♪ >> good evening. >> on "the newshour" tonight, and underwater noise heard in the search for the missing submersible offers a glimmer of hope as the window for the rescue closes. >> smugglers are detained over the deadly migrant boat disaster in the mediterranean that is renewing criticism of immigration policies in greece. >> 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

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together. supporting -- supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, learned, and peaceful world. 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. >> good evening and welcome to "the newshour." the search for the missing submersible in the north atlantic ocean intensified throughout the day. >> the u.s. coast guard says 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 headed 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 beenpluletire s po of those noises is being analyzed, tracked for patterns. >> a plane picked up underwater noises as the hunt for the today for.bmersible stretches at a u.s. coast guard briefing in boston, officials said more sounds were heard today, and experts are reviewing the data. >> they are trying to put all the pieces together. they 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, right? all that has to be eliminated. >> submersible vanished sunday during a deep-sea tour of the titanic shipwreck, the watery grave of one of the worst ocean

disasters in the 20th century. the titan, roughly the size of the a minivan, set off with about four days worth of breathable oxygen. officials say that's 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 ships and underwater vessels to aid in the effort. canadian ships have dropped sonar buoys to detect underwater sounds in the area. following reports of the noise, french researchers dispatched an unmanned robotic vehicle, set to arrive this evening, capable of hooking the sub to a cable that could tow it to the surface. an oceanographer at the scripps institution. >> the ocean is inherently a noisy place. you have lots of marine mammals making sounds, and there's a lot of instrumentation in the ocean. we have geophysical explorations

going on. sound travels pretty well underwater, so i would give it a low chance of identification that in fact the 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, oceangate expeditions, have surfaced. in 2018, a terminated 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 to the ceo, warning of potential catastrophic outcomes. he insisted at the time oceangate took adequate safety measures. he was piloting this latest trip and is among the five passengers aboard the missing vessel. >> often times, when organizations want to push the technology envelope, they will

use materials that are uncommon or take designs that have not been tested. >> peter gorgas is a professor at harvard university where his lab develops ocean instruments and samplers. >> i think what we are seeing is more information coming out from documents from oceangate and from others engaged with them that raise the possibility that there may have been oversights as they try to get this experimental in the water and, you know, kind of on active duty, if you will. >> even as the estimated oxygen deadline looms, coast guard officials say they are not giving up. >> there are a lot of factors to consider. after you consider all of those factors, sometimes you have to make a tough decision. we are not there yet, but if we continue to search, potentially we could be at that point, but again, we are not there yet.

>> here are the latest headlines -- updating our top story, it emerged tonight that the titan submersible faced problems dating back to its first expedition in 2021, including issues with its electrical system and battery. that's according to federal court documents obtained by the associated press. the republican-controlled u.s. house voted to censure democrat adam schiff of california today for old comments he made about investigations into former president trump. the resolution accuse him of using his power to deceive americans about trump's ties to russia while the former president was under investigation in 2017. adam schiff, who is running for a california senate seat, stood defiant on the house floor during the proceedings. 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 is 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 have come, it may make sense to move rates higher, but to do so at a more moderate pace. now we are moderating that pace, much as you might do if you were driving 75 miles per hour on the highway, then 50 miles per hour on a local highway and as you get closer to your destination, as you try to find that destination, you slow down even further. >> powell said there is no timetable for future rate hikes, but that economic data will dictate those decisions. a new report finds pandemic learning losses are getting worse. test scores for 13-year-olds have dropped again from 2020 to 2023. average math scores fell by nine points, the most ever, to their

lowest level since 1990. average reading scores fell four 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 israeli in the area. an israeli drone attacked a car killing a spout -- killing a palestinian gunmen. russia's military says it down to two drones near a base outside moscow today. it blamed ukraine, but kyiv had no immediate comment. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy did acknowledge that progress in his army's counteroffensive has been slower than desired but says he will not 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 spy balloon over the u.s., and president biden said, that is a great defeat for dictators. >> 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 has been clear about is the differences between democracies and autocracies and what they have. >> the 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 is 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. in southern england, some 8000 revelers descended on stonehenge to mark the summer solstice. they gathered around the prehistoric so -- stone circle to greet the sunrise on this longest day in the northern hemisphere. the crowd included drew -- the crowd included tourists, locals, and druids. still to come, we take the temperature of voters on some of the nation's most contentious issues. supreme court justice samuel alito faces scrutiny over an undisclosed but free trip from a donor, and discussions about president trump's business ties with oman. >> this is "the pbs newshour" from the weta school of journalism in the west and from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university.

>> it has been one week since a fishing boat full of migrants sank off the coast of greece. it drifted for hours before capsizing. the anger, grief, and political fallout continue. hundreds remain unaccounted for. under special correspondent spent years reporting on these desperate journeys and sent us this update. >> this video from a european border force patrol plane shows the fishing boat drifting before it capzed. around 600 are still missing, feared drowned. among them, women and children trapped below decks. just over 100 survivors have been rescued. >> i think the sinking of this relatively small and seriously overloaded fishing vessel and the apparent loss of 750 people, this is i believe one of the worst over the years if not the worst.

>> she says the death rate among those trying to reach europe is rising. >> we are concerned that people are even more desperate now, and they will take these voyages knowing full well what the risks are. when we ask people who survived the shipwrecks, they will all say that they are well aware of desperate that this is what they choose to do, including with their families. >> the greek authorities say they will continue the search for bodies as long as is necessary, but there is no hope of finding anyone alive. survivors are recovering in a refugee camp near athens. mn 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's -- i don't know -- missing. my brother left libya last friday. three days and i cannot find him.

no one will tell me. >> in libya, 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 he is 100% sure it will take in water. i told him to get off, and he said the mafia will not let us. they have guns and knives and were forcing people in. >> many of the victims came from pakistan. the family of a 25-year-old said 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. it had been confirmed that the dead body of the sultan's companion has been found. >> nine egyptian men have been charged in connection with the shipwreck and are in pretrial custody. they charged -- traffickers charged about $4500er

passenger. >> where does the fault line? >> clearly, we are concerned about people, and we fully support efforts to manage that element of crime, but accountability rests in so many areas, and we need a joint european and north african approach so we have more reliable search-and-rescue, more reliable disembarkation, and ultimately, redistribution of people in need of international protection. >> agrees is facing a barrage of criticism. it's coast guard was alerted of the vessel 15 hours before it went down. greece has denied claim the tow. emergency doctor from rhode island spent six months in the

mediterranean on board the aquarius ship. >> i don't think any of us can imagine what it is like getting a small child and putting them on a boat in the middle of the night on an un-seaworthy vessel, but that being your only option, and hunted by a coast guard that is responsible under international maritime law, it is truly unbelievable. >> greece is under fire because of its hard-line anti-migrant policy, including cases were rescued refugees have been taken back out to sea. >> as far as you can tell, is this a consequence of greece's well-documented pushback policy? >> i cannot give you a definitive answer 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 sea borders. >> the european union has spent more than $15 billion to bolster its migration policy. despite the risks, migrants keep coming. >> this week marks the anniversary of the u.s. supreme court decision overturning roe v. wade. it also marks the critical final days in the current supreme court term with major rulings expected soon on affirmative action and religious rights, among others. this as trust in the supreme court remains low, according to a new npr/pbs newshour/marist

poll. confidence in the court dropped significantly after the dobbs decision last year. was that a short-term reaction, or does this whole show that the sentiment persisted? >> that's what we wanted to find out. of course, no polling is exact, but it does tell us a little about the country. the supreme court has had an up-and-down history. this past year has been one of its lowest points. at last number there on the right is the number from our poll, 39% approval rating. look at that -- it is exactly the same as it was a year ago. you see that drop off point they are in the middle. that is when we learned about the dobbs decision. basically, this is to say that no, opinion has not changed in the last year of the supreme court except for a historic drop down after we learned about that decision, and it has not come

back up. we did find some interesting outliers. you have to look at the broad sweeps here of it, and i saw something in the politics and gender of how people reacted. let's look at some of these numbers. the group that seemed to have the least amount of confidence in the supreme court, of course, democrats. that's not a surprise. this has always been a political sort of question. what was surprising to me, republican men were the ones that had the most confidence, but quite a lot more than republican women. those republican men are really the ones who are backing up the supreme court the most. has anybody's opinion about the dobbs decision itself changed? let's look at that. 57% of americans, a clear majority, opposed the decision to overturn roe v. wade. what was it a year ago? exactly the same. >> our team also asked about an

issue before the court right now, affirmative action. >> this has obviously been a long-running issue in american society. let's look at what americans told us. look at that top number. we asked should those programs be continued? 57% of american adults say yes, they believe affirmative action should be continued. again, outliers tell us something. trump 2020 voters -- look at that number -- completely opposite. that is the group that most opposes affirmative action programs in our poll. we dug in a little bit deeper to look at gender in this poll specifically. it is men who most want to abolish those affirmative action programs. you see that men, trump voters, something that stood out to us. >> there were some major findings on how people see gender and gender identity. tell us about that. >> this is not just a cultural issue but increasingly, of

course, a political issue. we ask 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? we asked all adults in this country. only 36% in the country sent it is an out of date concept. 61% said gender as the sex listed on your original birth certificate, that is the only way to see male and female in a society. again, let's dig down a little bit deeper and look at the change. a year ago, the numbers were more even. the country was more 50/50 on the question. no surprise, this is something that has been in the headlines, and in particular, republicans have been pounding away at this. it also came up today in a hearing of the senate judiciary committee. the human rights campaign president back and forth with a senator. >> how many genders? >> i think gender is expensive, and the definitions are always

growing. today, i can tell you -- >> more than five? >> the talk about non-binary -- collects more than five? >> i think gender is not a binary. >> there's an infinite number of genders? >> in our poll, most people said they see just two genders, but that is a conversation we heard today on capitol hill. >> thank you for your analysis. this poll is on our website. >> in 2000 eight, 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 a relationship with justice thomas and a republican mega donor, it raises serious ethical questions regarding the high court. judge kaplan is one of the

pro-public of reporters who broke the story -- josh kaplan. at the heart of your story is this july 2008 trip that alito took to alaska, traveling on a private plane, paid for by billionaire paul singer to stay at the lodge also paid for by another major donor on the trip. neither of those things was disclosed. tell us about what you're reporting revealed about the trip and why people think it should have been disclosed. >> singer was not just another guest on the trip. he provided alito with a private jet to fly him across the country to alaska. if alito had charted that plane himself, it could have cost easily more than $100,000, and alito did not disclose any of this. it has been secret until now, and experts told us that he appears to have violated a government ethics law passed after waterge that requires justices to disclose those gifts

to the public. >> that man, that billionaire, paul singer, his hedge fund later had a case before the supreme court, a case that the court, as you reported, previously declined to take up. why do experts you talk to say that in this case, alito should have recused himself from that case? >> alito did not recuse himself in any of the ateast 10 cases paul singer had after the trip. they said that they had never -- experts say 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 an law that governs when justices must recuse themselves in the case, and it sets a very high standard but a subjective standard, that if there is the appearance of impropriety, the justice must recuse, but when it comes to the supreme court, the only person that interprets that standard,

the sole arbiter of when a justice should be recused from the case is the justice him or herself. >> alito has responded in the form of an op-ed published in "the wall street journal" in which he says he does not believe his relationship with paul singer warranted recusal. he does not think the hospitality provided needed to be reportable. he claims for public up misreads its -- misleads its readers, and he said it was his judgment that the facts would not cause a reasonable and unbiased person to doubt his ability to decide the matters in question impartially. this is one of the central questions on impartiality. do we know if his relationship with singer or this trip or anything else had any impact on his decisions? >> we don't know if they had any impact in a case went one way or another because of this trip. there is no evidence of that. i should say that when justice alito wrote this op-ed saying the article 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 is fairly simple. if you were on the other side of the break's in any court in this country, and you learned the person 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, and they say that means alito clearly showed recuse in this case. >> we ask a professor of law at washington university in st. louis who focuses on government ethics about this report, about your last report about justice clarence thomas and the gifts he had received. here's what she had to say. >> this is a systemic problem. it is a problem for the entire institution. these weaknesses are not about

one or two bad justices. 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 unethical supreme court justices. >> what does all you're reporting say to you about the court's ability to police themselves on these issues? >> 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 her branches of the government. if you work in the executive branch,here is an ethics office that clears things for you, that analyzes these sort of problems when they come up. there are strict rules on what gifts you can accept. there are y emexctussttelri dis,

and the justices are more or less left to police themselves and always have been. when alito went on this vacation, accepted this private jet right that could have cost $100,000 to charter, from a person he did not know who had just had a case before the court, that was completely within the court's rules. he had to disclose it, and experts say he violated the laws by not disclosing it. then, a potential conflict comes up. the only person who decides if a justice should recuse is the justice, and that is a decision that cannot be appealed. >> that is josh kaplan of pro-public adjoining us with his latest report. thanks for making the time. >> thanks for having me. >> we are going to shift ou focus now to the remaining major decisions from the court including ones that could reshape higher education and immigration policy. for that, we turn to "the newshour's" supremeourt

analyst. we have a handful of cases left. many see the most significant being the affirmative action, which centers on if colleges or universities can continue to consider race as part of their admissions decision. remind us who brought this case and what court arguments are the justices weighing? >> this case really is the project of one person who has been fighting racial preferences of all kinds for a long time. he's not a lawyer, but he goes out, he finds someone to challenge the preference. he hires the lawyers, pays the lawyer's. he was behind the court's major decision striking down a key section of the voting rights act in 2018, and he created the organization students for fair admissions that brought the challenge to the harvard admissions policy.

they 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, discrimination against asian americans. lower courts found against them after a 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 out the key precedents that have upheld the use of race as a factor in a holistic examination of each applicant to the college. >> we were also expecting a ruling on president biden's student loan forgiveness land. it is worth noting one in five adults have student loan debt and 92% are through the federal government. there was a question as to if the plaintiffs in this case had legal standing. how might that affect the

outcome? >> this is a very serious question. the states that have brought the challenges, red states led by republican governors, and two individuals who have brought a separate challenge, if they actually have what the court requires for standing, and that is a concrete injury. it really is very attenuated here, especially for the two individuals who brought the suit out of texas. it could kill the case if the justices decide that they don't have standing. the case will be gone. >>here's also a pair of immigration cases that could affect deportation proceedings. tell us about that. >> to me, this case is a lot like the federal agency being between a rock and hard place. right now, both sides agree the two states th brought the challenge to the department of homeland security's 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 the guidance th 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, get deported again. texas and louisiana claim this guidance violated the administrative procedures act, that the department did not follow the rules for putting out the guidance, and that the statute, the 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 what the language in the statute is, and if texas and louisiana really have an injury here if

the guidance goes into effect. >> 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 state legislatures. >> yeah, north carolina has pressed this theory that it's supreme court has no authority whatsoever to look at what north carolina does with elections, and that includes redistricting. 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. in the meantime, the north carolina supreme court switched from being democratic red to republican red -- democratic-led to republican-led, and the republican-led reversed the ruling of the democratic supreme court, so the u.s. supreme court has a bit of a mess on his hand

to decide if the case is moot and should be dismissed or if it should continue and rule on the merits because the theory may come up again at some point. we have to wait and see what they do. >> as we have reached the end of yet another term, public confidence in the court is waning. it sits at historic lows. the court is facing fresh ethics controversies. why has the supreme court not come up with its own code of ethics. >> you will hear a variety of reasons. they say there are separation of powers concerns, especially if congress were to mandate or come up with its own code for them. they say there are recusal problems. this is a court of nine justices. if one has to step aside, eight are left, and that really heightens the risk of deadlock decisions. it does not seem to many that these are insurmountable obstacles. i don't know. i sit and think, why don't you

just adopt one and it would really lower the temperature for a while. i don't know. i'm sure we will learn more after the news today. >> one imagines. thanks so much. >> my pleasure. ♪ >> as former president trump makes another run at the white house, he is partnering with a key u.s. ally on a new business venture. >> the multibillion-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. thanks so much for joining. you traveled overseas to investigate this real estate deal, which is located in oman

along the coast east of its capital city. you report this deal is unlike any international deal so far that the trump family has signed. why? >> in this case, instead of simply having their name being sold to help increase the value of a golf course or condos, they are actually in business with the government of oman because the government of oman owns the land and will be taking the profits from this deal, so they are now a partner of a government entity that is doing this multibillion-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 and helping build the golf course and golf club, and th will be managing the hotel and golf club for decades to come, so they will have a significant financial stake that involves the government of oman itself. >> mr. trump was at the deal's signing in new york city at trp tower with saudi real

estate executives in november. that was just before 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 and this 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 is going to be in the tens of millions of dollars over the course of the life of the contract, but we just have no idea because they won't tell us. if he is as a candidate and if he is reelected as president, he will have to file disclosure reports at least annually and we will get a sense of how much he is making in the next several years, but we don't know in total how much he will make, but it is one of the biggest projects of the trump family ever nationally -- that the trump family internationally has ever been involved in. >> what of the conflicts of interest here? >> oman is at a sensitive

location. it is right next to the united arab emirates and close to saudi arabia and it is sort of an intermediary between the saudi political concerns and the iranian concerns, and it actually is a place where recently biden administration officials have gone to potentially talk to iran about resolving some of our differences. this is a country we have provided f-16 fighter jets and missiles too. to think that then comes into the mix the considerations as to how well this negotiation we are having over iran or over saudi arabia, how might it impact your deal over managing a hotel and golf resort complex, and will it 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 of dollars or billions of dollars riding on it is a

question that an american president has never faced before. >> right, that is if he were to be reelected to office. you report this is not the only business deal they 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 of these ties to that region? >> to some extent, you would say if you look at what he did as president, it is not surprising. his son-in-law was doing shuttle diplomacy in the middle east as they were trying to climb the tension between israel and some of the arab nations, and that trump was quite engaged with saudi arabia after the khashoggi murder and defending actions and downplaying the role of the saudi government.

he was quite friendly with saudi arabia. now after he leaves office, his son-in-law gets $2 billion worth of investment from the saudi public sovereign wealth fund, and then they sovereign wealth fund also funds liv golf, and liv golf puts several of its tournaments at trump golf courses in the united states. there's a lot of money between the middle eastern companies, be it in saudi arabia and now in oman, and trump business operations that overlap with his activities as president. what were the -- where those steals a reward for his actions as president? it is an open question. we have never seen anything like that -ve- r seen anything like this even in the aftermath of a presidency where a person is profiting so much from a government he was so active with during his presidency. >> thank you so much.

>> thank you. >> 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, sports, and how race and history are taught, have divided some community members. it is our latest installment of "america at a crossroads." >> students reenter the building in the waning days of the school year. it is one of three high schools in a sprawling, mostly rural district which covers 400 square miles south of erie, pennsylvania, and it is a community where resident jeff brooks says ties to the area run

deep. >> my grandfather was supervisor for 50 years. >> brooks lives on the family farm where he grew up. a social worker in erie, he has lived in this area his entire life, save for years in the navy. >> it is the same people i grew up with. when i'm at any place, i know their parents. i know their kids. >> brooks graduated from this district himself and had three children go through the district, his youngest still in high school. >> you decided at some point to run the school board. >> yes. >> why? >> it used to be a top 50 district in the state. >> brooks was elected to the board as a republican in 2017 and reelected to a four-year term in 2019. >> where the school board should

be done is a boring, thankless job, and that's not what it has been. >> like in many school districts across the country, the area has found itself caught up in debates over cultural values and what belongs inside school walls. he says the recent turmoil began in the spring of 2021 when a school board member shared a facebook post of a photo of lgbtq-themed books on display at a district high school library. the board member 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 into thinking homosexuality is ok." he did not respond to interview requests from "the newshour." >> it is a school board member calling students in the district people, and that, to me, is

appalling. >> teresa is a parent in the district. her son graduated last year, and her daughter will be a junior this fall. >> some of the political rhetoric we have heard on a national level has empowered people and let them feel like it is ok to say these not so nice things about people. >> the dustup around the book display did not 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. >> i think if you ask 20 people to write down what the thought it was, you would get 20 different definitions. it is not being taught. no one has given an example of crt being taught. it is just a boogie man that is out there to scare everybody.

>> reassured people so they are not pulling their kids out of school because they think we are doing something that we are not. >> while the original resolution did not pass, the board did reaffirm the district has multiple policies which protect students from indoctrination. >> it is a very conservative district, and they care about the kids, and they want their kids educated. nothing else. >> luigi d francesco is president of the pinecrest school board. he immigrated to the united states from italy as a child and move to this rural area of pennsylvania in 1977. a retired civil engineer, he 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? >> the only thing to change is that the community finally got involved into what is going on with the world. the majority wants to make sure that they protect community

standards and the children get educated. >> last december, the board introduced two new controversial policy changes. one designed to ensure students join athletic teams only that are consistent with their gender at birth, even though no transgendeathletes 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 or science or classical works of art. >> my original reaction was that this is going to limit the world that our kids see and villain eyes our asheville and eyes -- villainize our lgbtq community.

>> teresa learned about the proposed change from her daughter. >> 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 if the book is appropriate or not. when i talked to the superintendent, he had never had a parent fill out this form and send it in. >> of your prediction includes 100 80 signatures from people across the district -- >> claire barrett 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 different topics of students at the district covering topics of race, sex, gender identity and everest backgrounds which allow students to feel safe and seen. >> but just days later, the board approved the new book and trends athlete policies despite

reservations raised by the district's lawyer. the changes could open the district up to lawsuits. >> this policy needs to be pushed through. it is legal and my conscience is clear on it. we go to court on it, so be it because at the end of the day, we are standing up for what is right and standing up for what god has said is right and true. >> so those policy changese paed poly ges were passed. >> what effect do you think they have had? >> the biggest effect it has had is that it has taken time away from our administration to be more focused on the classroom. >> the district administration over took a review of about 150 books, ultimately removing about 10 of them. >> 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 on the side of caution -- why not err on the

side of caution? >> after learning about the proposed book policy from two of his daughters, he spoke at a board meeting in support of the policy. >> that was the first time i had attended any school board meetings. >> so you felt pretty strongly about it? >> i did. i think these are things that are very important to people. at the same time, i wanted to be part of a healthy discussion if possible, to try to have some input to the conversation that could be received by those who did not agree. >> he 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 is so much available right now online and social media. how much of a difference does it make because some books have

been taken off the shelves? >> i don't view it as a war to be won. i view it more as acknowledging that if there is a shared space, which a public school library is, there are some that feel this is not appropriate, here is the standard we are going to have. even with the policy in place, parents still have the opportunity to present whatever they want to their children. >> 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. it is not about me. his is 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 lower cost of living community, there are families that cannot, and those are the kids that i worry about. >> the board president denies

that the policy discriminates against any group, including the lgbtq community, and insists th with pennsylvania state laws against providing explicit material to minors. a number of these books that you are citing, there's a real disagreement that that is pornography. they will say yes, there's some explicit language, but it is a brief and within the context of the story. these young people are learning about different experiences. it does not mean that they are going to become that or do whatever they read. >> the law does notay that. the law says do not provide pornographic material. if they get information from someplace else or whatever, i don't want to be guilty. >> what about the argument that they are just trying to protect children from that material, bad

influences? >> i understand that, and i think that the school should be a safe place for every kid, but there's no way to protect everyone from every idea that is out there. to me, to be protected would be understand the world around you and be prepared to deal with it. >> teresa's daughter claire says 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 tried to be kind to others and there are people that have come up to us and said that they did not sign the petition only because they did not want to get involved in the drama and politicalness that had come. >> that political drama now has a chance to be resolved at the ballot box. in may, residents voted in primaries to fill seven seeds of the nine-person school board. luigi difrancesco randy came in

third and does not expect to be on the ballot this november. >> it does not matter to me if i win or lose as long as we have a board that will protect the kids and educate them. >> brooks decided not to run again. >> it had become very personal attacks on me, that i was a groomer for children, that i support kiddie porn, and i did not feel like i could respond in an election. the other stuff that i was a poster child of some sort of liberal socialist, and may not running should be based on the facts and not the fiction. >> things have quieted down in the district. the 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.

♪ >> there is much more online, including a story about how ter issues continue to plague michigan cities. we look at a detroit suburb facing mounting debt because of water costs. that's at pbs.org/news. >> joined us again tomorrow night when we will hear about a reparations program in evanston, illinois, that is giving black residents when he $5,000 in cash payments. that is "the newshour" for tonight. >> thanks for joining us. have a good evening. >> major funding for "the pbs newshour" has been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and friends of "the newshour," including jim and nancy build there, and kathy and paul

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