Contact: Producers Joel Patterson, Jasmin Tuffaha, Fiona Ng, Karen Fritsche, Kaitlin Funaro
626-583-5100
SCHEDULE FOR AIRTALK WITH LARRY MANTLE
Thursday, September 12, 2013
11:06 - 11:30
Topic: OPEN
Guest: TBD
11:30 - 12:00
Topic: Should schools send “Fat Letters” to parents? Some public schools in the country send the results of students’ BMI Screening home to parents that indicate their child’s BMI percentile and weight category. It’s also been referred to as “fat letters,” because it lets parents know if their child is overweight. The purpose of the letter is to inform parents of their child’s health, and its coming under some harsh criticism.According to a report published by Kristine Madsen, 13 states require BMI screening (Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee). Seven states, including California, require a fitness assessment that includes a body component. But only 9 states, like Massachusetts and Illinois, require parental notification of the results. In California, the state requires all students in 5th, 7th and 9th graders to take part in a “Fitnessgram” assessment. The results must be sent to the state, but individual school districts decide if the information is sent to parents. Proponents say that giving the parents the fitness results are necessary to reduce childhood obesity. Opponents say that if letters are sent out, they need to come with helpful information not just numbers. Others worry how this could affect students’ self esteem.Do you think parents should be notified of BMI Test Results? Do schools have a responsibility to monitor their students health? What impact can test results have on students’ self esteem?
Guest: Michael Flaherty, Pediatrician, Baystate Medical Center and Tufts University School of Medicine in Massachusetts. Member of American Academy of Pediatrics
Guest: Claire Mysko (MIS-koh), Manager of Proud2Bme [PROUD TO BE ME], the teen program of the National Eating Disorder Association based in New York
12:06 – 12:20
Topic: Has the Syria crisis impacted the way you look at President Obama? It's been a month of intense political maneuvering on the part of President Obama to deal pretty much with a no-win situation in Syria. Some think that the President has brought all that grief onto himself by drawing a red line on the use of chemical weapons. Others feel that the President should have acted more decisively, that he shouldn't have kicked the issue back to Congress. On top of all that, domestic support for a military strike against Syria has been tepid at best. A diplomatic solution presented itself this week in the form of an UN resolution that would lead to the disarmament of Syria’s arsenal, even though no census has been reached on how best to achieve that goal. How has the Syria conflict impacted your perception of the President? Does he appear weaker or stronger than before the crisis? How would this bolster or weaken the President's political capital in the remainder of his term?
Guest: Jonathan Wilcox, Republican Strategist; former speech writer for Governor Pete Wilson
Guest: Matt Rodriguez, Democratic strategist; former senior Obama advisor in 2008, who now runs the Los Angeles office for the Dewey Square Group
12:20 – 12:40
Topic: When is it okay to snap and share pics of strangers? Photography has become so easy, instantaneous, fleeting and disposable. To complicate matters, unless you're a flip-phone holdout, your smartphone isn't just equipped with precision cameras but a connection for sharing it with the entire world at the simple touch of your finger. While it is legal to photograph a stranger in a public place, is it ethical? If you snap a picture for well-intentioned reasons, does that make it okay? What if you sneak a photo of someone wearing a ridiculous or hideous outfit? Or someone who is embarrassingly drunk? And if you don't plan to share it on social media, does that make it okay? Do you have to ask permission first? Or should we all be on our best behaviour in our Sunday best, because it’s a free-for-all?
REQUESTED
Guest: Richard Koci Hernandez and/or Radcliffe Roye, Photojournalists
12:40 – 1:00
Topic: The future of Spanish in America: To Californians, it’s no surprise that Spanish is the most spoken non-English language in the U.S. today. There are already more than 37 million Spanish speakers nationally and their numbers are growing quickly, up 233% since 1980. Immigration and population growth account for much of it, but there are demographic shifts taking place that are projected to change the future of the Spanish language in America. As more Hispanics are born here, the share that speaks only English at home is expected to rise to 34 percent by 2020. As Latinos grow up speaking English, will it still be important to them to speak Spanish at home? Has your family transitioned from Spanish dominant to English dominant? As a Latino parent, how important is it for your kids to learn Spanish alongside English? How do you teach your kids Spanish – by starting them out on it at home or making sure they study it in school? Are you bilingual, but still watch and listen to Spanish-language media. Why?
Guest: Mark Hugo Lopez, Director of Hispanic Research, Pew Research Center
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