever been involved in. laura: what are the potential conflicts of interest here? >> oman is in a sensitive location. it is 20 miles across the straight of hormuz and is close to saudi arabia. it is sort of an intermediary between the saudi politicals concerns and the iranian

concerns and actually is a place where recently biden administration officials have gone to potentially talk to her man about resolving some of our differences. at the same time, this is a country we provided f-16 fighter jets and missiles to come and to think that then comes into the mix the considerations as to how will this negotiation over iran or saudi arabia, how might it impact our deal over managing the hotel and golf resort complex and is it going to hurt our relationship with the omani government, that that is even part of the calculus, and might they do a better deal for oman because they have millions or billions of dollars riding on it? it is a question thatn american president has never faced before. laura: and you report that this is not the only business deal that the trump family has crafted in the middle east.

federal prosecutors who recently charged mr. trump for mishandling classified documents were also seeking information about those other deals in the middle east. can you just connect the dots for us about why it matters that the former president has all these ties to that region? >> to some extent, if you look at what he did as president, you would say that is not surprising. jared kushner was doing shutter diplomacy in the middle east as they were trying to reach some -- trump was quite engaged in saudi arabia and defending actions and downplaying the role of the saudi government. he was quite friendly with saudi arabia, and now after he leaves office, his son-in-law gets $2 billion worth of investment from the sovereign wealth fund. then the sovereign wealth fund also funds liv golf, which put

several of its tournaments at trump golf courses in the united states. there's a lot of money between middle eastern companies and trump business opportunities that overlap with his presidency. it's an open question, but again, we've never seen something like this even in the aftermath of a presidency where president is profiting from foreign governments that he was closely active with during his presidency. laura: eric lipton of the new york times, thank you so much. ♪ amna: school boards have traditionally been the domain of nonpartisan civic service, with volunteer community members weighing in on curricula and budgets. but in the last few years, school boards around the country have also increasingly become

reflections of the nation's polarized, political divisions. tonight, judy woodruff reports on one district in northwest pennsylvania, where policies around library books, gender and sports and how race and history are taught, have divided some community members. it's her latest installment of america at crossroads. judy: at saegertown high school, students stream into the building in the waning days of the school year. it's one of three high schools in a sprawling, mostly rural district called penncrest, which covers 400 square miles south of erie, pennsylvania. and it's a community where resident jeff brooks says ties to the area run deep. jeff: my grandfather was supervisor for 50 years, my mom started the rec board here, was involved in the church. judy: brooks lives on the family farm where he grew up. a social worker in erie, he's lived in this area his entire life, save four years in the

navy. jeff: it's the same people i grew up with. when i'm at any place i know people. i know their parents, i know their kids. judy: brooks graduated from the penncrest district himself, and had three children go through the district, his youngest still in high school. and you decided at some point to run for the school board? jeff: yes. judy: why? jeff: penncrest used to be a top 50 district in the state. and when i did a little research we're kind of living , off our reputation. judy: brooks was elected to the board as a republican in 2017, and re-elected to a four year term in 2019. jeff: the way school board should be done is a very boring, thankless job that you don't get paid for. you show up at a couple of meetings. you hear people talk about curriculum, and that's not what it's been. judy: like in many school districts across the country, penncrest has found itself caught up in debates over cultural values and what belongs inside the school walls.

brooks says the recent turmoil began in the spring of 2021, when a school board member shared a facebook post of a photo of joel -- lgbtq themed books on display at a district high school library. the board member, david valesky, added: besides the point of being totally evil, this is not what we need to be teaching kids. they aren't at school to be brainwashed intohinking homosexuality is okay. valesky did not respond to interview requests from the newshour. teresa: it's a school board member calling students in the district evil. and that, to me, is appalling. judy: teresa barickman is a parent in the penncrest district. her son graduated last year and her daughter, claire, will be a junior at saegertown this fall. teresa: some of the political rhetoric that we've heard on the

national level has empowered people and let them feel like it's okay to say these not so nice things about people. judy: the dust-up around the book display didn't immediately lead to any policy changes. but later that summer a resolution was introduced against teaching critical race theory or crt in this overwhelmingly white district. jeff: i think if you ask 20 people twrite down what they thought it was, do you get 20 different definitions? it's not being taught. no one's giving an example of crt being taught. it's just a boogeyman that's out there to scare everybody. >> this would reassure everybody so they don't think we're teaching something we're not. judy: while the original resolution didn't pass, the board did affirm that the district has multiple policies which protect students from

indoctrination. luigi: penncrest is a very conservative district and they care about the kids and they want the kids educated, nothing else. judy: luigi defrancesco is president of the penncrest school board. he immigrated to the united states from italy as a child and moved to this rural area of pennsylvania in 1977. a retired civil engineer, he's served on the school board off and on for more than a decade. how has the board changed in the last few years? would you say? luigi: the only thing that changed is that the community finally got involved in the past two years got and to what's going on with the board. the majority, you know, wants to make sure that they protected the community standards and the children get educated what is supposed to educate for. judy last december, the board : introduced two new controversial policy changes. one designed to ensure students

only join athletic teams consistent with their gender at birth, even though no transgender athletes have identified themselves. and one targeting library materials that include visual or visually implied depictions of sexual acts, explicit written depictions of sexual acts, or visual depictions of nudity, exempting anatomy for science or classical works of art. jeff: my original reaction was that this is wanting to limit the world that our kids see and to villainize our lgbtq community. we shouldn't be creating division. we should be focused on creating the best opportunities for our kids in school. judy: teresa barickman learned about the proposed change from her daughter. teresa: there already was a policy in place. if a parent disagrees with one of the books, they can fill out something. the school district will look into whether the books are appropriate or not.

when i talked to the superintendent, he had never had a parent fill out this form and send it in. >> the following copies of our petition have over a 180 signatures from people across the district. judy: claire barickman and a friend drafted a petition opposing the policy change that they circulated among students and community members. and presented it to the board in january before the vote. >> these books cover many crucial topics for students and are representative of many groups throughout the district, covering topics of race, sex, gender idendity, and diverse backgrounds, which allow students to feel safe and seen. judy: but just days later, the board approved both the book and trans athlete policies, despite reservations raised by the district's lawyer that the changes could open the district up to lawsuits. >> it is essential that this policy needs to get pushed through. it's legal and my conscience is clear on this. if we go to court over it, so be it. because at the end of the day we are standing up for what's right

and standing up for what god has said is right and truth. judy: so those policy changes were passed. jeff: the policy changes were passed. judy: and what effect do you think they've had? jeff: the biggest effect that it's had is it's taken time away from our administration to be able to focus on classrooms. judy: the district administration undertook a review of about 150 books, ultimately removing about 10 of them. brett: there is some agreement that some things are off limits. my argument is, you know, this is more about where to draw the line and why not err on the side of of caution? judy: brett zook is a parent of three kids in the penncrest district, and one who just graduated. after learning about the proposed book policy from two of his daughters, he spoke at a penncrest board meeting in support of the policy. brett: that was the, the first time i had attended any school

board meetings. judy: so you felt pretty strongly about it? brett: i did. i mean, i feel like these are things that are very important to people. at the same time, i wanted to be part of a healthy discussion if possible. and try to have some some input to the conversation that could be received by it by those who didn't agree. judy: zook contends the fact that parents could already ask librarians for books to be off limits for their children was inadequate, and that the policy, as written, does not target any particular group. students could go to the public library, and check out these books. and certainly there's so much available right now online and social media. how much of a difference does it make if because some books have been taken off the shelf? brett: i don't view it as a as a war to be won. i view it more as acknowledging that if there's a shared space, which a public school library is, and there are some that that feel this isn't appropriate,

here's the standard. we're going to have even with the policy in place, parents still have the opportunity to present whatever they want to their children. teresa: you know, this is a public school and if they want to shelter their kids, then homeschool them or send them to a private school. you know, it's not about me. it's not about my daughter. i can take my daughter to the library. i can buy her the books. but because it is such a rural and, you know, lower cost of living community, there are families that can't. and those are the kids that i worry about. judy: board president luigi defrancesco denies that the policy discriminates against any group, including the lgbtq community, and insists that change was necessary to conform with pennsylvania state laws against providing explicit material to minors.

a number of these books that you're citing, there's real disagreement that that's pornography, that they'll say, yes, there's some explicit language in there, but it's it's brief. it's within the context of a story. these young people are learning about different experiences. it doesn't mean that that they're going to become that or do whatever they read. luigi: the law doesn't say that. the law says do not provide pornographic material. you know, if they get information from someplace else or whatever, you know, i don't want to be guilty. judy: what about their argument, that they're just trying to protect children from bad things, bad material, bad influences. jeff: i understand that. and i think that, you know, a school should be a safe place for every kid but there's no way to protect everyone from every idea that's out there. to me, to be protected would be understand the world around you and be prepared to deawith it.

judy: teresa's daughter claire says that the divisiveness of the book controversy among school board members has not trickled down to students. >> overall, i feel like people, for the most part in our school, try to be kind to others. and there are people that have come up to us and said that they didn't sign it only because they just didn't want to get involved with all the drama and the politicalness that it had become. judy: that political drama now has a chance to be resolved at the ballot box. in may, residents voted in primaries to fill seven seats on the nine person penncrest school board. luigi defrancesco ran for a two year term, but came in third and isn't expected to be on the ballot this november. luigi: don't matter to me if i win or lose. as long as we have a board that will protect the kids and educate them. judy: jeff brooks decided not to run again.

jeff: it had become very personal attacks on me. that i was a groomer for children, that i supported kiddy porn, and i didn't feel like i could respond in an election in a way that would be what a school board member should respond. the other thing, they thought i was a poster child as some sort of liberal socialist. and by me not running, then the issues could be on the facts and not the fiction. judy: with school out for the summer and the primary passed, things have quieted down in the district. but divisions in this close community have been opened up as everyone waits to see the makeup and actions of the new school board this fall. for the pbs newshour, i'm judy woodruff in saegertown, pennsylvania. geoff: there is much more online, including a story about

how water issues continue to plague michigan cities. we look at a detroit suburb facing mounting debt because of water costs. amna: join us again here tomorrow night, where we will hear about a reparations program in evanston, illinois that's giving black residents in cash $25,000 payments. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm goeff bennett. thanks for joining us. announcer: this is "the pbs >> cunard is a proud supporter of public television. the world awaits. a rolled of flavor, diverse destinations, and immersive experiences.

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♪ hello everyone and welcome to "amanpour & company." hoo here's what's coming up. we just want to hear h voice and make sure he's okay because we're in hell since the day this happened. >> hundreds of migrants are still missing after their boat capsized in waters off the greek coast. i ask the ceo of the international rescue committee, david miliband, how we can stop people dying in search of a better life. then -- >> we now have underwater search capability on scene. >> the race to find a missing sub before its oxygen supply runs out. also ahead, navigating the new world order. >> direct engagement and sustained communication at senior levels is the bests way to responsibly manage our differences and ensure tt competition does not veer into conflict. >> i ask