cancer-causing agents and because of the vicinity and the children that are involved. you didn't care. >> these parents have every reason to be angry. the children's school had toxic chemicals and even worse, they were the last to know. prescription for cheating. they read our x-rays, but the investigation reveals a disturbing question over the certification of many radiologists. >> isn't it cheating? >> revealing investigations. fascinating characters. stories with impact. this is cnn properties with your host tonight, brooke baldwin and dr. sanjay gupta. >> we begin with a rare look in anonymous. >> they are the shadowy and motley group of hackers and activists. drawn together by love of internet mischief. they are evolving into the movement of social change behind the wall street occupiers. they are hated by corporate security, but hunted by the fbi. >> one of the questions is who are these people and why are they taking to the streets? to get some answers, we step into the shadows. . >> it's a dark and disturbing vision. a world where riot police attack with immunity. >> she got shot! >> democracy is corrupted by greed and dissent is crushed. that's how anonymous sees america and they say that's why they are fighting back. >> we do not forgive. we do not forget. >> it's a movement that defies description. leaderless. faceless. >> this is our space! >> a loose collective born on the internet, anonymous has no official members and no hierarchy. but within the group, individual a nones have greater standing earned by skills as hackers, video makers. >> i record it myself. >> increasingly street level activists. troy, not his real name, is one of them. >> this is what happens when people have had enough. when greed goes unchecked. >> troy was drawn to occupy wall street after watching his mother struggle with medical debts. he is working two jobs to make ends meet. despite having a college degree. >> you lose track of days and time. it's worth it. all worth it. >> we met him at the occupy wall street camp at zuccotti park. >> the most specific person that talks to us. an idea is brought up and if the overwhelming number of people go with it, we go with it. >> we are following troy and he has been out there policing and making sure that all of these protesters are getting along with the community and not causing any problems. >> we are handling internal affairs as far as damage control and making sure everybody is respecting the local businesses around here. >> how's it going? >> she not just watching over the protests. he's also watching the police. part of the evolution of anonymous from hackers to activists. anonymous was born's decade ago in one of the weirdest and darkest corners of the internet. an anything goes image board called 4 chan. they post anonymously and the name stuck. >> we're do not forgive. >> they're adopted an identity and symbolism. a mask taken from the movie v for vendetta. a retelling of the english rebel and his plot to be with the house of lords in 1705. instead of gunpowder, anonymous uses the internet. anonymous attacks targets by flooding and crashing corporate and government websites or digging up and publicizing highly embarrassing information. it's called trolling. they troll targets out of genuine outrage, but also just for fun. >> lulz is like lol. >> gabriella coleman has been watching anonymous for years. >> for denote this is pleasure, humor, laughter. everything from something that is quite playful and harmless to engaging in a full-fledged trolling attack that are you milliates. >> operations or opes can be dramatic. in late 2010, a distributed denial of service attack took down the website of pay pal after the company cutoff support for the whistle blowers wiki leaks. >> people tend to get funds and truth in these dark times. >> 16 a nones were arrested by the fbi, charged with conspireing to intentionally damage pay pal's computers. >> this is a message from anonymous to the bay area rapid transit system. >> this summer anonymous attacked the san francisco area's public transportation system, bart. bart cut sele system within the system as a way of disrupting protest. anonymous's reaction was devastating and vicious. >> we will not issue any more warnings. >> op bart included the release of a naked photo of a senior bart employee. >> it makes you laugh sometimes and sometimes it makes you cringe or laugh and trinj at the same time. all of a sudden there is this dagger being thrown. >> a naked photo. >> do you feel like there is a fear out there of what they can possibly find or leak about a certain individual? >> absolutely. that's what makes them who they are. they are kind of bad boys and rude boys to some degree. there is a dual fascination and horror that goes on at the same time. >> be aware, be vigilant. >> anonymous was evolving using power to shock and disrupt to effect social change. during the arab spring, the collective emerges as an activist group. taking up the cause of tunesians fighting against a repressive regime, literally saving lives. >> the tunesian government made itself an enemy of anonymous. >> they did everything from take down government websites and they wrote scripts to top the fishing of passwords and they brought massive media attention to tunisia. >> last fall anonymous broke cover here at home, stepping out from behind their secure computer screens for a new cause. occupy wall street. >> there is a revolution brewing. >> suddenly the symbols were everywhere in energies, masks and banners. >> we are the 99%! >> when we return, pepper spray and anonymous strikes back. >> how are they getting your personal information of these officers? 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[ malwill be giving awayu can't passafree copiescation, of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. the shadowy group known as anonymous has grown beyond the hacker roots and emerging as a forceful weapon for the occupy movement. amber lyon takes you inside. >> anonymous likens itself to the air force of the occupy movement. >> everyone everywhere will tear down capitals and other spaces. >> anonymous has medics in san francisco. tech support in washington, d.c. and here in new york, guys like troy. troy, not his real name, is part of an army of citizen journalists by do you meaning the movement and broadcasting and when they see police misbehavior a, none muss strikes back, relosing personal information about specific officers. >> hopefully you will think twice before he pulls out his baton and they said we just want peace. >> how are they getting the cell phone numbers and personal information of the officers or bankers? >> i would rather not say. >> in september, an nypd officer was filmed pepper spraying two protesters. anonymous took direct action. >> held on to your phones. your servers and anything else we can find. one of the most active subgroups is called the cabin cr 3 w. their specialty doxing or combing the internet for all the information you can find about a target and releasing it publicly. >> injustices being committed by the new york police. >> they're compiled the name, home address, past legal actions, even the names of his family members and put it all online. after a police investigation and public pressure, he was placed on leave and reassigned to staten island. >> what do you think that did to the nypd when they saw officers information get posted on line? >> they think they would see it as a form of vigilanteism. they are pushing the boundaries of the law. i think some of the actions also reveal the ways in which a private security company or police are also acting outside of the boundaries of the law. >> a 99 muss's biggest coo was this. in a non-group called operation leaks posted on you tube. the next day the clip tops 100,000 views. three days later, 1.5 million. the casual yulty spraying cop had it all. >> peppy spraying student protesters. >> it was picked up by the mainstream and replayed over and over again. anonymous wants to frame the narrative of the occupy movement as a contest between peaceful protesters and a militarized police state. >> oh, my gosh! >> reality is not quite so clear cut. at occupy oakland protesters attacked the police with rocks and bottles. others erupted in a fury after a citier to down the encampment. >> they are trying to head into the main area and others are trying to keep them quiet and calm so the police don't have to get involved. >> we need help over here. >> you willing to fight us? you are doing their job. >> the anonymous pr machine focused solely on instances where the cops got out of line and they have plenty of ammunition. >> what happened? >> she got shot. >> during one night of chaos, police apparently fired a projectile directly at a former marine named scott olsen who was peacefully protesting. anonymous went into over drive. >> this is an unlawful assembly! >> scanning for police badge numbers and names, offering a reward for anyone who could identify the officer responsible. the case is under investigation. the differently homeland security has put out several alerts to law enforcement and corporate security focused mainly on the group's hacking activities and the fbi made more than a dozen arrests. >> but there is no indication that has cramped anonymous's style. their latest op? >> merry christmas and a happy new year to all on planet earth. >>or christmas day members crashed the website of a security research company. packing the client list with the credit card numbers in order to steal $1 million for donations to charity. >> we are anonymous. expect us. >> of course amber joins us here in studio. a little frightening. scary. >> especially for law enforcement. >> what if they get it wrong and put up information that is not accurate. do they have accountability? >> because of the way it is organized, anyone can claim anonymous and there is extreme out liars. law enforcement is intimidated by anonymous. we tried to get an interview and they refused to send an officer forward to the chopping block because they feared if this officer appeared on camera, they could be a target of anonymous. >> good story. coming up, is it possible that schools could be making your child sick? there is a hidden problem all-around the country and it's one that kids can't avoid. the parents at a public school thought they had won the jackpot. the children won the lotly to get the spots and one of the best public elementary schools. the school had a problem. it wasn't the teacher or the test scores or the kids. the problem was the building. it wasn't safe for the children. ps 51 is not alone. it's part of the ongoing reporting and our investigation found that all over the country children are going to schools that can make them sick. our first stop was ps 51. >> mare sol is helping her son get ready for the first day of school. brandon seems excited. mare sol seems nervous. >> i almost burned myself with this. >> this is more than a case of first day jitters. in august, weeks before school started, mare sol saw this emergency meeting notice taped to brandon's school. ps in the bronx. that nightmare sol joined an d >> first i want to start out by apologizing to all of you. >> he followed with disturbing news. >> we decided to do environmental reviews. your school came with a result we were not satisfied with with an elevated level of tce. >> tce is a kafr sin jen. prolonged exposure can cause parkinson's cancer or death. tests showed levels at 100 times worse than what's considered safe. >> based on the final test, we thought we needed to shut the building down. . >> parents are upset. >> you are using euphemisms. you are trying to be nice. a building was storing chemicals that were cancer-causing agents and because of the facility and the children that are involved, you didn't care. >> you guys first allowed it to be used as a school for our children. it's so inappropriate. >> parents were more upset by the fact that the department discovered it in january and parents were not told. children were kept in class through the end of the year. >> i voiced my displeasure for as far as the timeliness. from this point on whenever we get a positive notification around some type of environmental issue the parent community staff and school community will be notified immediately. >> i met her outside that contaminated school. >> the staff and the kids and the people who are in the building new nothing about this? >> the chancellor said he was sorry. >> how worried are you? >> very worried. >> this is the school right here. >> even brandon who is normally upbeat is worriyed. >> you like this new building? >> you know why you are in the new building. >> yeah. because of the tce chemical. >> what are do you know about it? >> it's a cancer-causing chemical. >> we wanted to ask why they didn't tell parents about the toxic femme cal, but after repeetd requests, his office declined to speak. >> for the callousness and recklessness of the behavior towards kids, this is as bad as i have ever seen. >> collins won a number of contamination suits for communities around the country. >> the people who ran the school and the consultants knew for at least six months that there were dangerous levels and some cases off the charts levels of chemicals in the area that these kids were breathing and yet they let the kids go there day in and day out, every day for the rest of a semester. unconscionable. >> the building should never have been a school. >> it's an old industrial site, not a place to have kids going to school. >> new york city records show ps 51 did house a car garage and a lamp factory. >> tce could have been left over waste. many schools on built on sites who dig up the past of foxic schools. >> we don't consider contamination before we decide where to put the school. particularly in new york city, we have the leased schools on leased properties, most are the former industrial sites. they had a policy of not looking for problems. >> he believes that ground and water testing should be mandatory. he also said ps 51 was probably always problematic. weeks before, parents were hit with more unsettling news. they had a common but toxic dry-cleaning chemical, pce. >> what are will happen to our children? >> parents showed up at another meeting in october to confront the chancellor. >> i first have to say dennis walcott, how dare you! >> they dismissed the test results as insignificant. >> there was an open container. once that was corrected they came back out. >> parents no longer trust the school system. >> what are you going to do? >> watch them consistently. any little thing he gets is going to be an alarm for me. he is 8 years old and it's scary. i have to see what's going to happen. i pray nothing will come of this, but you don't know. >> about a third of the schools have some kind of problem that causes respiratory problems in children. it is horrific. when i grow up, i want to fix up old houses. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. 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[ female announcer ] discover what's next in your life. get this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday. we have seen a school contaminated where many schools sit on the old industrial sites. >> my investigation found the problem goes far beyond the chemicals. 1/3 of our public schools have air quality that can cause respiratory problems. >> our kids spent about half of their waking day in school and there no standards for classrooms in the united states. >> it's quite shocking. on the second part of my investigation, schools that are making children sick. . >> in picturesque connecticut, a 250-year-old town. a typical school day at hinsdale, elementary. one fourth greater won't be there this morning or any morning. >> now if you look at him, what do you think? do you think he will be friendly? are. >> matthew's mother is home schooling her son this year. >> when he was out of school, he was well. when he was in school, he became ill. last year was by far his worst year. he missed more than 50 days of school. >> mold at hinsdale was making her son sick. >> this bag represents most of the medications that matthew was on last year. he was given this right before he went in the hospital. when he left school he left all this behind too. he needs none of it. this is garbage. >> this is actually a zero. >> alexandria's parents pulled her after a cough wouldn't go away. that was a tough decision because her father, paul, was on the school board at the time. >> she was put on a nebulizer and steroids and another medication. since she has been at parochial school she hasn't been on any of it. >> the school district spent $16,000 to get rid of the mold at hinsdale and the board is trying to decide whether to close the school temporarily to replace a leaky roof. only about 20 to 30% is susceptible to problems like mold or dust, but for those who are, the symptoms get increasingly severe. so many students and teachers were getting sick with problems that officials decided to tear down mckinley elementary and start from scratch. the school was riddled with mold. >> i started to get sick the second year when they put me in the basement classroom. >> the special ed teacher taught for 23 years before she was permanently disable