North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 07/08/1998

We are. It's Wednesday July 8th. Tonight the debate surrounding the racial make up of charter schools in North Carolina now. Hello I'm read of a try thanks for joining us tonight for North Carolina now. African-American women have a higher mortality rate from breast cancer than do

white women. Our guest tonight is a researcher from YOU SEE YOU who set out to discover why that's the case. His findings may surprise you. But up first tonight the latest debate surrounding charter schools after their first full year in operation in North Carolina charter schools are getting pretty good reviews from parents. The schools are publicly funded and they are free of most regulations that govern traditional schools. Supporters say they encourage academic success through innovative ways of learning. But as producer John Arnold shows us these new schools are bringing up old questions about racial balance in education in a church sanctuary above the windowless basement that is healthy start Academy. A celebration is taking place and expanding because they feel right proud because these children and parents many of them for the first time are celebrating academic achievement. It's why most of these parents pulled their kids from schools in inner city germ and enrolled them in a charter school at the

beginning of the year I mean I requested the forms. I'm new to the area. First you must be attuned to what I did was I got all the support. No no I was not happy with the result. What Jacqueline that Millan salt was a disproportionate number of black students falling through the cracks of the traditional public school system. After more than a year in a Durham Public School to various Williams grandson Yvonne could not recites the alphabet. They have put some of the fun to the Koran. They just assumed that he couldn't read. He couldn't do math. They assume that you know they are blaming everybody. Oh you know blame everybody but themselves. But does the Let him prove that he can now pick up a book and read it. And to various Williams isn't the only one singing praises for charter schools on national achievement tests kindergartners here scored in the 99 percentile first and second graders also showed marked improvement.

But when it all started at allin the first thing I did was cry because and I got this but I have goosebumps now as I speak. But behind the smiles and the goosebumps uncertainty looms over how he starts the future. Despite the school's apparent success some administrator sphere healthy start will have to close because the school is racially unbalanced. More than 99 percent of the student body is black according to state law charter schools must reasonably reflect the racial makeup of their communities. Principal Tom Williams says that's not likely to happen. I don't anticipate a lot of whites are going to leave them middle class neighborhoods and come to this low class black neighborhood. Putting kids in school so we have this problem of people not wanting to come here. Charter school supporters stress the schools are open to any child. Parents choose to roll their kids. One of the nation's leading civil rights lawyers argues that the charter school debate goes far beyond the issue of choice. Kind of a return to where we were before desegregation of schools.

Julius chambers won the one thousand nine hundred two Supreme Court case that approved bust seen as a way to desegregate schools. Today is chancellor of North Carolina Central University. He continues to argue for diversity in the classroom. Without it he says students are missing out on an important lesson in life. Students don't learn about different groups they don't learn to be appreciate or to be tolerant people who may differ. But Tom Williams says putting white kids and black kids in the same classroom doesn't necessarily mean they will learn to be tolerant. Show me one adult community that's integrated because people went to elementary school to get doesn't work. What works. Thought for desegregation is money owning us. OK I get these kids ready A's kids are going to go out of school able to compete with anybody in America academically and the jobs they get are going to be superior jobs. Now they have superior jobs and making some period dollars.

You're going to wind up in mixed race neighborhoods because they're going to go with the people who are like then that's the way you desegregate a society. You don't do it with kids in a playground. It's a debate the state Board of Education has been wrestling with for months. The board after all has the authority to revoke a school's charter if it isn't in compliance with the law. But at least one member has no intention of closing charter schools for the racial make up. So what I want to shut down a school because it's done makes some racial quota we don't shut down the traditional public schools that don't meet a rifle quota. And unless the court gets involved I'm not going to vote today that I don't believe a majority on the board will. But charter school supporters fear it will be a court not the board of education that will close down their schools. That's why they want to change the law by removing the current racial balance requirement if successful charter schools would only have to make a good faith effort to achieve racial balance.

That's a proposal that does not sit well with an author of the original charter school law. All public schools including charters need to see education as reflective of diversity. Senator Gali adds that no charter school should worry about closing because of racial makeup. He says as long as schools are making reasonable progress over time toward achieving racial diversity they're meeting the intent of the law. This fear that some are going to shut down is really not justified it's unfortunate that a few people really are going around spreading this malicious rumor. But no doubt the issue over race will continue to raise questions among those who run the charter schools. They say it's not race but a new and different approach to learning that works in charter schools. Of course Julius chambers will tell you it also works in traditional ones. This is interesting here in Durham. We're beginning to close second not with charter schools but with the regular public schools and recent test results appear to back that statement up thanks to

new and innovative teaching methods. Durham County the school district criticized so severely for letting black students fall through the cracks is now boasting significant gains in their academic performance. But traditional. Do you still have a long way to go. Which is why most of these parents say they will keep their kids right here and healthy start where the principal promises results. Children in this program by third grade will be excellent readers writers and mathematicians. But some educators point out that it's difficult to judge a school's success after just one year of testing. They say it takes several years to see real results. Well coming up on North Carolina now nature's way of keeping a baby clean and dry. It's a story you won't want to miss. But right now it's time to check in with Michel Louis for summary of today's statewide headlines. Thanks Zoraida. Good evening everyone. Topping our news the group farmers for fairness has filed a federal lawsuit challenging certain sections of North Carolina's campaign laws. The

lawsuit seeks to overturn that portion of state law which defines a political action committee as well as sections dictating which groups must file reports on spending and contributions. This past spring the State Board of Elections ordered farmers for fairness to register as a political action committee. The lawsuit is asking that the state be barred from enforcing that action. A ruling by the State Court of Appeals will make it easier for neighbors of industrial hog farms to win nuisance claims related to hog waste odor in a 2 to 1 decision the court struck down the defense used by hog farmers that by using state of the art technology they were absolved of responsibility made a nuisance claims. The ruling means meeting government standards for hog farms does not exempt a farm from being found a nuisance. One lawyer for the hog farmer said his client respectfully disagrees with the Court of Appeals decision. Attorney General Mike Easley says the state does have the authority to limit a blatant County Hawk slaughtering operation to 24000 hogs per day and an advisory opinion to legislators. Easily said the state Division of water

quality can limit the capacity at the Smithfield Foods plant and what she called quote this narrowly tailored circumstance but easily says there may be no legal standing for a proposal to prohibit the slaughter house from accepting hogs from farms that have violated pollution standards. Both chambers of the state legislature have approved a bill giving towns more authority to regulate adult entertainment businesses. Under the measure many many towns may impose ordinances on adult businesses if they can show specific negative impacts like lower property values or increased crime. However local authorities will also have to show the ordinances will relieve that negative impact. Governor Hunt must sign the measure before it can take effect. North Carolina has reimbursed the U.S. Defense Department over thirty one thousand dollars for the use of National Guard members at the governor's inauguration last year. The guardsmen were used to a simple bleachers direct traffic serve as military escorts for dignitaries and perform various other jobs. State officials say the guard was not used any differently last year than in past inaugurations

and they were surprised when the Pentagon complained about the practice. A spokesman for the National Guard Bureau says federally paid Guard members should not perform such tasks. And now for a look at tomorrow's weather. High temperatures across most of the state will range from the upper 80s to low 90s mostly sunny skies are in the forecast for the western part of the state while the eastern half should see partly cloudy skies with a slight chance for showers or thunderstorms. In business news North Carolina's construction industry showed a 10 percent increase in 1907 over the year before. The State Department of Labor says Together commercial and residential construction brought in a total of eleven point four billion dollars during 1997. The majority of residential construction was for single family units making up five point nine billion dollars. Mecklenburg and wake counties lead the state in overall construction. Employees a Duke Energy's nuclear station may face a vote on whether to accept union representation. This will be the third time a union vote has come before workers at the South Carolina plant. A spokesman for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers says

some of the plant employees are unhappy with the recent changes in the company's pay raise and pension plans and they have asked for representation workers a duke's Catawba and require nuclear plants are in the early stages of union organization. And now for a look at what happened on Wall Street today. Socio economic factors combined with cultural beliefs and attitudes play a role in the

delayed diagnosis of breast cancer in African-American women. That's according to research conducted at East Carolina University. Joining me now to tell us more about this study is Dr. Donald Blanton the director of the Leon Jenkins Cancer Center at University Health Systems of eastern Carolina and a professor of surgery at used Carolina University School of Medicine. Doctor welcome to the program. To be here. You basically conducted the study because you were finding that African-American women had a higher mortality rate of breast cancer correct right. Both in North Carolina and nationally African-Americans are about 15 percent more likely to die of breast cancer than are white Americans. And most of the reason for this is that they present with later stage disease the stage of a cancer means the size of the cancer and whether it's spread to lymph nodes and and distance spread. And on the average African-American women are more likely to come in with larger tumors and more advanced tumors. And this accounts for this mortality difference.

And you say isn't it that the incidence rate of breast cancer is actually less. It's in African-American women with the same but the incidence is actually a little less in African-Americans. But the chance of dying of it is much greater. So why aren't African-American women getting the medical treatment that they need. Well that's really what we hope to answer with this study and we started about 10 years ago. We found that our patients like like most other African-American women come in with very large tumors. And we tried to find the answer to this and what we found is part of it is social economic. African-American women are less likely to have health insurance. They have a lower income and they're less likely to have screening mammograms. And so certainly part of the answer has to do with just access to care and so forth. What we found though is that didn't seem to be the whole answer. In addition we found some cultural and belief differences between African-American women and white women and I think that's the part of the study that's really

sort of unique that that other people hadn't focused on. What are some of those cultural differences and belief differences. Well they're they're kind of complex it's a little hard to describe but many of them have to do with what might be termed folk beliefs or different beliefs. For example a belief that's fairly common in this area is that air that comes in contact with a tumor during surgery can cause it to spread. And this is a belief that it's very uncommon up in the northern part of the United States but in eastern North Carolina about 75 percent of African-American women believe this in about a third of white women. So I think one thing I do want to point out is none of these beliefs are specific to just African-American women but many of them are more common in African-American women. And some of them we think do inhibit people from coming in for a diagnosis of a breast cancer for example this belief about the air. I have women that come with a lump to me and and I'll tell them Well we really need to do a biopsy or remove the lump and they're not

afraid of surgery. They'll say well fine Doctor go ahead and remove the lump as long as it's not a cancer. But if it's a cancer just leave it there don't touch it. Because of this this fear about the air causing it to spread. Did you find any differences among the age of the women I mean did older women hold this belief more than younger women. In general there wasn't a strong difference by age. It seemed to be that many of these beliefs were associated with lower income and with less education. But with the most the strongest association was with race. Did you have a difficulty conducting this study I mean it it seems that these were a group of women that have a tendency not to seek out medical treatment at the same time here comes a medical doctor asking them some very personal question generates. Well the study we had about 540 women that over the seven seven or eight years had agreed to participate in the study and the interview was actually not done by myself but it was done by a trained interviewer that actually

was was matched to their same race so African-American women were interviewed by an African-American interviewer. And it was. Actually done in their homes and and the women were were very happy to participate and we really didn't have any anybody complained or anything they were more than happy to share their stories and and help. So now that we know that we have these socio economic barriers and these cultural beliefs being barriers to getting proper proper medical care how do we go about then changing some of these attitudes to get these women to get the treatment they need. Well we're hoping to develop some educational programs and materials over the next couple years that that might help some of them. I gave the example about the Arab relief and that seems to be fairly straightforward a matter of just educating women some of the other beliefs are more difficult. There are deep seated beliefs about differences in family relationships and willingness to talk about a breast lump but they're

husband and things like that that that may be somewhat more complicated and more difficult to change. But I think just understanding the underlying culture will help a lot in developing better educational materials and and changing people's behaviors in terms of when they come in with a breast lump and you actually have a study underway to help with that or. Yeah yeah. Based on the background study that we did initially we've gotten a large grant from the Army breast cancer program. And so over the next two or three years we're going to be developing these programs and educational materials. Dr. LEINEN fascinating information I appreciate you coming here tonight to sharing and sharing it with our viewers. Well I was pleased to be here thank you. Thank you. And this article written by the East Carolina University researchers was published in the June 10th issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. If

you've done any amount of gardening you're familiar with SPAG no moss it's a decorative cover for plants and use just peat moss when dried but producers Derek and Ginger long Tell us about an innovative use for this absorbent green substance. This lush green carpet is Spagna Moss when aged dried it becomes peat moss and is used both horticulturally and as fuel. But when fresh and newly dried it has another use as naturalist and storyteller Doug Elliott discovered. It's made to be a diver. I mean well first of all you say you go hiking in the woods. You would take your little little tyke in the backpack and go for a hike in the woods and you got to come home with dirty diapers I mean you got to get a whole bag of all these all these dirty diapers well you just use this bag no moss you can just take it and then just like as if you yourself are taking care of nature's call in the woods. You just scrape back that leaves down into the into the subsoil and then just bury it under the leaves and that's

recommended for any campers. Jesse Parry director of public programs at the North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences agrees that the unique properties of Spagna Moss make it reasonable to use as a diaper Sagna Moss is actually a true Moss and it lives in acidic areas. It has little dead cells in it which fill up with water and it can absorb many many many times its weight in water. And I'll show you how it was Herman it is. You can wring it out like a sponge. It just has water coming out like mad. It also produces chemicals which help keep things from rotting and probably are used to help eliminate other plants from its habitat. The high acidity of Magnum Moss and these antiseptic chemicals which it produces are the reasons that it was used as a dressing a wound dressing up through World War 2. And it's the same characteristics that would let you use it for instance as a diaper on a baby entry.

We decided to give it a try with our son Elijah on a recent out into the Blue Ridge Mountains. How do you use fag moss while you take modern 20th century diaper cover and you take this back to MA and then when you laid in you know and more in the front for the boys. More in the back for the girls. Be sure you pick out all the pine needles and and then see how to sort of spread it out and fluff it. Feel the back of your hand to be sure there's nothing bristly and then simply add baby. We found that the mouse was comfortable for Alija and that it actually whipped moisture away from his skin leaving a powdery residue that feels like talcum powder. You really do need to use a big wad of moss though to prevent leakage. So where do you get Spagna most. You can't just pick it up at any gardening store. You have to harvest it in the wild.

Generally the the most prevalent growth of stagnant Spagna Moss are on the coastal regions. In those pines of Venice and various areas like that. And and they want this acidic boggy areas and then you almost always there will be stagnant Moss and there's areas that grows in the mountains and and and also on the Piedmont in the summer seems to be the best time when it's when it's sort of sort of has a lot of new growth to gather and you just go out into a bog and pick it up off the surface you want to take mostly the green stuff. Elliott emphasizes that for use as a baby's diaper it's important to select only fresh live Spagna Moss and then to dry it completely as soon as possible which are old moss confirm it and it would not be desirable for use in a diaper. I lay it all out to let dry as much as possible while I'm gathering the rest of it carried out in a basket and then spread it out to dry and then went in and then then to often take it home and lay it out in a hot sunny spot and let it dry the rest of the way until it's absolutely dry keep turning it calling up the pine needles in the sticks.

Most diapers seem to be a very reasonable option for diapering on the trail but for most people they wouldn't be practical for every day. We don't use it so much as an everyday diaper just around the house because we're always shedding little bits of moss. But as a travel diver some might think using Spagna moles to keep babies drying clean is a radical idea but it's really a very old idea being brought into a new life. I guess all of our Northern European ancestors if you go far enough back and probably all Northern Native Americans and any area where it is grown this is Bennett use Linnaeus back in the seventeen hundred a trip to Lapland. He talked about how they would they would actually line their cradles with this magnum last night which would change out all the parts and get the babies warm and dry and clean all the time. Still don't expect to see a lot of SPAG babies out there and if you try it on your baby be prepared to explain to curious observers what one felt

was watched as we were tears of a viewer looking that divers that are saying that voice video a little too much fiber. If you'd like to know more about the possibilities of moss diapers you can contact Elliot at 8 2 8 2 8 7 2 9 6 0. Well you and CTV had planned to bring you a live broadcast of ask the governor tonight. However Governor Hunt has had to postpone tonight's program. We are working to reschedule. Asked the governor as soon as possible. But on tomorrow's edition of North Carolina now you would see Greensboro Chancellor Patricia Sullivan will be our guest. She'll be here to tell us about a program that U.N. S.G. is working on to help second graders learn to read. The program has already proven successful here in North Carolina and now it's being expanded to other states. Also tomorrow we'll examine efforts by the state to reinvigorate a family farms throughout North Carolina. Enjoy your evening everyone and we'll see you back here tomorrow night. Good night.

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