contributor steve perry is joining me now from hartford, connecticut. steve, good morning to you.ing samples in the lawsuit. here's one. take a look at this with me. you can make the school gooder by getting people that would do the job that is pay for. get a football tame for the kinds and other jam tacher for the school. a lot of tacher. there so many spelling and graf mat cal errors and this was written by an eighth grader. what do you make of this? >> nothing about that surprises me at all. 40% of sixth graders are coming in from two to four grade levels below. that's not the parent's fault, it's the school's fault. it's unconscionable that educators get paid to educate and don't educate. i believe this is easily among the most important in our generation. >> you have to wonder how the student even got to that grade given that this is the level they are at. >> because of complete educational neglect. in my book push comes to shove, i have a chapter where i said about two years ago someone is going to sue the district for real this time. not just for redistricting or something

steve perry, nice to see you, steve. >> reporter: thank you so much.ll. >>> still ahead, actress tamela mann is in the most talked about movie of the summer. we'll talk to her about "sparkle." that was the last movie for whitney houston and the first for jordan sparks. she is with us live. .. does your cauliflower have a big carbon footprint? not at all. that's great. melons!!! oh yeah!! well that was uncalled for. uhh... mr. gallagher. incoming!!! hahaha! it's wasteful. you know jimmy. folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico sure are happy. how happy, ronny? happier than gallagher at a farmers' market. get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. you know what's exciting? graduation. when i look up into my students faces, i see pride. you know, i have done something worthwhile. when i earned my doctorate through university of phoenix, that pride, that was on my face. i am jocelyn taylor. i'm committed to making a difference in people's lives, and i am a phoenix. visit phoenix.edu to find the program that'

seconds contributor, steve perry weighs in now. >> patienrents, when a teacher s to you and says theyd has add or adhd, you must ask questions. for instance, ask questions about the child's behavior. what exactly is he or she doing that makes you feel this way? make sure they explain it to you in full. ask questions about the strategies being used in the classroom. what are you doing when he does this or she does that. how do you respond? how does it relate to the rest of the class? help me understand the age appropriateness of this behavior. is it consistent with what a 5, 6, 7 or 8-year-old boy or girl should do. then consult your pediatrician. your pediatrician will only have the information you as educators gave. we have to be on top of this as a parent. you can't just allow what we say in the classroom and what an educated guess from a pediatrician says to determine what is going to happen with your child. add and adhd often come not just with a label but medication. not every child responds really well to that. >> the latest advisory, latest on isaac, just in, details next. [ ma

here's cnn's education distributor steve perry. >> reporter: you struggled in school, what ways?> when i was younger i was labeled with a learning disability. so of course that affected reading and spelling. i always felt like i'm a normal kid, yeah, it might have took me a little longer to get one word or something like that, but when i got it, i got it. >> reporter: you say you were labeled. what does that mean to you? >> i felt like it was the easier way to just say oh, she has a disability, you know, it wasn't like we're not going to just give her some extra time or not going to just try to help her. it hurt, but i actually looked at it more as like i'm going to prove you all wrong. >> once the child is labeled and then they feel that they can't keep up with the other kids, and at the time, they was labeling here. oh she got adhd. give her some medicine. medicine? she's not going to any pills. i fought. i asked them to evaluate her. i went to her doctor, did as much as i could to get her fewers outside. i called the counselor, want the teachers to meet, six to three months me

steve perry, cnm education contributor, founder of capital prep school in connecticut.ven in the scheme of shocking things when you hear about schools, this one, the school-to-prison pipeline, they weren't joking about that. >> reporter: they weren't. and what's most important, soledad, is the people who supposedly run this school have completely lost control. and as a result they're calling the police in to take care of what should be simple acts that children do. if the kids cussed or if the kids had a dress code violation, are we really saying the next step is it to call the police? and then we're going to continue to employ you as an administrator in our community, employ you as a teacher in our community? the sad part about this is even though the justice department has found issue with what's happening in meridian county, the children are the ones who will have to go back to this horrible academic setting. i use academic very lightly. >> so let's talk about race and all of this as a factor because the fact it's a predominantly black school is not incident al to th

. >> the thing about journey playing, instead of steve perry they have a filipino lead singer which means outsourced journey. [ laughing ] >> jennifer: i wonder how much they have to pay for the talent. >> cenk: i've seen a report that they paid one of the bands $500,000. >> jennifer: i've seen that david polk is a delegate there at the convention. he made some news today which says that he actually disagrees with the g.o.p. constants on gay marriage, and he believes that the u.s. needs to consider raising taxes to balance the budget. that's david koch. as in the koch brothers david koch. have you seen him down there? >> i haven't run in to him. we've seen ryan ross who said he jumped off of a boat, covered his nametag and walked right into his car. i don't know that story. but if david koch says it i guess the republicans are going to raise taxes. >> jennifer: and gay marriage will be part of the platform. that's clear. >> they'll have a difficult time arguing with him just like they have a difficult time arguing with him with all the other things that he wants done. but i think this is

steve handelsman, nbc news, tampa. >> here's a look at what is coming at new at 6:00. >> a state and opened fire in the cafeteria at perry hall high school. once did and is wounded and another in custody -- once didn't is wounded. >> we will hear from parents and students as the chaotic moments unfolded after that shooting. >> i am tim tooten with the latest from the school superintendent here in towson. >> you are watching wbal-tv 11. this is 11 news at 6:00 p.m. >> i looked around and i saw the gun and we jumped under a table. someone got shot, and it was really horrifying. >> a day supposed to be filled with new faces, new classes, and new memories was rocked by terrifying tragedy. police say ace didn't open fire on another, plunging the first of school into absolute chaos -- police say ace didn't opened fire -- a student open fire. >> around 10:55 this morning, a 15-year-old student walked into the perry high school cafeteria and open fire. we have team coverage of the perry hall shooting. our reporters have more on the shooter and the intense emotions that students and parents and teachers are undergoing. david coll

governor scott walker, senator portman, rick santorum, rudy guiliani and governor perry, all within the next two hours. >> steve next door has got pretty much every prominent republican in the political universe for the convention. last night was the first official night. it was supposed to start the night before that. but because of isaac, things were put on hold until last night and the republicans took the stage and for the most part, the message was this: the current president of the united states has failed in his job. it's time for him to go and replace him with that man in the picture, mitt romney. >> mr. president, i'm here to tell you the american people are awake and we're not buying what you're selling in 2012! [ cheers and applause ] this is our story. this is our america. this is the america we know because we built it! [ cheers and applause ] >> big government didn't build america. you built america. small businesses don't come out of washington, d.c. premade on flat bed trucks. >> we deserve a president who won't sacrifice american jobs and american workers to pacify the bullying union bosses he

steve: is that our recall music? next, 20 million dollars, how much american idol reportedly offered katy perry to be one of the new judges finally, 1,000% how big of a tip they left for the waitress, $500 on a $42 check and told her to keep the change. way to go. all right, over to you. >> the obama administration is being accused of quote, cooking the books to show record high deportation numbers. >> 397,000 deportations were reported. according to internal documents, the real number should be 360,000, so, how does something like that happen? >> joining us right now. former doj official, hans, how does something like this happen? >> well, what they did, without telling anyone, they are the sta started including the deportation numbers, the people stopped at the border by the border patrol. that is entirely different things, those are people shoved back across the border. that's not the same as deportations of illegal aliens inside the country and have been here for a while. >> gretchen: and you also say that you have information that immigration judges are ruling about deportations that are not actually carried through

steve, i will ask you to help me, there is a lot of feedback and a sound, getting every word i say back in my own ear perry> we will try to work at that. next week we will be in charlotte, north carolina, for the democratic convention. i know the podium will be unveiled later this week, but give us a sense of what that things will become of what we can expect, and what contrast you want to draw with but republicans are doing this week? >> as you may know, we had the notion that it was incredibly important after we sat down and president obama sat down with voters across the country and asked them, what was important to them when it came to hearing from the democratic party and from president obama on how they wanted to go through the nominating process. our focus groups told us that it was incredibly important to make sure we opened up the convention even more. in two dozen 8 we were so proud that president obama accepted and may -- in 2008 we were so proud that president obama accepted the convention in a community in the west when the president accepted the nomination in denver. that was an open to the p