Questions lurk around accused LA teacher. Just how polarized are we, really? Bird flu research – science for good or evil. The great debate: Eastside or Westside?
New allegations in the case against elementary school teacher
Angry parents are questioning how an elementary school teacher accused of lewd acts against 23 boys and girls from 2005-2010, went undetected for so long. The Miramonte third grade school teacher, Mark Berndt, was arrested Monday at his home, for allegedly gagging students with tape, putting a 3-inch long Madagascar cockroach on their faces and forcing them to taste his semen.
Following his first court appearance yesterday on felony charges, Berndt is being held on $23-million bail. Today, new allegations of more potentially inappropriate behavior by Berndt have surfaced. Two former students of Berndt’s said school officials were informed about his questionable behavior two decades ago.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the two former students, who are now in their 30’s, say they went to a school counselor about possibly inappropriate behavior and were told not to make up stories. The Times also broke the news earlier this morning that Berndt was accused, but never charged, of attempting to fondle a young girl in 1994.
That news came after school and law enforcement officials started combing over Berndt’s records looking for any indication that the teacher had exhibited suspicious behavior towards children in the 30 years that he taught them at Miramonte Elementary School. That’s what has parents and the public so concerned in this case. Berndt taught children for decades, if he’s a predator, were there any signs? If this had been happening all along, why did so many children stay silent? What psychological tricks and tools do child abusers use to ensure their victims stay quiet? Also, what factors lead parents and educators to ignore signs of possible abuse?
Guest:
Lindsey Combs-Ronto, Ph.D., Director of Research and Training, the Harbor-UCLA Child Crisis Center; also a supervising forensic evaluator
Below are some resources related to sexual abuse prevention and related services, courtesy of Dr. Combs-Ronto:
Books:
"I said No!: A Kid-to-Kid Guide to Keeping Your Private Parts Private" by Kimberly King and Sue Rama
"The Right Touch: A Read-Aloud Story to Help Prevent Child Sexual Abuse" by Sandy Kleven and Jody Bergsma
"Your Body Belongs to You" by Cornelia Maude Spelman and Teri Weidner
"A Terrible Thing Happened" by Margaret M. Holmes (Note: this book is good for children who have experienced a trauma)
"Please Tell: A Child's Story About Sexual Abuse (Early Steps)" by Jessie (Note: useful for children who have experienced sexual abuse)
Just how polarized are we, really?
‘Tis the season for campaign slug fests, negative political ads and extreme rhetoric. Given all this, it’s easy to get the sense that Americans are more divided than ever. According to a new Gallup poll, the first three years of President Obama’s time in office were the most politically polarizing ever, in terms of the gap between how Democrats and Republicans viewed him.
In 2011, 80-percent of Dems approved of Obama’s job performance, compared to 12-percent of Republicans. That 68-percent gap is the fourth-highest on record, going back to the Eisenhower administration, the poll shows. An article in the Washington Post extrapolates “that the country is hardening along more and more strict partisan lines.”
But there are those who argue that the partisan differences in D.C., and reported on in the media, are not reflective of the general public. In fact, political polarization among the public has barely budged at all over the past 40 years, according to research presented this week at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in San Diego, California. Not only that, but people vastly overestimate how polarized Americans are – a tendency toward exaggeration that’s especially strong in the most extreme liberals and conservatives.
WEIGH IN:
Does that mean we’re not as split it seems? If so, how does our perceived polarization impact the political process? Or is the so-called “Red-Blue divide” as bad as it appears – and getting worse? What – if anything – can be done about it?
Guests:
Frank Newport, Editor-in-Chief for the Gallup Poll
John R. Chambers, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Florida; Lead Researcher of the study “False Polarization in the American Electorate”
Bird flu research – science for good or evil
This week, a federal agency on biosecurity likened new bird-flu research to nuclear-bomb experiments. The risky research was being conducted by academic teams at the University of Wisconsin and in the Netherlands.
The researchers wanted to learn how a deadly avian flu could mutate into a virus transmissible from mammal-to-mammal. Their success at mutagenizing the highly pathogenic avian H5N1 alarmed many in the scientific community. As a consequence, the researchers were pressured to halt their work last month.
In a statement published Tuesday in “Nature,” the National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity explained its worries in a statement. "[T]hese scientific results also represent a grave concern for global biosecurity, biosafety and public health." The NSABB characterizes the work as “dual-use research” – science that could be used for good or bad purposes. The experimenters were also about to publish their findings in "Science" and "Nature."
A plethora of experts in virology and public health asked that the study results be largely redacted. Their worry is the science could get into the wrong hands. Moreover, some experts believe this research was too dangerous in the first place. Dr. Tom Inglesby, a leading infectious-disease doctor, argued in “The New York Times:” “The potential benefits of this research do not justify the potential dangers, so the research should be discontinued. While in almost all circumstances basic research should be fully disseminated in the science community, in this case the results should not be published in a way that allows them to be replicated by others.”
But how easy would it be to use this science for evil? Some of the contrarians believe these fears are unfounded and science is being mixed up with politics. Could these studies really be used to harm the public effectively? Is there a point at which science should be reined in – even if it could benefit humanity? And who should have the power to rein it in? How dangerous were these experiments? Were the researchers taking all possible precautions? Will these influenza researchers be forced to stop their work?
Guests:
Dr. David A. Relman, MD, Professor of Medicine and Microbiology, Stanford University; Voting Member, National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity; Chief, Infectious Diseases Section, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System
Philip Alcabes, professor of public health at School of Public Health at Hunter College, City University of New York; author of "Dread: How Fear and Fantasy have fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to Avian Flu"
The great debate: Eastside or Westside?
If there's one thing that divides Angelenos it's La Cienega, or Fairfax, or maybe even Western. For many of us, where we live says a lot about how we live. We may not identify strongly with our neighborhood, but our side of town often defines us, whether we like it or not.
Westsiders are all about the beach, nice restaurants and the entertainment industry. Eastsiders are artsy hipsters who will turn a flea-market inside out to find just the right mid-century sideboard. The Westside is hire a decorator – the Eastside is DIY (do-it-yourself). The Westside is Jose Andre's latest restaurant; the Eastside is your weekly locavore club's tomato tasting.
The differences are too many to count, with both sides believing that their way of life is the better way of life. Many an Angeleno would even turn their nose up at the idea of crossing some arbitrary boundary line between east and west.
But where that line lies is unclear. Callers ranged from the extreme, like a man from Venice who claimed everything after the 405 freeway was considered Eastside, to those like Anthony in West Hollywood, who thought the boundary should be aligned with a landmark like the L.A. river. So when did the dichotomy start to trend? Anthony posited that it could have to do with telephone area codes.
“One of the big instigations for creating these very clean boundaries was back in the 90s, when they broke up the area codes for telephones. The original 213 for all of LA became 310, 323, and 213, and I think a lot of people in their minds think that everything that’s 310 is Westside, and all the rest is the east side,” he said.
Still, east versus west might be more a state of mind. While Anthony lives in a central area of LA, he said his friends regard him differently depending on where they’re from.
But Frank from Highland Park noted that the differences between east and west are stark in racial, financial and cultural composition. “With the consolidation of arts going to major museums, and the lack of economic investment in the eastside, it’s like almost a forgotten place,” he said. “People say ‘Yeah, I went to the eastside for a burrito.’ The reality is [the Eastside is] not what it used to be.”
WEIGH IN:
But the question is: Where is that line? Is it a street? A freeway? A part of town? An attitude? Where does the Eastside become the Westside, and vice versa? There's even debate over how far east you have to go to be considered a true Eastsider. Many who consider themselves such would say Silver Lake and Echo Park, clearly! But how about if they're west of downtown? And what do those boundaries mean to you? What does it mean to be an Eastsider versus a Westsider? Does the actual geography matter? Or is all about a state of mind?