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Withdrawal/Redaction Sheet
Clinton Library
DOCUMENT NO.
SUBJECT/TITLE
DATE
RESTRICTION
AND TYPE
001. fax
To Toby Graff from Kate Carr [Personally Identifiable Information]
10/14/1998
b(6)
[partial] (1 page)
COLLECTION:
Clinton Presidential Records
First Lady's Office
Lissa Muscatine
OA/Box Number: 20080
FOLDER TITLE:
School Safety Conference
2015-0275-S
rc2045
RESTRICTION CODES
Presidential Records Act - |44 U.S.C. 2204(a)]
Freedom of Information Act - [5 U.S.C. 552(b)]
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personal privacy [(b)(6) of the FOIA]
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concerning wells [(b)(9) of the FOIA]
RR. Document will be reviewed upon request.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
October 15, 1998
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON SCHOOL SAFETY
The East Room
1:28 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Your kindness is interfering
with my determination to stay on schedule. (Laughter.) But thank
you very much. I want to thank Secretary Riley and Attorney General
Reno for their devotion and consistent work on this matter. I thank
the Vice President. He and Hillary and I are delighted to have all
of you here at the White House today, and the many, many people all
across America who are joining us, thanks to the technological
revolution.
I thank the members of Congress who are here. And,
Governor, thank you for coming -- and the mayors and the other
members of the administration, and all the distinguished citizens who
are here. Our good friend, Edward James Olmos, thank you for being
here.
I saw a survey, a public opinion survey a few months ago
that asked the American people what they thought the most important
story of the first six months of 1998 was, and dwarfing everything
else was the concern our people had for the children who were killed
in their schools. And I think that your presence here and the number
of people who are involved all across America, the quality of the
panelists and, indeed, the courage of many of them -- the mother of
one of the children killed at Jonesboro, Arkansas, in my home state,
was on the morning panel with Hillary -- this is truly a moving
thing. And it's a very important thing for our country.
You know, when I leave here -- and I hope I don't have
to leave before this panel is over, but I think all of you know that
we have been able to put together a conference for several days, a
meeting between the Prime Minister of Israel and the Chairman of the
PLO in our attempts to make the next big step toward peace in the
Middle East. And I got to thinking about it on the way over here
today, as I was walking over from the Oval Office, and all the things
I'm trying to get these people to lay down and get over and give up,
so they can go on with their children's future, so that we can stop
innocent children from being killed in the place in the world that is
the home of the world's three great monotheistic religions.
It's all a part of our attempt not to give up on anybody
and not to permit hatred or anger to destroy even one child's life
anywhere. And if we're going to do that elsewhere in the world, to
try to be a force for good, then we have to be as good as we can here
at home. And all of you are trying to help us achieve that, and I'm
very, very grateful to you.
Because this is the only chance I'll have to do it
today, and because all of you care so much about education, I'd like
to just take a moment to talk about where these budget negotiations
are on Capitol Hill. They're about to concluded, I hope -- they've
certainly gone on long enough. But we're not quite there yet.
However, even though there are still points outstanding, I believe
we'll succeed. And as the Vice President said, one thing we know
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already, we know that now this budget will reflect a major commitment
to education and to the future of our children.
I am very pleased it will make the first installment on
our plan to hire 100,000 new teachers. (Applause.) You heard the
Vice President's catalogue of the class size issue, but the Secretary
of Education tells me that we haven't fully grasped it because,
unlike the baby boom, we think that this increase in our children
will go on more or less indefinitely, and we've got a lot of very
fine teachers in the classroom who will be retiring in the next few
years. So this is a huge challenge for us.
The United States has never before done anything like
this. And there were a lot of people who honestly thought I was
wrong to fight for this or they disagreed with me, but it seems to me
that we had enough experience when we put 100,000 police on the
street. I was told the United States had never done anything like
that before. We didn't have anything to do with telling the cities
where the police should go, but the results have been pretty
satisfactory. And everywhere I go, someone mentions it to me.
If it worked there and we have crime at a 25-year low,
how much more important is it to put the children in the classroom?
And this will make a major down payment toward our goal of an average
class size of 18 in the early grades -- very different from what has
been reported.
And I should also say that when the Attorney General and
the Secretary of Education went out across the country in the wake of
all of these school shootings, and they met with educators and they
met with people talking about how we can prevent these things from
happening in the first place, one of the things that they were told
was, get us small classes in the early grades so that we can get to
know these children, find out the ones who obviously have got some
serious problems, and try to get them the help they need before their
lives and others' are irrevocably changed. So this is a very, very
good day for the United States.
There were some other very important educational
initiatives that will be fully supported -- our child literacy drive,
to make sure every child can read independently by the end of the 3rd
grade; our college mentoring drive to help lower-income students
prepare for college and to be able to tell every one of them what
kind of financial aid they'll get if they stay in school and learn
their lessons and stay out of trouble.
It increases support for Head Start, expands the number
of innovative charter schools. There are now 1,000 of those schools
in America; there was one when I became President, and there will be
3,000 before we're done in 2000.
We will provide for half a million summer jobs for our
young people, a program that many had sought to eliminate. It will
provide for after-school programs for a quarter million young people.
And I think we all know how important that is.
I'm very, very grateful for the strong support I have
received from the members of my party in the Congress to turn away
attempts to actually cut funds from our public schools and instead to
renew our historic commitment to them, to more and better-trained
teachers, to smaller classes, to hooking up all those classrooms to
the Internet by the year 2000, for extra support for children who
need it, for accountability and choice.
This is what I mean by putting partisanship behind
progress, by putting people ahead of politics. And I am grateful to
all those in both parties who are responsible for pulling this
agreement together.
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There's still a lot to be done. A lot of these teachers
we'll hire will have to hold class in trailers or hallways, or
crowded or crumbling classrooms. I proposed in the State of the
Union a targeted tax cut for school modernization that was fully paid
for, wouldn't take a dime from the surplus, won't create a single new
federal bureaucracy, but it will lower the cost of building these
buildings. It could mean as much as 300 new schools in Florida alone
next year.
If our children are learning in trailers and schools
with broken windows and where the wiring won't even permit them to be
hooked up to computers, then we're not getting them ready for the
21st century. So I do want to say, while I am profoundly grateful
for the 100,000 teachers, I am determined to see that we finish the
job next year in the next Congress. (Applause.)
Now, I also want to thank the First Lady for her role in
this conference. We've been at this a long time. In 1983, when I
was governor of our state, I asked Hillary to chair a commission on
school standards, and one of the things that we fought hardest for,
that was very controversial at the time, was to have a class size
limit of 20 in the early grades. And 15 years ago, it was a hard
fight, and we got it. And I haven't checked the numbers yet, but I
bet, given the growth in population in our schools, they're being
swamped and hard-pressed to meet it. And we really believe that
making this a national goal and sticking with it will pay major,
major benefits to our children all across the country.
Let me also say what I've already said a little bit of.
The American people -- if I had been polled, I would have been right
there with them. I think that all of us were shocked by the violence
we saw in Springfield and Paducah and Jonesboro and Edinboro and
Pearl. I think we're still disturbed when we see the sights of metal
detectors in school doorways or see gangs of young people who are on
the streets when they ought to be in the halls of their schools.
We know that there are still some schools where children
are afraid to go to school. And doing something about school
violence, therefore, is very important, but also we have to
understand the nature, the magnitude of the problem. Why do some
teenagers from some troubled backgrounds pick up guns and open fire
on their classmates? Why do some teenagers who don't appear to have
trouble at home do the same thing? What is at the bottom of this and
what can we really do?
You know, I have to say this and I'm not blaming
anybody because I've done it myself, so I will posit the fact that I
have done this but when people are in elected office and they hear
about a problem like this, and they know the people they're doing
their best to represent are afraid, the first impulse is always to
say, well, if we just punish them a little harder and a little faster
and kept them a little longer, everything would be all right. Now,
the truth is that some people are so far gone and what they have done
is so heinous that that is the appropriate thing to do. But I have
never met a police officer in my life who believed that we could
punish our way out of our social problems without other appropriate
actions not one time. And I think we're all here because we
believe in a good society we would stop more bad things from
happening in the first place.
The report that's being released today tells us that the
vast majority of our schools are safe, that the majority of our
children are learning in peace and security. But it also tells us
that in too many schools students feel unsafe. Even if they're not,
if they feel unsafe it's going to have a huge detrimental impact on
their ability to learn and grow and relate to their fellow students
in an appropriate way.
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In too many schools, there is still too much disrespect
for authority and still too much intolerance of other students from
different backgrounds. Our schools, all of them, must be sanctuaries
of safety and civility and respect.
Now, here are some things that I think we can do to help
you meet the challenge. First, in the schools with the biggest
violence problems, security has to be the top priority. Today, I am
pleased to announce a new $65-million initiative to help schools hire
and train 2,000 new community police and school resource officers to
work closely with principals and teachers and parents and the
students, themselves, to develop antiviolence and antidrug plans,
based on the actual needs of individual schools. Community policing
has helped to make our streets safe; it can work for our schools,
too.
I'm also very pleased that Congressman Jim Maloney of
Connecticut has sponsored a bill to help schools use the funds
available for hiring the community police officers to hire officers
to work with the schools. This bill was passed by the House and
Senate and it will get up here to me in a day or two and I'll look
forward to signing it into law.
Second, we have to help schools recognize the early
warning signs of violence and to respond to violence when it does
strike. Today, I want to tell you that soon I will be sending to
Congress a plan to create a School Emergency Response to Violence,
the SERV Program, that will work just as FEMA does when it responds
to natural disasters. Project SERV will travel to where the trouble
is and help communities respond quickly to school violence, from
helping schools to meet increased security needs, to providing
emergency and longer-term mental health crisis counseling for
students, faculty and their families.
Now, let me just say a word here of appreciation to
somebody who is not here, to Tipper Gore, who, once she became 50,
fell victim to the Vice President and my propensity for leg injuries
-- (laughter) -- but, you know, more than any other person in America
since we've been here in the White House, she has tried to elevate
the importance of proper mental health care and the fundamental
dignity of it. And I think that we have got to, all of us, keep
working until we remove any last vestige of stigma that attaches to
getting treatment for children who have troubling mental problems.
We know that most of them, the vast majority of them, can be treated
successfully. And we know that it is not a cause for shame or denial
among families. And we have to keep working on that. And all of
you, I ask you to join Tipper Gore and others who understand this and
try to make that a part of our approach to this issue as well.
Third, we can't stop the prevention efforts at the
schoolhouse door. As I said, the budget agreement we reached today
will double or more the after-school programs that keep young people
safe after the bell rings. But if young people leave the safe school
and enter an unsafe community, they're in trouble.
Today we want to announce two new steps to help them
meet that challenge. Our Safe Schools-Safe Communities initiative
will help 10 targeted communities develop plans to reduce youth
violence and drug use in and out of school -- not only more police,
but after-school programs, mentoring, counseling, conflict
resolution, mental health services, and more. We wanted to put
together in at least 10 places that don't have it now, a truly
comprehensive approach.
I'm also pleased to announce that in response to
constructive criticism and suggestions from many members of Congress
and educators and community leaders across this country, we're going
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to overhaul our Safe and Drug-Free Schools program, which we have
dramatically increased in the last few years, to require schools who
get the funds to establish tough, but fair discipline rules; to put
in place proven drug prevention strategies; to issue yearly school
safety and drug use report cards to measure their own progress.
These methods have worked so well in cities like Boston, they can
work around the country, and it will guarantee that the money that's
being spent will actually achieve the results that it's been
appropriated to achieve.
Fourth, we have to expect more from young people
themselves. Given the facts, the resources, the encouragement,
almost all of them will do the right thing. This year we launched a
huge media campaign to tell young people that drugs are wrong,
illegal and can kill you. Now we have to tell them they, too, have
responsibilities to prevent youth violence, to help their fellow
students who are violence prone, to report trouble signs they see and
try to help kids get the help they need.
I am pleased that MTV is going to work with us to launch
a new campaign to encourage people to become mentors -- young people
-- to help their peers resolve their conflicts peacefully. And,
again, I'm very grateful and I'd like for all of you to join me in
thanking MTV for their willingness to invest in this important
endeavor. (Applause.)
Lastly I've spoken a little longer than I meant to
because I wanted to really hear the panelists, but I return to the
theme on which I began and what I will do when I leave here in
working for the peace process in the Middle East. We have got to do
more to teach our young people to have tolerance and respect for one
another; to understand the rich and only superficial dichotomy that
the more we appreciate each other's diversity, the more we reaffirm
the fundamental core values and existence we have in common.
The recent death of young Matthew Shepard in Wyoming
makes it all too clear to us that violence still can be motivated by
prejudice and hatred. Yes, we do need a new hate crimes law. And I
have directed the Education Department Civil Office to step up its
enforcement to stop discrimination and harassment against students.
But, again, ultimately, we have to be reconciled to one another. We
have to believe in one another's fundamental humanity and equal right
to be here and to become whatever they can become.
And I hope that all of us -- the young people of this
country, because our school population is more diverse than ever
before, and because to some extent they are unburdened by some of the
problems that their parents and grandparents grew up with, can go
either way with this issue. If they become the victims of a kind of
a current climate of prejudice and bigotry and a sense of opposition
and isolation, because of our increasing diversity it could wreak
total havoc in this country, in a way that we can't even imagine and
even couldn't have imagined in the old days of the civil rights
years. But if they do what they will do left to their own better
selves, then the increasing diversity of America is something that
will guarantee us renewed strength, unparalleled opportunities in the
21st century world.
So I don't think we should forget that, either. In the
end, the human heart still counts for quite a great deal, and we
ought to bring out the best in all the ones we can.
Now, I would like to start the program -- and I'm going
to sit down to do it -- and I'd like to begin with Mr. Kent, Jamonn
Kent, who is the Superintendent of the Springfield, Oregon, public
schools, that I had the honor the visit after the terrible incident
there. And because we're running a little late, I'm going to do
something a little bit unconventional. I'm going to call on the all
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the panelists to make their remarks and then open for questions,
starting with Mr. Kent. (Applause.)
*****
THE PRESIDENT: I don't want to violate my own rule, so
I won't ask a question, but I do want to highlight one thing he said,
because if it resonates with your experience, then we need your
feedback to the Attorney General and to the Secretary of Education,
ultimately to the Congress.
We now have a national policy of zero tolerance for guns
in schools. Last year, I believe the number of the Secretary of
Education can correct me if I make a mistake last year, I believe
there were 6,000 children who were found students who were found
with guns. Guns were taken, and they were sent home. This actually
happened in Oregon to this young man right before he came back the
next day and killed the kids.
So the question is what is we have to find the
constitutional fix here, and then the schools have to have the
resources so that you don't just take a gun and expel somebody
because there's obviously something going on inside the child that is
just as important as the physical manifestation of having the gun.
So that was the one thing that they've really done in Springfield, is
to sort of spark a nationwide reassessment of what we ought to do
with the children besides just send them home.
And they've proposed a period of 72 hours or some sort
of period of evaluation, and we're trying to work out the details of
it. But if any of you have any thoughts about this, I would ask you
to give it to us, because that's a very clear issue that was raised
in the Springfield case, that I must confess until I went and talked
to them had never occurred to me before.
I'd like to now call on Commissioner Paul Evans, the
Police Commissioner from Boston who led Boston's innovative operation
Cease-fire. I spent a half a day up there with the Mayor and the
Commissioner and others several months ago. And many of you know
that Boston went for over two years without having a single child
under 18 killed by a gun. That's astonishing. (Applause.)
And so I would like for Commissioner Evans to make
whatever remarks he'd like to make on this subject.
*****
THE PRESIDENT: I would like to make one brief
observation about what the Commissioner said, because I have spent a
great deal of time in Boston and I don't want to single them out
in derogation of the astonishing efforts that have been made
elsewhere, many of which have already been featured. But the thing
that strikes me -- it struck me when I spent a day up there and I met
with the Mayor's got a nun who represents him, who has this youth
council for the city. The city has its own youth council, like
others have the city council. But the thing that struck me about
Boston is they do things that seem obvious when you hear about them,
but a lot of people don't do it. The systematic contact that they
have in a personal, one-to-one way, with a huge percentage of the
young people in their cities is quite astonishing.
And if somebody asked me, in a sentence, why have they
been so successful, I would say they mobilize in a systematic way a
consistent contact with a huge percentage of the young people. The
idea of, you know, well, we hear we're going to have a gang problem
in middle school, why don't we go interview the customers. You know,
if you were running a business that's exactly what you'd do. But I
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think they deserve a lot of appreciation, but also a lot of modeling
for that.
*****
THE PRESIDENT: I have two brief things to say. First
of all, don't you feel better knowing that there are people like her
in the classrooms of America? (Applause.)
And second, I want to thank you for what you said about
school uniforms. When Secretary Riley and I set out to promote
school uniforms around the country, there were some here in
Washington who derided this as one of those "little ideas" that we
were constantly harping on. It may be a little idea, but I have
never been to a school that had them that didn't think it made a huge
difference in the lives of the children there. And so I thank you
for giving a boost to that endeavor.
*****
THE PRESIDENT: First of all, I want to apologize to all
of you, and in particular to Mayor Corradini, who made a terrific
presentation, according to the First Lady. I got a call we just
completed our agreement on the budget and the negotiations --
(applause.) In a half hour or so, for the members of the press,
we'll have a statement about that.
But let me say, first, I think about Congressman
Etheridge, it is -- one of the things that we desperately -- that we
need so much in Congress - Congress works better when there are
people in the Congress who have all kinds of different experiences
that are relevant. It's an incredible gift that we have a member of
the House of Representatives that was actually a state superintendent
of public instruction. And the influence he can have on other
members and the role he can play in the years ahead I think is
virtually limitless just because of the life he lived before he came
there. And I'm very grateful for what he said today and for what
he's done.
I would also like to thank Mayor Corradini for the
report, for the recommendations and for the Best Practices booklet.
I think that we need -- every single challenge we've got in this
country, we'd be a lot better off if everybody who was working on it
issued a Best Practices book, because one of my pet theories is that
everybody solved every problem somewhere, but we're not very good at
playing copycat when we ought to. So I thank her for that.
The only other thing I want to say, and then I want to
turn it over to the Vice President and let him ask a question, is
that the mayors recommended new youth counselors, and Bob talked
about other kinds of support personnel on security issues. One of
the things that we had to fight hardest for in 1983, that Hillary
convinced me we ought to do 15 years ago, was to require every
elementary school to have a counselor. But 15 years later, it looks
like a pretty good decision.
And I think we have to with people who have to pay
for these things, with the taxpayers and others who may not deal with
it, we need to let them know that a well-trained counselor dealing
with the kind of challenges these children face is a terrific
investment. And I appreciate the recommendation of the mayors and I
like forward to following up on them.
*****
THE PRESIDENT: I would have an elementary school that
would have classes between 15 and 20 in the early grades. I would
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have a maximum number of kids in the school of about 300. I would
have -- and about 1,000 for the high school. I would have the
support personnel, I'd have all the teachers trained, and I'd have a
parent coordinator that had huge numbers of the parents coming in and
out of the schools all the time.
And then I'd try to figure out how to make young people
like Liberty the rule rather than the exception. That is -- I was
sitting here when she was telling her story -- I was thinking about
she got to the Boys and Girls Club, and that's a good thing, but
there's a whole bunch of kids that live in the place where she does
that didn't get there, and that's not a good thing. And so I think
that would mean you'd either have comprehensive before- and after-
school programs and summer school programs for the kids on-site, or
there would be some system by which the school, in effect, connected
every child to responsible adult community groups of some kind that
Professor Earles says works so well.
I think those are the things that I would -- I basically
believe you've got to have problem-solving mechanisms, but I think
the prevention approach is by far the best approach. And I think
almost all so that's what I would do.
In the high schools, it's more complicated. I'd also
have a uniform policy. I think they're very important. I'd be in a
community that had a strong antitruancy policy. If I had a violence
problem, I'd have a curfew. I'd be interconnected with all of the
churches and synagogues and other faith institutions. I would have
the school bringing people in in a systematic way, and I would be
connected with the police department that would do what the
Commissioner explained that they tried to do in Boston.
But I think in the high schools, I think that, as I
said, I'd make sure that we had programs that would keep every child
who needed it, give them all an opportunity to be in the school.
Let me just say one other thing that I think is worth
saying. It may have been put on the table while I was out briefly.
But twice - if you read what the mayors say here, twice, they say,
they talk about the importance of the arts programs, the music
programs, the physical education programs -- not the kids that are on
the athletic teams, the other things. I have seen school after
school after school all across this country, because of the financial
burdens on the schools, have to abandon these programs. And I think
it is terrible.
I think that -- basically, all of these people are
saying you've got to treat the whole child here, deal with the whole
child, deal with the family situation, deal with the community
situation. And I just wanted to put in a little plug for that. I
think that there are a lot of ways to learn in this life, a lot of
ways to communicate in this life, and a lot of ways for people to
find greater peace and connection. And I think it's been a terrible
setback to American education that so many schools have had to
abandon their art programs, their music programs and their physical
education programs for the non-team athletes. Anything we can do to
advance that I think would also be positive. (Applause.)
*****
THE PRESIDENT: Let me say, I wish we could stay here
another hour, but we have another panel. We don't want to deprive
them of the opportunity to make their contributions and to be heard.
Perhaps at the end of that, you could have a more free-flowing
question and answer session.
- 9 -
But again, let me thank all of you. And let me ask you
to join me in thanking all of our remarkable panelists for their
contributions. Thank you. (Applause.)
END
3:00 P.M. EDT
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
October 15, 1998
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON SCHOOL SAFETY
The East Room
1:28 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Your kindness is interfering
with my determination to stay on schedule. (Laughter.) But thank
you very much. I want to thank Secretary Riley and Attorney General
Reno for their devotion and consistent work on this matter. I thank
the Vice President. He and Hillary and I are delighted to have all
of you here at the White House today, and the many, many people all
across America who are joining us, thanks to the technological
revolution.
I thank the members of Congress who are here. And,
Governor, thank you for coming -- and the mayors and the other
members of the administration, and all the distinguished citizens who
are here. Our good friend, Edward James Olmos, thank you for being
here.
I saw a survey, a public opinion survey a few months ago
that asked the American people what they thought the most important
story of the first six months of 1998 was, and dwarfing everything
else was the concern our people had for the children who were killed
in their schools. And I think that your presence here and the number
of people who are involved all across America, the quality of the
panelists and, indeed, the courage of many of them -- the mother of
one of the children killed at Jonesboro, Arkansas, in my home state,
was on the morning panel with Hillary -- this is truly a moving
thing. And it's a very important thing for our country.
You know, when I leave here -- and I hope I don't have
to leave before this panel is over, but I think all of you know that
we have been able to put together a conference for several days, a
meeting between the Prime Minister of Israel and the Chairman of the
PLO in our attempts to make the next big step toward peace in the
Middle East. And I got to thinking about it on the way over here
today, as I was walking over from the Oval Office, and all the things
I'm trying to get these people to lay down and get over and give up,
so they can go on with their children's future, so that we can stop
innocent children from being killed in the place in the world that is
the home of the world's three great monotheistic religions.
It's all a part of our attempt not to give up on anybody
and not to permit hatred or anger to destroy even one child's life
anywhere. And if we're going to do that elsewhere in the world, to
try to be a force for good, then we have to be as good as we can here
at home. And all of you are trying to help us achieve that, and I'm
very, very grateful to you.
Because this is the only chance I'll have to do it
today, and because all of you care so much about education, I'd like
to just take a moment to talk about where these budget negotiations
are on Capitol Hill. They're about to concluded, I hope -- they've
certainly gone on long enough. But we're not quite there yet.
However, even though there are still points outstanding, I believe
we'll succeed. And as the Vice President said, one thing we know
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already, we know that now this budget will reflect a major commitment
to education and to the future of our children.
I am very pleased it will make the first installment on
our plan to hire 100,000 new teachers. (Applause.) You heard the
Vice President's catalogue of the class size issue, but the Secretary
of Education tells me that we haven't fully grasped it because,
unlike the baby boom, we think that this increase in our children
will go on more or less indefinitely, and we've got a lot of very
fine teachers in the classroom who will be retiring in the next few
years. So this is a huge challenge for us.
The United States has never before done anything like
this. And there were a lot of people who honestly thought I was
wrong to fight for this or they disagreed with me, but it seems to me
that we had enough experience when we put 100,000 police on the
street. I was told the United States had never done anything like
that before. We didn't have anything to do with telling the cities
where the police should go, but the results have been pretty
satisfactory. And everywhere I go, someone mentions it to me.
If it worked there and we have crime at a 25-year low,
how much more important is it to put the children in the classroom?
And this will make a major down payment toward our goal of an average
class size of 18 in the early grades -- very different from what has
been reported.
And I should also say that when the Attorney General and
the Secretary of Education went out across the country in the wake of
all of these school shootings, and they met with educators and they
met with people talking about how we can prevent these things from
happening in the first place, one of the things that they were told
was, get us small classes in the early grades so that we can get to
know these children, find out the ones who obviously have got some
serious problems, and try to get them the help they need before their
lives and others' are irrevocably changed. So this is a very, very
good day for the United States.
There were some other very important educational
initiatives that will be fully supported -- our child literacy drive,
to make sure every child can read independently by the end of the 3rd
grade; our college mentoring drive to help lower-income students
prepare for college and to be able to tell every one of them what
kind of financial aid they'll get if they stay in school and learn
their lessons and stay out of trouble.
It increases support for Head Start, expands the number
of innovative charter schools. There are now 1,000 of those schools
in America; there was one when I became President, and there will be
3,000 before we're done in 2000.
We will provide for half a million summer jobs for our
young people, a program that many had sought to eliminate. It will
provide for after-school programs for a quarter million young people.
And I think we all know how important that is.
I'm very, very grateful for the strong support I have
received from the members of my party in the Congress to turn away
attempts to actually cut funds from our public schools and instead to
renew our historic commitment to them, to more and better-trained
teachers, to smaller classes, to hooking up all those classrooms to
the Internet by the year 2000, for extra support for children who
need it, for accountability and choice.
This is what I mean by putting partisanship behind
progress, by putting people ahead of politics. And I am grateful to
all those in both parties who are responsible for pulling this
agreement together.
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There's still a lot to be done. A lot of these teachers
we'll hire will have to hold class in trailers or hallways, or
crowded or crumbling classrooms. I proposed in the State of the
Union a targeted tax cut for school modernization that was fully paid
for, wouldn't take a dime from the surplus, won't create a single new
federal bureaucracy, but it will lower the cost of building these
buildings. It could mean as much as 300 new schools in Florida alone
next year.
If our children are learning in trailers and schools
with broken windows and where the wiring won't even permit them to be
hooked up to computers, then we're not getting them ready for the
21st century. So I do want to say, while I am profoundly grateful
for the 100,000 teachers, I am determined to see that we finish the
job next year in the next Congress. (Applause.)
Now, I also want to thank the First Lady for her role in
this conference. We've been at this a long time. In 1983, when I
was governor of our state, I asked Hillary to chair a commission on
school standards, and one of the things that we fought hardest for,
that was very controversial at the time, was to have a class size
limit of 20 in the early grades. And 15 years ago, it was a hard
fight, and we got it. And I haven't checked the numbers yet, but I
bet, given the growth in population in our schools, they're being
swamped and hard-pressed to meet it. And we really believe that
making this a national goal and sticking with it will pay major,
major benefits to our children all across the country.
Let me also say what I've already said a little bit of.
The American people -- if I had been polled, I would have been right
there with them. I think that all of us were shocked by the violence
we saw in Springfield and Paducah and Jonesboro and Edinboro and
Pearl. I think we're still disturbed when we see the sights of metal
detectors in school doorways or see gangs of young people who are on
the streets when they ought to be in the halls of their schools.
We know that there are still some schools where children
are afraid to go to school. And doing something about school
violence, therefore, is very important, but also we have to
understand the nature, the magnitude of the problem. Why do some
teenagers from some troubled backgrounds pick up guns and open fire
on their classmates? Why do some teenagers who don't appear to have
trouble at home do the same thing? What is at the bottom of this and
what can we really do?
You know, I have to say this -- and I'm not blaming
anybody because I've done it myself, so I will posit the fact that I
have done this but when people are in elected office and they hear
about a problem like this, and they know the people they're doing
their best to represent are afraid, the first impulse is always to
say, well, if we just punish them a little harder and a little faster
and kept them a little longer, everything would be all right. Now,
the truth is that some people are so far gone and what they have done
is so heinous that that is the appropriate thing to do. But I have
never met a police officer in my life who believed that we could
punish our way out of our social problems without other appropriate
actions not one time. And I think we're all here because we
believe in a good society we would stop more bad things from
happening in the first place.
The report that's being released today tells us that the
vast majority of our schools are safe, that the majority of our
children are learning in peace and security. But it also tells us
that in too many schools students feel unsafe. Even if they're not,
if they feel unsafe it's going to have a huge detrimental impact on
their ability to learn and grow and relate to their fellow students
in an appropriate way.
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In too many schools, there is still too much disrespect
for authority and still too much intolerance of other students from
different backgrounds. Our schools, all of them, must be sanctuaries
of safety and civility and respect.
Now, here are some things that I think we can do to help
you meet the challenge. First, in the schools with the biggest
violence problems, security has to be the top priority. Today, I am
pleased to announce a new $65-million initiative to help schools hire
and train 2,000 new community police and school resource officers to
work closely with principals and teachers and parents and the
students, themselves, to develop antiviolence and antidrug plans,
based on the actual needs of individual schools. Community policing
has helped to make our streets safe; it can work for our schools,
too.
I'm also very pleased that Congressman Jim Maloney of
Connecticut has sponsored a bill to help schools use the funds
available for hiring the community police officers to hire officers
to work with the schools. This bill was passed by the House and
Senate and it will get up here to me in a day or two and I'll look
forward to signing it into law.
Second, we have to help schools recognize the early
warning signs of violence and to respond to violence when it does
strike. Today, I want to tell you that soon I will be sending to
Congress a plan to create a School Emergency Response to Violence,
the SERV Program, that will work just as FEMA does when it responds
to natural disasters. Project SERV will travel to where the trouble
is and help communities respond quickly to school violence, from
helping schools to meet increased security needs, to providing
emergency and longer-term mental health crisis counseling for
students, faculty and their families.
Now, let me just say a word here of appreciation to
somebody who is not here, to Tipper Gore, who, once she became 50,
fell victim to the Vice President and my propensity for leg injuries
-- (laughter) -- but, you know, more than any other person in America
since we've been here in the White House, she has tried to elevate
the importance of proper mental health care and the fundamental
dignity of it. And I think that we have got to, all of us, keep
working until we remove any last vestige of stigma that attaches to
getting treatment for children who have troubling mental problems.
We know that most of them, the vast majority of them, can be treated
successfully. And we know that it is not a cause for shame or denial
among families. And we have to keep working on that. And all of
you, I ask you to join Tipper Gore and others who understand this and
try to make that a part of our approach to this issue as well.
Third, we can't stop the prevention efforts at the
schoolhouse door. As I said, the budget agreement we reached today
will double or more the after-school programs that keep young people
safe after the bell rings. But if young people leave the safe school
and enter an unsafe community, they're in trouble.
Today we want to announce two new steps to help them
meet that challenge. Our Safe Schools-Safe Communities initiative
will help 10 targeted communities develop plans to reduce youth
violence and drug use in and out of school -- not only more police,
but after-school programs, mentoring, counseling, conflict
resolution, mental health services, and more. We wanted to put
together in at least 10 places that don't have it now, a truly
comprehensive approach.
I'm also pleased to announce that in response to
constructive criticism and suggestions from many members of Congress
and educators and community leaders across this country, we're going
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to overhaul our Safe and Drug-Free Schools program, which we have
dramatically increased in the last few years, to require schools who
get the funds to establish tough, but fair discipline rules; to put
in place proven drug prevention strategies; to issue yearly school
safety and drug use report cards to measure their own progress.
These methods have worked so well in cities like Boston, they can
work around the country, and it will guarantee that the money that's
being spent will actually achieve the results that it's been
appropriated to achieve.
Fourth, we have to expect more from young people
themselves. Given the facts, the resources, the encouragement,
almost all of them will do the right thing. This year we launched a
huge media campaign to tell young people that drugs are wrong,
illegal and can kill you. Now we have to tell them they, too, have
responsibilities to prevent youth violence, to help their fellow
students who are violence prone, to report trouble signs they see and
try to help kids get the help they need.
I am pleased that MTV is going to work with us to launch
a new campaign to encourage people to become mentors young people
-- to help their peers resolve their conflicts peacefully. And,
again, I'm very grateful and I'd like for all of you to join me in
thanking MTV for their willingness to invest in this important
endeavor. (Applause.)
Lastly I've spoken a little longer than I meant to
because I wanted to really hear the panelists, but I return to the
theme on which I began and what I will do when I leave here in
working for the peace process in the Middle East. We have got to do
more to teach our young people to have tolerance and respect for one
another; to understand the rich and only superficial dichotomy that
the more we appreciate each other's diversity, the more we reaffirm
the fundamental core values and existence we have in common.
The recent death of young Matthew Shepard in Wyoming
makes it all too clear to us that violence still can be motivated by
prejudice and hatred. Yes, we do need a new hate crimes law. And I
have directed the Education Department Civil Office to step up its
enforcement to stop discrimination and harassment against students.
But, again, ultimately, we have to be reconciled to one another. We
have to believe in one another's fundamental humanity and equal right
to be here and to become whatever they can become.
And I hope that all of us -- the young people of this
country, because our school population is more diverse than ever
before, and because to some extent they are unburdened by some of the
problems that their parents and grandparents grew up with, can go
either way with this issue. If they become the victims of a kind of
a current climate of prejudice and bigotry and a sense of opposition
and isolation, because of our increasing diversity it could wreak
total havoc in this country, in a way that we can't even imagine and
even couldn't have imagined in the old days of the civil rights
years. But if they do what they will do left to their own better
selves, then the increasing diversity of America is something that
will guarantee us renewed strength, unparalleled opportunities in the
21st century world.
So I don't think we should forget that, either. In the
end, the human heart still counts for quite a great deal, and we
ought to bring out the best in all the ones we can.
Now, I would like to start the program -- and I'm going
to sit down to do it -- and I'd like to begin with Mr. Kent, Jamonn
Kent, who is the Superintendent of the Springfield, Oregon, public
schools, that I had the honor the visit after the terrible incident
there. And because we're running a little late, I'm going to do
something a little bit unconventional. I'm going to call on the all
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the panelists to make their remarks and then open for questions,
starting with Mr. Kent. (Applause.)
*****
THE PRESIDENT: I don't want to violate my own rule, so
I won't ask a question, but I do want to highlight one thing he said,
because if it resonates with your experience, then we need your
feedback to the Attorney General and to the Secretary of Education,
ultimately to the Congress.
We now have a national policy of zero tolerance for guns
in schools. Last year, I believe the number of -- the Secretary of
Education can correct me if I make a mistake -- last year, I believe
there were 6,000 children who were found students who were found
with guns. Guns were taken, and they were sent home. This actually
happened in Oregon to this young man right before he came back the
next day and killed the kids.
So the question is what is we have to find the
constitutional fix here, and then the schools have to have the
resources so that you don't just take a gun and expel somebody
because there's obviously something going on inside the child that is
just as important as the physical manifestation of having the gun.
So that was the one thing that they've really done in Springfield, is
to sort of spark a nationwide reassessment of what we ought to do
with the children besides just send them home.
And they've proposed a period of 72 hours or some sort
of period of evaluation, and we're trying to work out the details of
it. But if any of you have any thoughts about this, I would ask you
to give it to us, because that's a very clear issue that was raised
in the Springfield case, that I must confess until I went and talked
to them had never occurred to me before.
I'd like to now call on Commissioner Paul Evans, the
Police Commissioner from Boston who led Boston's innovative operation
Cease-fire. I spent a half a day up there with the Mayor and the
Commissioner and others several months ago. And many of you know
that Boston went for over two years without having a single child
under 18 killed by a gun. That's astonishing. (Applause.)
And so I would like for Commissioner Evans to make
whatever remarks he'd like to make on this subject.
*****
THE PRESIDENT: I would like to make one brief
observation about what the Commissioner said, because I have spent a
great deal of time in Boston and I don't want to single them out
in derogation of the astonishing efforts that have been made
elsewhere, many of which have already been featured. But the thing
that strikes me it struck me when I spent a day up there and I met
with the Mayor's got a nun who represents him, who has this youth
council for the city. The city has its own youth council, like
others have the city council. But the thing that struck me about
Boston is they do things that seem obvious when you hear about them,
but a lot of people don't do it. The systematic contact that they
have in a personal, one-to-one way, with a huge percentage of the
young people in their cities is quite astonishing.
And if somebody asked me, in a sentence, why have they
been so successful, I would say they mobilize in a systematic way a
consistent contact with a huge percentage of the young people. The
idea of, you know, well, we hear we're going to have a gang problem
in middle school, why don't we go interview the customers. You know,
if you were running a business that's exactly what you'd do. But I
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think they deserve a lot of appreciation, but also a lot of modeling
for that.
*****
THE PRESIDENT: I have two brief things to say. First
of all, don't you feel better knowing that there are people like her
in the classrooms of America? (Applause.)
And second, I want to thank you for what you said about
school uniforms. When Secretary Riley and I set out to promote
school uniforms around the country, there were some here in
Washington who derided this as one of those "little ideas" that we
were constantly harping on. It may be a little idea, but I have
never been to a school that had them that didn't think it made a huge
difference in the lives of the children there. And so I thank you
for giving a boost to that endeavor.
*****
THE PRESIDENT: First of all, I want to apologize to all
of you, and in particular to Mayor Corradini, who made a terrific
presentation, according to the First Lady. I got a call we just
completed our agreement on the budget and the negotiations --
(applause.) In a half hour or so, for the members of the press,
we'll have a statement about that.
But let me say, first, I think about Congressman
Etheridge, it is one of the things that we desperately that we
need so much in Congress -- Congress works better when there are
people in the Congress who have all kinds of different experiences
that are relevant. It's an incredible gift that we have a member of
the House of Representatives that was actually a state superintendent
of public instruction. And the influence he can have on other
members and the role he can play in the years ahead I think is
virtually limitless just because of the life he lived before he came
there. And I'm very grateful for what he said today and for what
he's done.
I would also like to thank Mayor Corradini for the
report, for the recommendations and for the Best Practices booklet.
I think that we need every single challenge we've got in this
country, we'd be a lot better off if everybody who was working on it
issued a Best Practices book, because one of my pet theories is that
everybody solved every problem somewhere, but we're not very good at
playing copycat when we ought to. So I thank her for that.
The only other thing I want to say, and then I want to
turn it over to the Vice President and let him ask a question, is
that the mayors recommended new youth counselors, and Bob talked
about other kinds of support personnel on security issues. One of
the things that we had to fight hardest for in 1983, that Hillary
convinced me we ought to do 15 years ago, was to require every
elementary school to have a counselor. But 15 years later, it looks
like a pretty good decision.
And I think we have to -- with people who have to pay
for these things, with the taxpayers and others who may not deal with
it, we need to let them know that a well-trained counselor dealing
with the kind of challenges these children face is a terrific
investment. And I appreciate the recommendation of the mayors and I
like forward to following up on them.
*****
THE PRESIDENT: I would have an elementary school that
would have classes between 15 and 20 in the early grades. I would
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have a maximum number of kids in the school of about 300. I would
have -- and about 1,000 for the high school. I would have the
support personnel, I'd have all the teachers trained, and I'd have a
parent coordinator that had huge numbers of the parents coming in and
out of the schools all the time.
And then I'd try to figure out how to make young people
like Liberty the rule rather than the exception. That is -- I was
sitting here when she was telling her story -- I was thinking about
she got to the Boys and Girls Club, and that's a good thing, but
there's a whole bunch of kids that live in the place where she does
that didn't get there, and that's not a good thing. And so I think
that would mean you'd either have comprehensive before- and after-
school programs and summer school programs for the kids on-site, or
there would be some system by which the school, in effect, connected
every child to responsible adult community groups of some kind that
Professor Earles says works so well.
I think those are the things that I would -- I basically
believe you've got to have problem-solving mechanisms, but I think
the prevention approach is by far the best approach. And I think
almost all so that's what I would do.
In the high schools, it's more complicated. I'd also
have a uniform policy. I think they're very important. I'd be in a
community that had a strong antitruancy policy. If I had a violence
problem, I'd have a curfew. I'd be interconnected with all of the
churches and synagogues and other faith institutions. I would have
the school bringing people in in a systematic way, and I would be
connected with the police department that would do what the
Commissioner explained that they tried to do in Boston.
But I think in the high schools, I think that, as I
said, I'd make sure that we had programs that would keep every child
who needed it, give them all an opportunity to be in the school.
Let me just say one other thing that I think is worth
saying. It may have been put on the table while I was out briefly.
But twice if you read what the mayors say here, twice, they say,
they talk about the importance of the arts programs, the music
programs, the physical education programs not the kids that are on
the athletic teams, the other things. I have seen school after
school after school all across this country, because of the financial
burdens on the schools, have to abandon these programs. And I think
it is terrible.
I think that basically, all of these people are
saying you've got to treat the whole child here, deal with the whole
child, deal with the family situation, deal with the community
situation. And I just wanted to put in a little plug for that. I
think that there are a lot of ways to learn in this life, a lot of
ways to communicate in this life, and a lot of ways for people to
find greater peace and connection. And I think it's been a terrible
setback to American education that so many schools have had to
abandon their art programs, their music programs and their physical
education programs for the non-team athletes. Anything we can do to
advance that I think would also be positive. (Applause.)
*****
THE PRESIDENT: Let me say, I wish we could stay here
another hour, but we have another panel. We don't want to deprive
them of the opportunity to make their contributions and to be heard.
Perhaps at the end of that, you could have a more free-flowing
question and answer session.
- 9 -
But again, let me thank all of you. And let me ask you
to join me in thanking all of our remarkable panelists for their
contributions. Thank you. (Applause.)
END
3:00 P.M. EDT
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
October 15, 1998
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON SCHOOL SAFETY
The East Room
1:28 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Your kindness is interfering
with my determination to stay on schedule. (Laughter.) But thank
you very much. I want to thank Secretary Riley and Attorney General
Reno for their devotion and consistent work on this matter. I thank
the Vice President. He and Hillary and I are delighted to have all
of you here at the White House today, and the many, many people all
across America who are joining us, thanks to the technological
revolution.
I thank the members of Congress who are here. And,
Governor, thank you for coming -- and the mayors and the other
members of the administration, and all the distinguished citizens who
are here. Our good friend, Edward James Olmos, thank you for being
here.
I saw a survey, a public opinion survey a few months ago
that asked the American people what they thought the most important
story of the first six months of 1998 was, and dwarfing everything
else was the concern our people had for the children who were killed
in their schools. And I think that your presence here and the number
of people who are involved all across America, the quality of the
panelists and, indeed, the courage of many of them -- the mother of
one of the children killed at Jonesboro, Arkansas, in my home state,
was on the morning panel with Hillary -- this is truly a moving
thing. And it's a very important thing for our country.
You know, when I leave here -- and I hope I don't have
to leave before this panel is over, but I think all of you know that
we have been able to put together a conference for several days, a
meeting between the Prime Minister of Israel and the Chairman of the
PLO in our attempts to make the next big step toward peace in the
Middle East. And I got to thinking about it on the way over here
today, as I was walking over from the Oval Office, and all the things
I'm trying to get these people to lay down and get over and give up,
so they can go on with their children's future, so that we can stop
innocent children from being killed in the place in the world that is
the home of the world's three great monotheistic religions.
It's all a part of our attempt not to give up on anybody
and not to permit hatred or anger to destroy even one child's life
anywhere. And if we're going to do that elsewhere in the world, to
try to be a force for good, then we have to be as good as we can here
at home. And all of you are trying to help us achieve that, and I'm
very, very grateful to you.
Because this is the only chance I'll have to do it
today, and because all of you care so much about education, I'd like
to just take a moment to talk about where these budget negotiations
are on Capitol Hill. They're about to concluded, I hope -- they've
certainly gone on long enough. But we're not quite there yet.
However, even though there are still points outstanding, I believe
we'll succeed. And as the Vice President said, one thing we know
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already, we know that now this budget will reflect a major commitment
to education and to the future of our children.
I am very pleased it will make the first installment on
our plan to hire 100,000 new teachers. (Applause.) You heard the
Vice President's catalogue of the class size issue, but the Secretary
of Education tells me that we haven't fully grasped it because,
unlike the baby boom, we think that this increase in our children
will go on more or less indefinitely, and we've got a lot of very
fine teachers in the classroom who will be retiring in the next few
years. So this is a huge challenge for us.
The United States has never before done anything like
this. And there were a lot of people who honestly thought I was
wrong to fight for this or they disagreed with me, but it seems to me
that we had enough experience when we put 100,000 police on the
street. I was told the United States had never done anything like
that before. We didn't have anything to do with telling the cities
where the police should go, but the results have been pretty
satisfactory. And everywhere I go, someone mentions it to me.
If it worked there and we have crime at a 25-year low,
how much more important is it to put the children in the classroom?
And this will make a major down payment toward our goal of an average
class size of 18 in the early grades -- very different from what has
been reported.
And I should also say that when the Attorney General and
the Secretary of Education went out across the country in the wake of
all of these school shootings, and they met with educators and they
met with people talking about how we can prevent these things from
happening in the first place, one of the things that they were told
was, get us small classes in the early grades so that we can get to
know these children, find out the ones who obviously have got some
serious problems, and try to get them the help they need before their
lives and others' are irrevocably changed. So this is a very, very
good day for the United States.
There were some other very important educational
initiatives that will be fully supported our child literacy drive,
to make sure every child can read independently by the end of the 3rd
grade; our college mentoring drive to help lower-income students
prepare for college and to be able to tell every one of them what
kind of financial aid they'll get if they stay in school and learn
their lessons and stay out of trouble.
It increases support for Head Start, expands the number
of innovative charter schools. There are now 1,000 of those schools
in America; there was one when I became President, and there will be
3,000 before we're done in 2000.
We will provide for half a million summer jobs for our
young people, a program that many had sought to eliminate. It will
provide for after-school programs for a quarter million young people.
And I think we all know how important that is.
I'm very, very grateful for the strong support I have
received from the members of my party in the Congress to turn away
attempts to actually cut funds from our public schools and instead to
renew our historic commitment to them, to more and better-trained
teachers, to smaller classes, to hooking up all those classrooms to
the Internet by the year 2000, for extra support for children who
need it, for accountability and choice.
This is what I mean by putting partisanship behind
progress, by putting people ahead of politics. And I am grateful to
all those in both parties who are responsible for pulling this
agreement together.
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There's still a lot to be done. A lot of these teachers
we'll hire will have to hold class in trailers or hallways, or
crowded or crumbling classrooms. I proposed in the State of the
Union a targeted tax cut for school modernization that was fully paid
for, wouldn't take a dime from the surplus, won't create a single new
federal bureaucracy, but it will lower the cost of building these
buildings. It could mean as much as 300 new schools in Florida alone
next year.
If our children are learning in trailers and schools
with broken windows and where the wiring won't even permit them to be
hooked up to computers, then we're not getting them ready for the
21st century. So I do want to say, while I am profoundly grateful
for the 100,000 teachers, I am determined to see that we finish the
job next year in the next Congress. (Applause.)
Now, I also want to thank the First Lady for her role in
this conference. We've been at this a long time. In 1983, when I
was governor of our state, I asked Hillary to chair a commission on
school standards, and one of the things that we fought hardest for,
that was very controversial at the time, was to have a class size
limit of 20 in the early grades. And 15 years ago, it was a hard
fight, and we got it. And I haven't checked the numbers yet, but I
bet, given the growth in population in our schools, they're being
swamped and hard-pressed to meet it. And we really believe that
making this a national goal and sticking with it will pay major,
major benefits to our children all across the country.
Let me also say what I've already said a little bit of.
The American people -- if I had been polled, I would have been right
there with them. I think that all of us were shocked by the violence
we saw in Springfield and Paducah and Jonesboro and Edinboro and
Pearl. I think we're still disturbed when we see the sights of metal
detectors in school doorways or see gangs of young people who are on
the streets when they ought to be in the halls of their schools.
We know that there are still some schools where children
are afraid to go to school. And doing something about school
violence, therefore, is very important, but also we have to
understand the nature, the magnitude of the problem. Why do some
teenagers from some troubled backgrounds pick up guns and open fire
on their classmates? Why do some teenagers who don't appear to have
trouble at home do the same thing? What is at the bottom of this and
what can we really do?
You know, I have to say this -- and I'm not blaming
anybody because I've done it myself, so I will posit the fact that I
have done this but when people are in elected office and they hear
about a problem like this, and they know the people they're doing
their best to represent are afraid, the first impulse is always to
say, well, if we just punish them a little harder and a little faster
and kept them a little longer, everything would be all right. Now,
the truth is that some people are so far gone and what they have done
is so heinous that that is the appropriate thing to do. But I have
never met a police officer in my life who believed that we could
punish our way out of our social problems without other appropriate
actions not one time. And I think we're all here because we
believe in a good society we would stop more bad things from
happening in the first place.
The report that's being released today tells us that the
vast majority of our schools are safe, that the majority of our
children are learning in peace and security. But it also tells us
that in too many schools students feel unsafe. Even if they'r not,
if they feel unsafe it's going to have a huge detrimental impact on
their ability to learn and grow and relate to their fellow students
in an appropriate way.
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In too many schools, there is still too much disrespect
for authority and still too much intolerance of other students from
different backgrounds. Our schools, all of them, must be sanctuaries
of safety and civility and respect.
Now, here are some things that I think we can do to help
you meet the challenge. First, in the schools with the biggest
violence problems, security has to be the top priority. Today, I am
pleased to announce a new $65-million initiative to help schools hire
and train 2,000 new community police and school resource officers to
work closely with principals and teachers and parents and the
students, themselves, to develop antiviolence and antidrug plans,
based on the actual needs of individual schools. Community policing
has helped to make our streets safe; it can work for our schools,
too.
I'm also very pleased that Congressman Jim Maloney of
Connecticut has sponsored a bill to help schools use the funds
available for hiring the community police officers to hire officers
to work with the schools. This bill was passed by the House and
Senate and it will get up here to me in a day or two and I'll look
forward to signing it into law.
Second, we have to help schools recognize the early
warning signs of violence and to respond to violence when it does
strike. Today, I want to tell you that soon I will be sending to
Congress a plan to create a School Emergency Response to Violence,
the SERV Program, that will work just as FEMA does when it responds
to natural disasters. Project SERV will travel to where the trouble
is and help communities respond quickly to school violence, from
helping schools to meet increased security needs, to providing
emergency and longer-term mental health crisis counseling for
students, faculty and their families.
Now, let me just say a word here of appreciation to
somebody who is not here, to Tipper Gore, who, once she became 50,
fell victim to the Vice President and my propensity for leg injuries
-- (laughter) -- but, you know, more than any other person in America
since we've been here in the White House, she has tried to elevate
the importance of proper mental health care and the fundamental
dignity of it. And I think that we have got to, all of us, keep
working until we remove any last vestige of stigma that attaches to
getting treatment for children who have troubling mental problems.
We know that most of them, the vast majority of them, can be treated
successfully. And we know that it is not a cause for shame or denial
among families. And we have to keep working on that. And all of
you, I ask you to join Tipper Gore and others who understand this and
try to make that a part of our approach to this issue as well.
Third, we can't stop the prevention efforts at the
schoolhouse door. As I said, the budget agreement we reached today
will double or more the after-school programs that keep young people
safe after the bell rings. But if young people leave the safe school
and enter an unsafe community, they're in trouble.
Today we want to announce two new steps to help them
meet that challenge. Our Safe Schools-Safe Communities initiative
will help 10 targeted communities develop plans to reduce youth
violence and drug use in and out of school -- not only more police,
but after-school programs, mentoring, counseling, conflict
resolution, mental health services, and more. We wanted to put
together in at least 10 places that don't have it now, a truly
comprehensive approach.
I'm also pleased to announce that in response to
constructive criticism and suggestions from many members of Congress
and educators and community leaders across this country, we're going
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to overhaul our Safe and Drug-Free Schools program, which we have
dramatically increased in the last few years, to require schools who
get the funds to establish tough, but fair discipline rules; to put
in place proven drug prevention strategies; to issue yearly school
safety and drug use report cards to measure their own progress.
These methods have worked so well in cities like Boston, they can
work around the country, and it will guarantee that the money that's
being spent will actually achieve the results that it's been
appropriated to achieve.
Fourth, we have to expect more from young people
themselves. Given the facts, the resources, the encouragement,
almost all of them will do the right thing. This year we launched a
huge media campaign to tell young people that drugs are wrong,
illegal and can kill you. Now we have to tell them they, too, have
responsibilities to prevent youth violence, to help their fellow
students who are violence prone, to report trouble signs they see and
try to help kids get the help they need.
I am pleased that MTV is going to work with us to launch
a new campaign to encourage people to become mentors -- young people
-- to help their peers resolve their conflicts peacefully. And,
again, I'm very grateful and I'd like for all of you to join me in
thanking MTV for their willingness to invest in this important
endeavor. (Applause.)
Lastly I've spoken a little longer than I meant to
because I wanted to really hear the panelists, but I return to the
theme on which I began and what I will do when I leave here in
working for the peace process in the Middle East. We have got to do
more to teach our young people to have tolerance and respect for one
another; to understand the rich and only superficial dichotomy that
the more we appreciate each other's diversity, the more we reaffirm
the fundamental core values and existence we have in common.
The recent death of young Matthew Shepard in Wyoming
makes it all too clear to us that violence still can be motivated by
prejudice and hatred. Yes, we do need a new hate crimes law. And I
have directed the Education Department Civil Office to step up its
enforcement to stop discrimination and harassment against students.
But, again, ultimately, we have to be reconciled to one another. We
have to believe in one another's fundamental humanity and equal right
to be here and to become whatever they can become.
And I hope that all of us -- the young people of this
country, because our school population is more diverse than ever
before, and because to some extent they are unburdened by some of the
problems that their parents and grandparents grew up with, can go
either way with this issue. If they become the victims of a kind of
a current climate of prejudice and bigotry and a sense of opposition
and isolation, because of our increasing diversity it could wreak
total havoc in this country, in a way that we can't even imagine and
even couldn't have imagined in the old days of the civil rights
years. But if they do what they will do left to their own better
selves, then the increasing diversity of America is something that
will guarantee us renewed strength, unparalleled opportunities in the
21st century world.
So I don't think we should forget that, either. In the
end, the human heart still counts for quite a great deal, and we
ought to bring out the best in all the ones we can.
Now, I would like to start the program -- and I'm going
to sit down to do it -- and I'd like to begin with Mr. Kent, Jamonn
Kent, who is the Superintendent of the Springfield, Oregon, public
schools, that I had the honor the visit after the terrible incident
there. And because we're running a little late, I'm going to do
something a little bit unconventional. I'm going to call on the all
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the panelists to make their remarks and then open for questions,
starting with Mr. Kent. (Applause.)
*****
THE PRESIDENT: I don't want to violate my own rule, so
I won't ask a question, but I do want to highlight one thing he said,
because if it resonates with your experience, then we need your
feedback to the Attorney General and to the Secretary of Education,
ultimately to the Congress.
We now have a national policy of zero tolerance for guns
in schools. Last year, I believe the number of the Secretary of
Education can correct me if I make a mistake -- last year, I believe
there were 6,000 children who were found students who were found
with guns. Guns were taken, and they were sent home. This actually
happened in Oregon to this young man right before he came back the
next day and killed the kids.
So the question is what is we have to find the
constitutional fix here, and then the schools have to have the
resources so that you don't just take a gun and expel somebody
because there's obviously something going on inside the child that is
just as important as the physical manifestation of having the gun.
So that was the one thing that they've really done in Springfield, is
to sort of spark a nationwide reassessment of what we ought to do
with the children besides just send them home.
And they've proposed a period of 72 hours or some sort
of period of evaluation, and we're trying to work out the details of
it. But if any of you have any thoughts about this, I would ask you
to give it to us, because that's a very clear issue that was raised
in the Springfield case, that I must confess until I went and talked
to them had never occurred to me before.
I'd like to now call on Commissioner Paul Evans, the
Police Commissioner from Boston who led Boston's innovative operation
Cease-fire. I spent a half a day up there with the Mayor and the
Commissioner and others several months ago. And many of you know
that Boston went for over two years without having a single child
under 18 killed by a gun. That's astonishing. (Applause.)
And so I would like for Commissioner Evans to make
whatever remarks he'd like to make on this subject.
*****
THE PRESIDENT: I would like to make one brief
observation about what the Commissioner said, because I have spent a
great deal of time in Boston and I don't want to single them out
in derogation of the astonishing efforts that have been made
elsewhere, many of which have already been featured. But the thing
that strikes me it struck me when I spent a day up there and I met
with the Mayor's got a nun who represents him, who has this youth
council for the city. The city has its own youth council, like
others have the city council. But the thing that struck me about
Boston is they do things that seem obvious when you hear about them,
but a lot of people don't do it. The systematic contact that they
have in a personal, one-to-one way, with a huge percentage of the
young people in their cities is quite astonishing.
And if somebody asked me, in a sentence, why have they
been so successful, I would say they mobilize in a systematic way a
consistent contact with a huge percentage of the young people. The
idea of, you know, well, we hear we're going to have a gang problem
in middle school, why don't we go interview the customers. You know,
if you were running a business that's exactly what you'd do. But I
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think they deserve a lot of appreciation, but also a lot of modeling
for that.
*****
THE PRESIDENT: I have two brief things to say. First
of all, don't you feel better knowing that there are people like her
in the classrooms of America? (Applause.)
And second, I want to thank you for what you said about
school uniforms. When Secretary Riley and I set out to promote
school uniforms around the country, there were some here in
Washington who derided this as one of those "little ideas" that we
were constantly harping on. It may be a little idea, but I have
never been to a school that had them that didn't think it made a huge
difference in the lives of the children there. And so I thank you
for giving a boost to that endeavor.
*****
THE PRESIDENT: First of all, I want to apologize to all
of you, and in particular to Mayor Corradini, who made a terrific
presentation, according to the First Lady. I got a call we just
completed our agreement on the budget and the negotiations - --
(applause.) In a half hour or so, for the members of the press,
we'll have a statement about that.
But let me say, first, I think about Congressman
Etheridge, it is -- one of the things that we desperately that we
need so much in Congress -- Congress works better when there are
people in the Congress who have all kinds of different experiences
that are relevant. It's an incredible gift that we have a member of
the House of Representatives that was actually a state superintendent
of public instruction. And the influence he can have on other
members and the role he can play in the years ahead I think is
virtually limitless just because of the life he lived before he came
there. And I'm very grateful for what he said today and for what
he's done.
I would also like to thank Mayor Corradini for the
report, for the recommendations and for the Best Practices booklet.
I think that we need every single challenge we've got in this
country, we'd be a lot better off if everybody who was working on it
issued a Best Practices book, because one of my pet theories is that
everybody solved every problem somewhere, but we're not very good at
playing copycat when we ought to. So I thank her for that.
The only other thing I want to say, and then I want to
turn it over to the Vice President and let him ask a question, is
that the mayors recommended new youth counselors, and Bob talked
about other kinds of support personnel on security issues. One of
the things that we had to fight hardest for in 1983, that Hillary
convinced me we ought to do 15 years ago, was to require every
elementary school to have a counselor. But 15 years later, it looks
like a pretty good decision.
And I think we have to -- with people who have to pay
for these things, with the taxpayers and others who may not deal with
it, we need to let them know that a well-trained counselor dealing
with the kind of challenges these children face is a terrific
investment. And I appreciate the recommendation of the mayors and I
like forward to following up on them.
*****
THE PRESIDENT: I would have an elementary school that
would have classes between 15 and 20 in the early grades. I would
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have a maximum number of kids in the school of about 300. I would
have -- and about 1,000 for the high school. I would have the
support personnel, I'd have all the teachers trained, and I'd have a
parent coordinator that had huge numbers of the parents coming in and
out of the schools all the time.
And then I'd try to figure out how to make young people
like Liberty the rule rather than the exception. That is -- I was
sitting here when she was telling her story -- I was thinking about
she got to the Boys and Girls Club, and that's a good thing, but
there's a whole bunch of kids that live in the place where she does
that didn't get there, and that's not a good thing. And so I think
that would mean you'd either have comprehensive before- and after-
school programs and summer school programs for the kids on-site, or
there would be some system by which the school, in effect, connected
every child to responsible adult community groups of some kind that
Professor Earles says works so well.
I think those are the things that I would I basically
believe you've got to have problem-solving mechanisms, but I think
the prevention approach is by far the best approach. And I think
almost all so that's what I would do.
In the high schools, it's more complicated. I'd also
have a uniform policy. I think they're very important. I'd be in a
community that had a strong antitruancy policy. If I had a violence
problem, I'd have a curfew. I'd be interconnected with all of the
churches and synagogues and other faith institutions. I would have
the school bringing people in in a systematic way, and I would be
connected with the police department that would do what the
Commissioner explained that they tried to do in Boston.
But I think in the high schools, I think that, as I
said, I'd make sure that we had programs that would keep every child
who needed it, give them all an opportunity to be in the school.
Let me just say one other thing that I think is worth
saying. It may have been put on the table while I was out briefly.
But twice if you read what the mayors say here, twice, they say,
they talk about the importance of the arts programs, the music
programs, the physical education programs -- not the kids that are on
the athletic teams, the other things. I have seen school after
school after school all across this country, because of the financial
burdens on the schools, have to abandon these programs. And I think
it is terrible.
I think that basically, all of these people are
saying you've got to treat the whole child here, deal with the whole
child, deal with the family situation, deal with the community
situation. And I just wanted to put in a little plug for that. I
think that there are a lot of ways to learn in this life, a lot of
ways to communicate in this life, and a lot of ways for people to
find greater peace and connection. And I think it's been a terrible
setback to American education that so many schools have had to
abandon their art programs, their music programs and their physical
education programs for the non-team athletes. Anything we can do to
advance that I think would also be positive. (Applause.)
*****
THE PRESIDENT: Let me say, I wish we could stay here
another hour, but we have another panel. We don't want to deprive
them of the opportunity to make their contributions and to be heard.
Perhaps at the end of that, you could have a more free-flowing
question and answer session.
- 9 -
But again, let me thank all of you. And let me ask you
to join me in thanking all of our remarkable panelists for their
contributions. Thank you. (Applause.)
END
3:00 P.M. EDT
SSCONF.QA2
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The White House Conference on School Safety
October 15, 1998
Questions and Answers (Internal)
GENERAL CONFERENCE QUESTIONS
Question: Why are you hosting a White House Conference on School Safety?
Answer:
Although schools are among the safest places for America's young
people, we know that violent crime continues to plague a number of our
schools. The recent school shooting tragedies are a stark reminder of this.
We know that the problems children face in school often reflect the problems
of their communities: drugs, gangs, and guns. Fortunately, we also know a
lot about the causes of youth violence and school violence, as well as what
works to prevent it. The President is convening the White House Conference
on School Safety so that we can share with people around the country the
wealth of information we have. Well over 600 satellite sites will be
participating in this Conference; they will listen to, and learn from, students,
parents, teachers, law enforcement and other experts about why school
violence happens and what works to prevent it.
Question: What is happening at the Conference?
Answer:
The White House Conference on School Safety will work toward
finding solutions to this challenge: How do schools, families and
communities work together to make sure that every child is safe in every
school and community in America? The President, Vice President and First
Lady will explore solutions to this challenge with the Attorney General, the
Secretary of Education, elected officials, students, parents, teachers, law
enforcement and other experts.
The day-long event in the East Room of the White House includes
morning workshops and panel discussions. The opening panel will
set-up the day by examining the problem and the causes of school and
youth violence. The second panel will turn towards solutions, with the
President making a number of policy announcements. The third and
final panel will explore best practices and model safety strategies that
have been shown to reduce school and youth violence.
Question: What has the President done on the issue of school safety?
SSCONF.QA2
Page 2
Answer: Throughout his Presidency, President Clinton has worked to strengthen
America's schools, communities and families, by giving Americans the tools
they need to fulfill their responsibilities and giving children the ability to reach
their full potential in a safe and healthy environment. To that end, President
Clinton and this Administration have worked to promote school safety,
prevent youth violence and encourage learning. The President is working to
make our schools safer and drug-free with programs like School-Based
Partnerships which helps to forge or strengthen partnerships between local
law enforcement and schools to focus on school crime, drug use and
discipline problem or the zero tolerance for guns in schools policy which
requires the expulsion of students for bringing firearms to schools. Last
month, the President released the Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide
to Safe Schools. This guide provides schools and communities with
information on how to identify the early warning signs and take action steps
to prevent and respond to school violence. And the President's
comprehensive Anti-Gang and Youth Violence Strategy is a full-scale assault
on juvenile crime in America. These are just a few examples.
Question: Are America's schools unsafe?
Answer: America's schools are quite safe. While we need to work to make
them safer, we know that for the most part our schools are safer than the
communities in which they are located. Data from the Annual Report on
School Safety indicates that 43 percent of schools reported NO incidents of
crime, and 90 percent of schools reported NO incidents of serious violent
crime.
But even though schools are generally safe, no school or community is
immune from senseless violence, as last school year's tragedies
reminded us. And although students are safer sitting in a classroom
than walking down the street, serious crime problems persist, gang
presence in schools doubled between 1989 and 1995, thousands of
kids bring guns to school, and discipline remains the #1 problem in the
classroom. We will be addressing these issues in the Conference.
Question: If America's schools are, for the most part, so safe, why did these
recent tragedies occur?
Answer: The recent tragedies in Pearl, Paducah, Jonesboro, Springfield, Oregon
are extremely rare (less than one percent of homicides among this age group
occurs in a school setting). Nevertheless, they are truly tragic incidents that
we hope never happen again. We may never understand why a young man
SSCONF.QA2
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would walk into a school and shoot his fellow students and teachers --
perhaps because of media influences, availability of guns, insufficient mental
health counseling. While we need to better understand why these incidents
occurred, it is more important that we ensure they don't happen again.
Much of what is happening at this conference will help schools and
communities in that regard.
Question: Whose responsibility is it to create safer schools and communities?
Answer:
We cannot make schools truly safe unless we make the communities
-- of which those schools are a part -- safe as well. And we cannot make
schools and communities safe unless students, parents, teachers, law
enforcement, government agencies, businesses and elected officials join
together to develop community-wide and comprehensive responses to the
unique issues that face every school and community. Fundamentally,
creating safe schools and communities is a local issue; but we at the Federal
level stand ready to offer our assistance and partnership.
Question: How did you select these individuals who are panelists?
Answer:
We received many recommendations and worked to make sure that
the panels represent a good cross-section of America, as well as
perspectives from individuals who have a lot of firsthand experience with
school safety and youth violence in general. The panelists include noted
experts in their fields, participants from communities affected by the recent
school shootings, a student, educators and other stakeholders. We are
looking forward to thoughtful discussions which focus not only on the
problems and challenges with respect to school safety -- but primarily on the
solutions.
Question: The panels do not appear to be very bipartisan. Why not?
Answer:
School and youth safety aren't partisan issues. Our panelists are a
good cross-section of America actually, of the 16 or so panelists
(excluding principals), only two are elected officials, one is a member of
Congress and the other is a mayor. And this Administration encourages
participation from both sides of the aisle on these important issues.
Question: What is the First Lady's role at this Conference? Why is the First Lady
playing such a large role in this conference? What does she know about this
issue?
SSCONF.QA2
Page 4
Answer:
The First Lady will chair the opening panel which will set-up the day
by examining the problem and the causes of school and youth violence and
she will participate in the second panel which will turn towards solutions.
Lastly, the First Lady will chair the third and final panel which will explore
best practices and model safety strategies that have been shown to reduce
school and youth violence.
Throughout her career, the First Lady has worked on issues affecting
children and families. And one of the very first projects she worked on
as a young attorney at the Children's Defense Fund 25 years ago was
a study of what happens to juveniles incarcerated with adults. She
found that children placed in adult prisons experience unspeakable
horrors, and in fact, as a result of this research, Congress acted in
1974 to separate juveniles from adults in prison. Since then Mrs.
Clinton has worked on a number of initiatives, including home
visitation, mentoring programs, and early education programs, that
reduce juvenile delinquency, crime rates, teen birth rates, and other
signs that children are at risk.
Question: What is the purpose of the morning breakout sessions? Who is
participating in these sessions?
Answer:
The morning break-out sessions are critical opportunities for the
Conference's participants to brainstorm, to share ideas with Attorney General
Reno, Education Secretary Riley, other senior members of the Administration
and with each other. Each of the break-out sessions will focus on a different
element of creating safe learning environments. We will examine (i)
education and safety, (ii) school, community and law enforcement
partnerships, (iii) root causes of youth violence, and (iv) early warning signs,
mental health interventions and crisis response.
QUESTIONS ON NEW PROPOSALS
Question: What did the President announce today?
Answer:
The President will announce a series of new initiatives that address
many of the problems identified in the Annual Report on School Crime and
Safety. Specifically, he will propose:
(1) A New Federal Response for Violent Deaths in Schools. President
Clinton will propose a $12 million School Emergency Response to
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Page 5
Violence -- or Project SERV -- to help schools and local communities
respond to school-related violent deaths, such as those that occurred
last year in Jonesboro, Arkansas; Paducah, Kentucky; Pearl,
Mississippi; and Springfield, Oregon. Developed with input from local
officials and educators in these and other communities, Project SERV
will enable the federal government to assist local communities in much
the same way FEMA assists in response to natural disasters.
(2) Targeted Resources for Schools with Serious Crime Problems. To
help give the estimated 10% of schools with serious crime problems
the tools they need to put the security of our children first, the
President will announce a new $65 million initiative to hire up to
2,000 community police and School Resource Officers to work in
schools -- and to train police, educators and other members of the
community to help recognize the early warning signs of violence.
(3) Reforms to Help Make All Schools Safe, Disciplined and Drug-Free.
President Clinton will announce his plan for a significant overhaul of
the nearly $600 million Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities
Program. Under the President's proposal, schools will be required to
adopt rigorous, comprehensive school safety plans that include: tough,
but fair, discipline policies; safe passage to and from schools; effective
drug and violence policies and programs; annual school safety and
drug use report cards; links to after school programs; efforts to involve
parents; and crisis management plans.
(4) A Community-Wide Response to School Safety and Youth
Violence. To help communities throughout the country promote a
coordinated, comprehensive response to school safety, the President
will launch a new Safe Schools -- Safe Communities initiative designed
to help 10 cities develop and implement community-wide school
safety plans. A minimum of $25 million in discretionary grants from
the Departments of Education, Justice and Health and Human Services
-- or $1-3 million per site -- will be made available for this initiative.
The President will announce a partnership with MTV to engage youth
in solutions to violence. He will announce that MTV, beginning in
1999, will launch a year-long media campaign -- "Fight For Your
Rights: Take A Stand Against Youth Violence" -- designed to give
young adults a voice in the national debate on school and youth
violence. Working with the Departments of Education and Justice,
and the National Endowment for the Arts, MTV will distribute a Youth
Action Guide that aims to engage youth in mentoring and other
positive solutions to violence. The guide will be made available
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through a 1-800 number at the Justice Department and through MTV.
Question: Are you announcing any new funding for these programs?
Answer:
The $65 million for the community police in schools initiative and $25
million for the Safe Schools-Safe Communities demonstration project would
be funded through our FY 99 appropriations. We have identified funds that
we could use within those appropriations bills -- none of which have been at
issue during budget discussions. So, once Congress finally enacts these
spending measures, we can begin to fund our initiatives. We expect to
transmit legislation to Congress for our proposal to create a new emergency
federal response to violent school deaths (Project SERV), and will include the
$12 million to pay for it in our FY 2000 budget.
Community Police Officers for Schools
Question: What does your community police for schools initiative accomplish?
Answer:
To help give the estimated 10% of schools with serious crime
problems the tools they need to put the security of our children first, the
President will announce a new $65 million initiative to hire approximately
2,000 community police and School Resource Officers to work in schools --
and to train police, educators and other members of the community to help
recognize the early warning signs of violence.
The initiative, administered through the Justice Department's Office of
Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), offers $60 million to
help communities hire school resource officers to combat school
violence. This initiative offers an incentive for local law enforcement
agencies -- in the form of waiving a local matching requirement -- to
build working relationships with schools to use community policing
efforts to prevent and combat school violence. In addition, the
President's Initiative will dedicate $5 million through the Regional
Community Policing Institutes to communities to help train school
resource officers, and to train educators and other members of the
community to recognize the early warning signs of school violence.
Question: Who is eligible to participate in the COPS initiative?
Answer:
Any local law enforcement agency utlizing officers as part of a
comprehensive community policing strategy to combat crime in and around
schools may apply for the program through the COPS Office.
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Question: What is a school resource officer?
Answer:
School resource officers are sworn, fully trained officers assigned to
work in a school. The presence of a school resource officer helps provide a
school with a sense of security and order, as well as strong link to their local
police department. From teaching substance abuse prevention, to mentoring
troubled kids, to intervening with potentially violent situations between
students, school resource officers across the country are combine the
functions of law enforcement and education, and helping to improve school
environments.
Question: What is the need for the COPS initiative?
Answer:
School related crime and disorder is a serious concern in communities
of all sizes across the nation. Many communities are discovering that school
resource officers are making a difference in the battle to provide our children
with a safe learning environment. The President's initiative will help even
more communities that are interested to use these officers in creating their
own solutions to school safety and violence.
Safe and Drug-Free Schools Reform
Question: Are you proposing increased funding for the Safe and Drug-Free
schools program?
Answer:
This proposal outlines the broad framework and requirements for
federal support of state and local drug and/or violence prevention and
reduction efforts. While this plan does anticipate some level of increased
funding, it also will provide more targeting of resources to provide stronger
support to school districts for comprehensive approaches for the reduction of
drugs and violence in schools. Discussions are currently underway to
establish budget proposals for all programs in the President's FY 2000
budget.
Question: This program has been criticized for wasting funds because school
districts have have spent them on programs that would not appear to have
any impact on reducing drug use and violence. How is this proposal going to
prevent the misuse of funds?
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Answer:
A key element of our proposal to overhaul the Safe and Drug-Free
Schools program is to strengthen accountability for school districts receiving
federal funds. These districts will have to develop a plan based on their
actual crime, drug and discipline problems and spend funds on activities
that have shown to be effective in creating drug-free and safe school
environments. These plans must also provide for the publication of an
annual report card to the public on school-related crime and drug incidents.
Moreover, this proposal will strengthen the capacity of states to provide
technical assistance and training to local districts to ensure that their drug
and violence prevention and reduction approaches are effective.
Comprehensive Safe School-Safe Communities Initiative
Question: Where will funds for the Coordinated Grants Program come from?
Answer:
Funds for the Coordinated Grants Program will come from three
agencies: Department of Justice, Education Department and the Department
of Health and Human Services. Various programs within these three agencies
will contribute funds for this effort. For example, the Office of Juvenile
Justice Delinquency Prevention will contribute a portion of funds from their
Juvenile Mentoring Program and its Gang Free Schools and Communities -
Community Based Gang Intervention Program for this effort; the Justice
Department will contribute funds from its COPS Initiative; the Department of
Education will contribute a portion of their Safe and Drug Free Schools
National Program funds; and the Department of Health and Human Services
will contribute funds from its Family Strengthening Program. Further, a
portion of the funds appropriated for expansion of Boys and Girls Clubs will
be linked to this effort.
A minimum of $25 million in discretionary grants from FY1999 will be
made available for this initiative, and more funding may ultimately be
dedicated to it dependent upon final FY 99 appropriations outcomes.
New Federal Response to Violent Deaths in Schools
Question: What types of incidents will this initiative respond to?
Answer:
While details concerning the types of incidents which the Federal
Government will respond to have not yet been decided, it has been
determined that the Federal Government will at a minimum respond to
incidents such as those experienced last school year in Paducah, Kentucky;
Pearl, Mississippi; Jonesboro, Arkansas; and Springfield, Oregon. Prior to
making a final determination as to other types of incidents that will be
SSCONF.QA2
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responded to, the Federal Government will seek the advice of educators,
victims, law enforcement officials, victim service advocates, parents, mental
health workers and emergency service personnel.
QUESTIONS ON RELATED LEGISLATION
Question: Why hasn't this Administration pushed harder for juvenile crime
legislation?
Answer:
This Administration has pushed aggressively for powerful juvenile
crime legislation -- legislation which strikes the right balance between
accountability and prevention for America's youth. All the way back in
February 1997, this Administration submitted to the Congress the
"Anti-Gang and Youth Violence Act of 1997"-a vital part of the
Administration's strategy to mount a full-scale assault on juvenile crime in
America. While we have sought to work with Congress to pass meaningful
legislation, we don't believe we should accept bad juvenile crime legislation
which lacks resources for prosecutors and courts and provisions to crack
down on kids and guns -- simply for the sake of claiming success. We are
disappointed that the Congress has been unable to pass legislation that could
help to stem juvenile crime and improve the safety of our communities.
SHOOTING-RELATED QUESTIONS
Question: The kids involved in the Jonesboro case were only 11 and 13
years-old-- neither of whom could be charged as adults for this horrible
tragedy. Doesn't this seem to suggest that we should have a national age
floor to be able to prosecute juveniles as adults?
Answer:
Current federal law generally allows for the prosecution of 15 year-old
juveniles as adults for certain drug and gun crimes, and in limited cases, even
13 year-olds can be tried as adults in federal court. We passed these lower
ages as part of the 1994 Crime Bill. In addition, our juvenile crime legislation
would give greater flexibility for federal prosecutors to prosecute juveniles as
adults, and would expand the list of crimes which allow for such prosecution
to include certain violent felonies and drug offenses. We believe that these
are sufficiently tough provisions.
Question: Guns played a tragic role in these shootings. Is this Administration
doing enough to keep guns out of the hands of children? What more can be
done to avoid these tragedies?
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Answer:
Our first priority, must be to do everything we can to help
communities save young lives and prevent juvenile crime and violence from
happening in the first place. And the truth is: we already know that tough,
targeted deterrence and better prevention will do this. For example, in
Boston, Federal, state and local law enforcement --and the entire criminal
justice system, police, prosecutors, probation officers and courts --worked
together to deliver a tough, targeted message on gun violence. The result:
the gangs were literally disarmed, and no juvenile was killed with a firearm
for a 2 ½ year period. The President's juvenile crime legislation combines this
type of tough, targeted enforcement --with schools that are open later and
on weekends, when most violent youth crime occurs --so we can prevent
youth crime and violence before it happens.
But we can also do more to make sure that we help keep illegal guns
out of the hands of children. We should raise penalties for juveniles
who possess handguns, and for adults who illegally transfer handguns
to juveniles. We should extend the Brady Law, so that young people
who commit serious and violent offenses can't purchase handguns as
soon as they become adults. And we should continue to crack down
on illegal gun markets, by increasing penalties for straw purchases and
for gang-related firearms offenses.
Question:
Can we stop these senseless acts from happening? Do they just
happen?
Answer:
We can create safer environments for learning and we can prevent
many crimes from occurring. This is not an easy task but it is one that can
be done. One of the cornerstones of any strategy to create safer schools and
safer communities is getting the entire community --including parents,
students, teachers, mental health service providers, clergy, law
enforcement-involved in designing programs and policies that meet the need
of the school and the community.
In August, the President released a booklet called, "Early Warning
Timely Response-- A Guide to Safe Schools", which provides teachers,
principals, and parents with information on how to identify the early
warning signs of violence, and actions steps to prevent and respond to
school violence. The Annual Report on School Safety, released
yesterday, also provides some tips for parents, students, businesses,
etc. on what they can do to create safer schools and communities and
provides examples of proven strategies and models.
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Question: In most of these instances, including in Springfield with Kip Kinkel, the
mental health of these boys seems to be in question. If mental illness is the
root cause, can we prevent these random acts from happening?
Answer:
The Administration has been working very hard to help schools -- and
others who interact with children -- to identify those students who are in
need of assistance to improve the linkages between mental health services
and schools. The President recently released a guide on the early warning
signs of violence which provides teachers, administrators, and parents with
guidance on how to identify students who are in need of mental health
services. We believe the guide will help schools identify those students who
are in need of mental health services earlier, so they can receive the help
they need.
But there's another answer, too, and it goes to the heart of why a
child's cry for help often goes unheeded. The simple fact is that
mental illness is still a very scary idea that many believe shouldn't be
talked about or acted upon. Through the work of Mrs. Gore and HHS'
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA), we have been working to educate the Nation to the
realities of mental health problems and to break through the stigma
that, for too long, has stood between a person in need of care and the
impetus to seek that care.
Question:
Most people feel that mental health services are not adequately
funded. Are these services being funded at appropriate levels both locally and
at the Federal level? If not, why not?
Answer:
Funding -- whether at the federal or state level -- is but one of the
issues that has affected the range and availability of mental health services.
Since the late 1960s, when large numbers of people were released from
state institutions, community mental health systems have been called upon
to provide the bulk of mental health services. Until recently, the stigma of
mental illnesses has separated mental health care not only from other types
health care, but also from the capacity to link with schools, social service
agencies, employment programs, and other supportive services. Today, the
health of these collaborations is increasingly robust -- but variably so, across
the country. The challenge that we are meeting today has been to both
leverage our resources and to build partnerships with the broad range of
mental health constituencies at the national, state, and local levels to
improve their systems of care for people of all ages with mental health
problems.
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THE WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON SCHOOL SAFETY
October 15, 1998
The White House Conference on School Safety. Although schools are generally safer
today than they were just a few years ago -- and statistics show that students are safer
sitting in a classroom than walking down a street -- there is still much more that we can
do to improve school safety and security. In particular, the multiple shootings that took
place in schools in Pearl, MS, Paducah, KY, Jonesboro, AK, and Springfield, OR, serve
as painful reminders that no community is immune from senseless violence -- and that all
communities must do their best to prevent such tragedies from ever occurring. The White
House Conference on School Safety provides an opportunity for Americans to learn more
about how they can make their own schools and communities safer.
The First Annual Report on School Safety. At the conference, the President will
discuss the findings of first Annual Report on School Safety -- a report intended to give
parents, principals and policy makers an accurate, yearly snapshot of the school crime, as
well as to provide information on what practical steps they can take to make their schools
safer.
Major Findings of the Report:
Students less likely to be victimized but more likely to feel unsafe. Although
the number of multiple homicide events at schools has increased since 1993 (from
2 to 6 -- and with 4 times as many victims), the overall school crime rate has
actually dropped (from 164 crimes per 1,000 students in 1993 to about 128 such
crimes in 1996). However, the percentage of students reporting that they felt
unsafe at or on their way to school has increased.
Most schools safer than community at large. While the overall level of school
and non-school crime is about the same (about 3 million crimes in each setting),
students are more than twice as likely to experience serious violent crime while
out of school. And the very worst violent victimizations -- murders and suicides
-- rarely occur in or near schools. Fewer than 1% of the 7,357 thousand children
who were murdered in 1992-93 -- or 63 -- were killed at school.
Serious crime and violence concentrated in a small percentage of schools.
Only about 10% of public schools report serious or violent crimes to their local
police departments. Nearly half -- or 47% -- of schools report less serious or non-
violent crimes to police, and 43% report absolutely no crimes at all.
Violence more likely in larger, urban schools and with older students. One
third of large schools (1,000+ students) report serious violent crimes to police,
compared with less than one tenth of small schools. Also urban schools are twice
as likely as rural schools to report serious violent crimes, and middle and high
schools are 4 times more likely than elementary schools to report such crimes.
Fist fights and theft the most common crimes. Overall, physical attacks and
fights without weapons are the crimes most often reported to police by middle and
high schools. Theft is the most common school crime overall. In 1996, less than
10% of crimes against students were of a serious or violent nature.
Other Important Findings:
Fewer weapons in schools. About 6% of high school seniors -- less than in
recent years -- are carrying firearms and other weapons to schools. Also, the
percentage of seniors intentionally injured -- with or without weapons -- has not
changed significantly over the past 20 years.
Gang presence nearly doubled. Between 1989 and 1995, the percentage of
students reporting the presence of street gangs in their schools increased from
15% to 28% -- including large increases at urban, suburban and rural schools.
Violence and drugs linked. Students who reported being the victims of violent
crimes at schools were more likely to report the availability of drugs at school.
The presence of gangs and guns is also related to school crime and the
victimization of students.
Teachers often crime victims. On average, 3% of teachers are the victims of
violent crimes, and nearly 5% are the victims of theft at school.
The President's Call to Action. During a panel discussion with a group of recognized
school safety advocates and youth violence experts, the President will announce a series
of new initiatives that address many of the problems identified in the Annual Report on
School Safety. Specifically, he will propose:
(1) A New Federal Response for Violent Deaths in Schools. President Clinton
will propose a $12 million School Emergency Response to Violence -- or Project
SERV -- to help schools and local communities respond to school-related violent
deaths, such as those that occurred last year in Jonesboro, Arkansas; Paducah,
Kentucky; Pearl, Mississippi; and Springfield, Oregon. Developed with input
from local officials and educators in these and other communities, Project SERV
will enable the federal government to assist local communities in much the same
way FEMA assists in response to natural disasters.
(2) Targeted Resources for Schools with Serious Crime Problems. To help
give the estimated 10% of schools with serious crime problems the tools they
need to put the security of our children first, the President will announce a new
$65 million initiative to hire up to 2,000 community police and School Resource
Officers to work in schools and to train police, educators and other members of
the community to help recognize the early warning signs of violence.
(3) Reforms to Help Make All Schools Safe, Disciplined and Drug-Free.
President Clinton will announce his plan for a significant overhaul of the nearly
$600 million Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Program. Under the
President's proposal, schools will be required to adopt rigorous, comprehensive
school safety plans that include: tough, but fair, discipline policies; safe passage
to and from schools; effective drug and violence policies and programs; annual
school safety and drug use report cards; links to after school programs; efforts to
involve parents; and crisis management plans.
(4) A Community-Wide Response to School Safety and Youth Violence. To
help communities throughout the country promote a coordinated, comprehensive
response to school safety, the President will launch a new Safe Schools -- Safe
Communities initiative designed to help 10 cities develop and implement
community-wide school safety plans. A minimum of $25 million in discretionary
grants from the Departments of Education, Justice and Health and Human
Services -- or $1-3 million per site -- will be made available for this initiative.
The President will announce a partnership with MTV to engage youth in solutions
to violence. He will announce that MTV, beginning in 1999, will launch a year-
long media campaign -- "Fight For Your Rights: Take A Stand Against Youth
Violence" -- designed to give young adults a voice in the national debate on
school and youth violence. Working with the Departments of Education and
Justice, and the National Endowment for the Arts, MTV will distribute a Youth
Action Guide that aims to engage youth in mentoring and other positive solutions
to violence. The guide will be made available through a 1-800 number at the
Justice Department and through MTV.
Promoting a Community-Wide Response to School Safety and Youth Violence
To help communities throughout the country promote a coordinated, comprehensive response to
school and youth violence, the President will launch a new Safe Schools --Safe Communities
initiative designed to help cities develop and implement community-wide school safety plans. He
will also kick-off a partnership between the federal government and MTV to engage youth in
solutions to violence.
The Safe Schools --Safe Communities Initiative
A Community-Wide Response. Parents, principals, police and others should
work together to prevent school crime and violence from ever taking hold in their
communities. To help promote such coordinated, community-wide responses
throughout the country, the President will launch "Safe Schools --Safe
Communities." Under this initiative, 10 cities will be eligible for at least $25
million in discretionary grants from the Departments of Education, Justice and
Health and Human Services to develop and implement strategies with the following
components:
Formal school safety policies, including zero tolerance for guns and drugs,
discipline, school uniforms, and truancy prevention;
School security measures, such as metal detectors and police patrol of
schools;
Assessment and interventions for troubled youth, such as mental health
counselors and alternative schools;
Prevention, including mentoring for students; and
After school programming for children and youth
One-Stop Shopping. Under this initiative, communities adopting a comprehensive
approach to school safety will no longer have to seek federal support for their efforts
in a piece-meal fashion. Instead, eligible applicants will benefit from "one stop
shopping" --or a single application, through which a series of federal grants
targeting youth violence can be accessed. Each site will be eligible for up to $3
million, depending on the size and needs of the community.
Getting Youth Involved in the Community Response
MTV Partnership. The President will announce a partnership with MTV to engage
youth in solutions to violence. He will announce that MTV, beginning in 1999, will
launch a year-long media campaign -"Fight For Your Rights: Take A Stand Against
Youth Violence" --designed to give young adults a voice in the national debate on
school and youth violence.
Providing Solutions for Youth. In partnership with the Department of Justice and
Education, and the National Endowment for the Arts, MTV will create and distribute
a Youth Action Guide that aims to engage youth in mentoring and other positive
solutions to violence. The guide will be made available through a 1-800 number at
the Justice Department and through MTV.
Putting Security First for Schools with Serious Crime
To help give the estimated 10% of schools with serious crime problems the tools they need to put
the security of our children first, the President will announce a new $65 million initiative to hire an
estimated 2,000 community police and School Resource Officers to work in schools --and to train
school safety officers, educators and other members of the community to help recognize the early
warning signs of violence.
Up to 2,000 Community Police Officers for Schools
While students are less likely to be a crime victim at school than in previous years, serious crime
continues to plague many larger and urban schools --and more students now feel unsafe at or on their
way to school.
Building on the President's successful Community Policing Initiative. To help
address the needs of these schools, the President will announce the availability of $60
million from his COPS Program to hire new community police and School Resource
Officers to work in schools with serious crime problems. These new funds will help
communities to expand their community policing efforts to include school crime
problems as part of their overall community policing strategies. Generally, local
police departments will receive up to $125,000 per officer for three years --with no
local match required.
New training resources. Additionally, this new initiative will dedicate $5 million
--through the COPS Office's Regional Community Policing Institutes --to train new
police officers, and to train educators and other community members to help
recognize the early warning signs of school violence.
A record of building partnerships between law enforcement and schools
Forging School-Based Partnerships Between Schools and Law Enforcement. In
September 1998, the President announced $16.4 million in grants to 155 law
enforcement agencies to fund new School-Based Partnerships grants through the
Department of Justice. These grants will be used by policing agencies to work with
schools and community-based organizations to address crime in and around schools.
This initiative emphasizes using community policing principles and problem-solving
methods to address the causes of school-related crime. The grants will help
strengthen partnerships between local law enforcement and schools, and help them
to focus on school crime, drug use and discipline problems.
Meeting the President's Pledge of 100,000 More Police. Last week, the Justice
Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) announced
$27.4 million in grants for 151 policing agencies across the country to hire 428
officers --bringing the total number of officers funded under the President's COPS
Initiative to over 88,500 --keeping the COPS Initiative ahead of schedule and under
budget.
Creating Safe, Disciplined, and Drug-Free Schools
Many our nation's schools report difficulties with maintaining order and discipline. In the 1996-97
school year, 41% of public schools reported moderate discipline problems and 16% reported serious
discipline problems. Among the most common discipline problems reported were tardiness,
truancy, fist fights, and student drug, alcohol and tobacco use. Moreover, schools that had more
serious discipline problems were more likely to report crime or violence. That is why the President
will outline a proposal to overhaul and strengthen the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program to ensure
that students have safe, disciplined and drug-free environments for learning.
Revamping Safe and Drug-Free Schools. President Clinton will announce his plan for the overhaul
of the nearly $600 million Safe and Drug-Free Schools program to provide more effective prevention
programs for the reduction of drugs and violence in schools, more accountability for results, and
better targeting to those schools that need the most assistance.
Increasing funding for effective plans and strengthening accountability. Under the
proposal, federal funds will provide support to school districts with demonstrated
need and a commitment to adopt a rigorous, comprehensive approach to drug and
violence reduction and prevention.
Creating incentives to develop comprehensive and results-oriented plans. Districts
will be expected to use relevant drug and violence data to develop a comprehensive
plan --in consultation with parents, teachers, students, law enforcement officials,
mental heath providers and other members of the community to do the following:
Adopt and enforce, clear and fair discipline polices, such as zero tolerance
polices for guns and drugs, school uniforms, and closed campus policies, and
parent notification and involvement.
Secure schools and pathways through implementing measures such as metal
detectors, and formal agreements with law enforcement or safety officials to
patrol school grounds and pathways to school.
Provide effective anti-drug and violence prevention programs, including
programs that teach responsible decision-making, mentoring, mediation, or
other activities aimed at changing behaviors. Funded activities must
demonstrate effectiveness in helping to create a drug-free and safe learning
environment.
Collect data and report to the public results by providing annual report cards
on the number and type of school-related drug and/or violence incidents.
Assess and intervene for troubled youth through procedures to identify
students for evaluation and counseling; training for teachers and staff; and
providing linkages between district officials, mental health, and other
community professionals where appropriate.
Connect to after-school activities for youth to extend the school day and/or
develop links to other after-school programming, and help provide children
with meaningful connections to responsible adults in the community.
Develop plan for crisis management, such as a shooting on school grounds
or drug overdoses. The plan will also address assistance for victims, contacts
with parents, law enforcement, counseling, and communication with the
media.
Taking on Bullying. Bullying often interferes with learning, and when perpetrators go
unpunished, a climate of student fear can take over. Youths who are victimized by bullies
occasionally take drastic measures --which can lead to violent behavior or weapons-carrying.
Bullying common among youth. Bullying among children is generally
defined as intentional, repeated hurtful acts, words, or other behavior, such
as threats or name calling. It may be physical, verbal, emotional or sexual in
nature. In one study of junior high and high school students, 88% of students
reported having watched bullying and 76% reported being a victim of
bullying at school.
New manual to combat bullying. Today, the Education Department will
release a manual to combat bullying. The manual contains innovative
strategies, and resources to help teachers, school staff, students, parents and
other community members to prevent and intervene with bullying problems
before they escalate into violent outbreaks.
Encouraging School Uniform Policies. School uniform policies, combined with other
prevention efforts, have shown promise in helping to reduce violence while promoting
discipline and respect in school. Because of this, the Clinton Administration has encouraged
schools to consider adopting school uniform policies by sharing with every school district
a school uniforms manual prepared by the Department of Education in consultation with
local communities and the Department of Justice.
Major crime reduction in Long Beach schools reported. Recently, the Long
Beach, California Unified School District --the first large urban school
district in the United States to require school uniforms --released data
showing a 91% drop in K-8 school crime since implementing their policy in
September 1994, including a 92% decline in weapons/look-alikes; 91% fewer
robberies; and 62% less drugs.
More schools adopting uniform policies. Since President Clinton announced
his support for school uniforms in 1996, a growing number of schools have
adopted policies including: New York City, Dade County, San Antonio,
Houston, Chicago, and Boston.
Project SERV: School Emergency Response to Violence
President Clinton will propose a $12 million School Emergency Response to Violence --or Project
SERV --to help schools and local communities respond to school-related violent deaths, such as
those that occurred last year in Jonesboro, Arkansas; Paducah, Kentucky; Pearl, Mississippi; and
Springfield, Oregon. Developed with input from local officials and educators in these and other
communities, Project SERV will enable the federal government to assist local communities in much
the same way FEMA assists in response to natural disasters.
Project SERV: Helping Communities Respond to School Shootings. To help communities
respond to rare but tragic school-related violent incidents, Project SERV will provide communities
with resources to respond to immediate crisis need; to provide increased security and ongoing
counseling; and to help state and local officials plan for, prevent against and respond to similar
tragedies. The mission of Project SERV will be to:
Provide Immediate Assistance for Emergency Response. As soon as a
school-related violent or traumatic incident occurs, the federal government will be
able to provide the affected community with immediate assistance, through:
A $12 million Emergency Response Fund to help communities meet urgent
and unplanned needs, such as additional security personnel, emergency
mental health crisis counseling, and longer-term counseling to students,
faculty, and their families.
Crisis Response Experts trained by the Departments of Education, Justice,
Health and Human Services, and the Federal Emergency Management
Administration, who can help local officials identify and respond to
community needs, help in developing a plan to address those needs, and
assist in locating necessary financial and human resources.
Establish Coordinated Federal Response to School Crises. Officials from the
Departments of Education, Justice, HHS and from FEMA worked together to help
communities impacted by this year's shootings. These agencies will continue to
work together as part of Project SERV, and improve ongoing federal crisis response
efforts.
Strengthen the Ability of States and Communities to Respond to School Crises.
Project SERV will work to strengthen the ability of each state's emergency
management, education, community mental health and law enforcement agency to
prevent and respond to school crises.
Support Research and Evaluation. To help communities deal with future
school-related crises, Project SERV will support research and evaluation on effective
ways to prevent and respond to the consequences of school-related homicides and
other such incidents.
Building An Effective Partnership with Local Communities and States. In the aftermath
of the school shootings, the Departments of Education, Justice and HHS worked closely with
officials from Pearl, Paducah, Jonesboro, and Springfield by providing crisis response teams,
victim assistance, and funds for added security and immediate counseling for students,
teachers and families. Following up on these tragic events, White House and agency
officials reviewed these efforts and in September met with officials and educators from each
community. As a result, we learned that communities could benefit from longer term,
coordinated and comprehensive federal assistance. The President's plan is a direct response
to these lessons and will be refined through continued consultation with these and other
communities.
PROMOTING SCHOOL SAFETY, PREVENTING YOUTH VIOLENCE
AND ENCOURAGING LEARNING
--The Clinton Administration Record
MAKING OUR SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITIES SAFER AND DRUG-FREE
Forging School-Based Partnerships Between Schools and Law Enforcement. Under the new
School-Based Partnerships grant program, the Clinton Administration released $16.4 million in grants to 155
law enforcement agencies in September. The School-Based Partnerships grants will be used by policing
agencies to work with schools and community-based organizations to address crime at and around schools.
This initiative emphasizes using principles of community policing and problem-solving methods to address the
causes of school-related crime. The grants will help forge or strengthen partnerships between local law
enforcement and schools to focus on school crime, drug use and discipline problems.
Helping Teachers and Principals Respond to the Early Warning Signs of Troubled Youth. President
Clinton directed the Secretary of Education and the Attorney General to develop a guide to help teachers and
principals identify and respond to the early warning signs of troubled youth that can lead to school violence.
In August 1998, the Departments of Justice and Education released Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide
to Safe Schools. This guide provides schools and communities with information on how to identify the early
warning signs and take action steps to prevent and respond to school violence. Every school in the nation
received a copy of the guide.
Issuing the First Annual Report on School Safety. In December 1997, President Clinton called for an
Annual Report on School Safety, which will be released on October 15, 1998. The report will include: an
analysis of all existing national school crime data and an overview of state and local crime reporting; examples
of schools and strategies that are successfully reducing school violence, drug use and class disruption: actions
that parents can take locally to combat school crime; and resources available to schools and communities to
help create safe, disciplined and drug-free schools.
Strengthening and Expanding the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act. In 1994, President
Clinton expanded the Drug-Free Schools Act into the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Act, making violence
prevention a key part of this program. The Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program provides support for violence
and drug prevention programs to 97% of the nation's school districts. Schools use these funds to keep
violence, drugs and alcohol away from students and out of schools. The President's FY99 budget expands the
Safe and Drug-Free Schools program by $50 million to fund 1,300 Drug and Violence Prevention
Coordinators that will help junior high and middle schools across the country develop and implement effective
strategies to keep our kids safe and away from drugs.
Enforcing Zero Tolerance for Guns and Other Weapons in Schools. In October 1994, President Clinton
signed into law the Gun-Free Schools Act, requiring states to have in effect a law requiring local education
agencies (LEAs) to expel students who bring guns to school. The President issued a Presidential Directive
later that month to enforce "zero tolerance" for guns in schools, a policy requiring the expulsion of students
who bring guns to schools. In school year 1996-97, the U.S. Department of Education estimates that, under
zero tolerance policies, 6,093 students were expelled from public schools for bringing a firearm to school.
Supporting Civic, Community and Faith-Based Organizations. Recognizing the important role that civic,
community and faith-based organizations can play in reducing crime, the Administration launched a new
Values-Based Violence Prevention Initiative to make $2.2 million in grants available to 16 community-based
collaboratives, including religiously-affiliated organizations, that target youth violence, gangs, truancy, and
other juvenile problems by promoting common-sense values and responsibility.
Providing Safe After-School Opportunities for Up to Half a Million Children a Year. Last year (FY98).
the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program was expanded by $40 million. This funding will
enable 315 rural and urban schools in 36 states to provide school-based after-school programs, including on
weekends and during the summer. This year, the President proposed a major expansion of this program to
provide safe and educational after-school opportunities for up to 500,000 school-age children in rural and
urban communities across the country. In addition, the Education Department released a report in June 1998,
titled Safe and Smart: Making the After-School Hours Work for Kids. This report shows that after-school
programs can lower juvenile crime and improve academic performance. Safe and Smart was sent to every
school district in the country.
Cracking Down on Truancy. Truancy prevention initiatives have been shown to keep more children in
school and dramatically reduce daytime crime. The Education Department issued a guidebook to the 15,000
school districts nationwide which outlines the central characteristics of a comprehensive truancy prevention
policy and highlights model initiatives in cities and towns across the country. Since then, the Education
Department has provided grants to local school districts to develop innovative truancy prevention programs of
the kind described in the guidebook.
Encouraging Schools to Adopt School Uniform Policies. School uniforms have been found to be a
promising strategy to reduce violence while promoting discipline and respect in school. Because of this, the
Clinton Administration has encouraged schools to consider adopting school uniform policies by sharing with
every school district a school uniforms manual prepared by the Department of Education in consultation with
local communities and the Department of Justice. Since the President highlighted school uniforms, a growing
number of schools have adopted these policies including: New York City, Dade County, San Antonio,
Houston, Chicago and Boston.
Supporting Curfews at the Local Level. Community curfews are designed to help keep children out of
harm's way and enhance community safety. Because of their success, President Clinton has encouraged
communities to adopt curfew policies. A 1997 survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors has shown that 276
of 347 cities surveyed or 80 percent had youth curfew laws, up from 70 percent in 1995.
Developed a Comprehensive Anti-Gang and Youth Violence Strategy. President Clinton has proposed a
comprehensive strategy to (1) target gangs and violent youths by hiring new prosecutors and probation
officers, and expanding anti-gang task forces and the use of racketeering statutes (i.e., RICO) for gang-related
offenses; (2) crack down on kids and guns by prohibiting violent juveniles from buying guns and increasing
penalties for selling handguns to youths; and (3) keep kids off the streets and out of trouble by expanding
after-school programs and promoting anti-truancy initiatives and youth curfews.
Keeping Guns Out of the Hands of Children. A number of laws and initiatives are keeping guns out of the
hands of children and away from criminals. For instance, since the Brady Law's enactment, 250,000 felons,
fugitives and stalkers have been denied handguns, and the 1994 Crime Bill banned 19 of the deadliest assault
weapons and their copies keeping assault weapons off America's streets. The Youth Crime Gun
Interdiction Initiative (YCGII) is cracking down on the illegal gun markets that supply firearms to juveniles
and criminals in 27 target cities. The YCGII has already traced more than 93,000 guns, providing law
enforcement with crucial investigative leads about illegal gun trafficking. The Administration's FY99 budget
proposal contains an expansion of YCGII. In addition to these programs, President Clinton signed a directive
to every federal agency, requiring child safety locking devices with every handgun issued to federal law
enforcement officers. And, in an historic agreement, eight major gun manufacturers have voluntarily agreed
to provide child safety locking devices with all their handguns, helping to protect our children.
Encouraging Conflict Resolution. The Departments of Education and Justice have developed and
distributed 40,000 conflict resolution guides to schools and community organizations, providing guidance on
how to develop effective conflict resolution programs; Education and Justice are training community officials
and educators on these conflict resolution measures.
Targeting Young People with a National Anti-Drug Media Campaign. In July 1998. President Clinton
launched the national expansion of the Anti-Drug Media Campaign first proposed in last year's drug strategy
and budget. The 5-year, $2 billion campaign is designed to let teens know when they turn on the television.
listen to the radio, or surf the 'Net that drugs are dangerous, wrong and can kill you.
Building and Strengthening 14,000 Community Anti-Drug Coalitions. In 1997, President Clinton signed
into law the bipartisan Drug-Free Communities Support Program. Over the next five years this program will
provide $143.5 million to help community coalitions rid their streets of drugs the coalitions are made up of
young people, parents, media, law enforcement, religious and other civic organizations and school officials.
Under this program, the President recently announced new Federal assistance to enhance grassroots efforts in
93 communities in 46 states to prevent youth drug abuse. This assistance will fund the work of broad-based
community coalitions to target young people's use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
STRENGTHENING SCHOOLS, PROMOTING DISCIPLINE AND SUPPORTING
LEARNING
Working Toward Smaller Classes with Well-Prepared Teachers. President Clinton has proposed helping
school districts reduce class size in grades 1-3 to a nationwide average of 18 students by helping them to hire
an additional 100,000 well-prepared teachers. This initiative will help children learn to read well in the early
grades by giving them more individualized attention, will help teachers get the training and preparation they
need to succeed and help educators maintain discipline and order which fosters a better learning environment.
Providing Early Education to More Children with Head Start and Early Head Start. Since 1993, the
Clinton Administration has expanded Head Start by 57 percent, from $2.8 billion in FY93 to $4.4 billion in
FY98. Now, 830,000 children are enrolled in Head Start, 200,000 more today than in 1992. In addition, the
landmark Head Start Act Amendments of 1994 established the Early Head Start program, which expands
Head Start to low-income families with children under three and to pregnant women. Under the President's
budget, by 1999 nearly 50,000 infants, toddlers and their families will be served by Early Head Start. Studies
have shown that investments made during the early stages of life reduce tendencies towards violence later in
adulthood. Additionally, early investments also ensure that children are ready to learn when they enter school.
Replacing Crumbling Schools with Safer Ones. The proposed School Modernization Initiative will, if
enacted, provide communities with interest-free bonds to help renovate, modernize and build over 5,000
schools nationwide.
Teaching Every Child to Read by the Third Grade. More than 1,000 colleges have committed work-study
students to tutor children in reading, and thousands of AmeriCorps members and senior volunteers are
organizing volunteer reading campaigns. In addition, a proposed early literacy bill, such as the America
Reads Initiative, will provide more tutors after school, improve the teaching of reading in our schools, and
help parents help their children learn to read.
Striving for Excellence with National Education Standards. Seeking high national standards for all
students, the President has proposed a first-ever national test in 4th grade reading and 8th grade math. Goals
2000 is helping States to establish voluntary standards of excellence and to plan and implement steps to raise
educational achievement. In addition, the Title I program is helping more than 10 million disadvantaged
students reach high academic standards by giving them extra help with basic and advanced skills.
Expanding Choice and Accountability in Public Schools. The number of public charter schools has
increased from only one charter school in the nation in 1993 to more than 1,000 charter schools this year,
providing greater choices in public education to families across the nation. The Administration has also called
for an end to social promotion, aggressive intervention in failing schools, and higher standards for students,
teachers and schools.
PROMOTING SCHOOL SAFETY, PREVENTING YOUTH VIOLENCE
AND ENCOURAGING LEARNING
--The Clinton Administration Record
MAKING OUR SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITIES SAFER AND DRUG-FREE
Forging School-Based Partnerships Between Schools and Law Enforcement. Under the new
School-Based Partnerships grant program, the Clinton Administration released $16.4 million in grants to 155
law enforcement agencies in September. The School-Based Partnerships grants will be used by policing
agencies to work with schools and community-based organizations to address crime at and around schools.
This initiative emphasizes using principles of community policing and problem-solving methods to address the
causes of school-related crime. The grants will help forge or strengthen partnerships between local law
enforcement and schools to focus on school crime, drug use and discipline problems.
Helping Teachers and Principals Respond to the Early Warning Signs of Troubled Youth. President
Clinton directed the Secretary of Education and the Attorney General to develop a guide to help teachers and
principals identify and respond to the early warning signs of troubled youth that can lead to school violence.
In August 1998, the Departments of Justice and Education released Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide
to Safe Schools. This guide provides schools and communities with information on how to identify the early
warning signs and take action steps to prevent and respond to school violence. Every school in the nation
received a copy of the guide.
Issuing the First Annual Report on School Safety. In December 1997, President Clinton called for an
Annual Report on School Safety, which will be released on October 15, 1998. The report will include: an
analysis of all existing national school crime data and an overview of state and local crime reporting: examples
of schools and strategies that are successfully reducing school violence, drug use and class disruption: actions
that parents can take locally to combat school crime; and resources available to schools and communities to
help create safe, disciplined and drug-free schools.
Strengthening and Expanding the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act. In 1994, President
Clinton expanded the Drug-Free Schools Act into the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Act, making violence
prevention a key part of this program. The Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program provides support for violence
and drug prevention programs to 97% of the nation's school districts. Schools use these funds to keep
violence, drugs and alcohol away from students and out of schools. The President's FY99 budget expands the
Safe and Drug-Free Schools program by $50 million to fund 1,300 Drug and Violence Prevention
Coordinators that will help junior high and middle schools across the country develop and implement effective
strategies to keep our kids safe and away from drugs.
Enforcing Zero Tolerance for Guns and Other Weapons in Schools. In October 1994, President Clinton
signed into law the Gun-Free Schools Act, requiring states to have in effect a law requiring local education
agencies (LEAs) to expel students who bring guns to school. The President issued a Presidential Directive
later that month to enforce "zero tolerance" for guns in schools, a policy requiring the expulsion of students
who bring guns to schools. In school year 1996-97, the U.S. Department of Education estimates that, under
zero tolerance policies, 6,093 students were expelled from public schools for bringing a firearm to school.
Supporting Civic, Community and Faith-Based Organizations. Recognizing the important role that civic,
community and faith-based organizations can play in reducing crime, the Administration launched a new
Values-Based Violence Prevention Initiative to make $2.2 million in grants available to 16 community-based
collaboratives, including religiously-affiliated organizations, that target youth violence, gangs, truancy, and
other juvenile problems by promoting common-sense values and responsibility.
Providing Safe After-School Opportunities for Up to Half a Million Children a Year. Last year (FY98).
the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program was expanded by $40 million. This funding will
enable 315 rural and urban schools in 36 states to provide school-based after-school programs, including on
weekends and during the summer. This year, the President proposed a major expansion of this program to
provide safe and educational after-school opportunities for up to 500,000 school-age children in rural and
urban communities across the country. In addition, the Education Department released a report in June 1998,
titled Safe and Smart: Making the After-School Hours Work for Kids. This report shows that after-school
programs can lower juvenile crime and improve academic performance. Safe and Smart was sent to every
school district in the country.
Cracking Down on Truancy. Truancy prevention initiatives have been shown to keep more children in
school and dramatically reduce daytime crime. The Education Department issued a guidebook to the 15,000
school districts nationwide which outlines the central characteristics of a comprehensive truancy prevention
policy and highlights model initiatives in cities and towns across the country. Since then, the Education
Department has provided grants to local school districts to develop innovative truancy prevention programs of
the kind described in the guidebook.
Encouraging Schools to Adopt School Uniform Policies. School uniforms have been found to be a
promising strategy to reduce violence while promoting discipline and respect in school. Because of this, the
Clinton Administration has encouraged schools to consider adopting school uniform policies by sharing with
every school district a school uniforms manual prepared by the Department of Education in consultation with
local communities and the Department of Justice. Since the President highlighted school uniforms, a growing
number of schools have adopted these policies including: New York City, Dade County, San Antonio,
Houston, Chicago and Boston.
Supporting Curfews at the Local Level. Community curfews are designed to help keep children out of
harm's way and enhance community safety. Because of their success, President Clinton has encouraged
communities to adopt curfew policies. A 1997 survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors has shown that 276
of 347 cities surveyed or 80 percent had youth curfew laws, up from 70 percent in 1995.
Developed a Comprehensive Anti-Gang and Youth Violence Strategy. President Clinton has proposed a
comprehensive strategy to (1) target gangs and violent youths by hiring new prosecutors and probation
officers, and expanding anti-gang task forces and the use of racketeering statutes (i.e., RICO) for gang-related
offenses; (2) crack down on kids and guns by prohibiting violent juveniles from buying guns and increasing
penalties for selling handguns to youths; and (3) keep kids off the streets and out of trouble by expanding
after-school programs and promoting anti-truancy initiatives and youth curfews.
Keeping Guns Out of the Hands of Children. A number of laws and initiatives are keeping guns out of the
hands of children and away from criminals. For instance, since the Brady Law's enactment, 250,000 felons,
fugitives and stalkers have been denied handguns, and the 1994 Crime Bill banned 19 of the deadliest assault
weapons and their copies keeping assault weapons off America's streets. The Youth Crime Gun
Interdiction Initiative (YCGII) is cracking down on the illegal gun markets that supply firearms to juveniles
and criminals in 27 target cities. The YCGII has already traced more than 93,000 guns, providing law
enforcement with crucial investigative leads about illegal gun trafficking. The Administration's FY99 budget
proposal contains an expansion of YCGII. In addition to these programs, President Clinton signed a directive
to every federal agency, requiring child safety locking devices with every handgun issued to federal law
enforcement officers. And, in an historic agreement, eight major gun manufacturers have voluntarily agreed
to provide child safety locking devices with all their handguns, helping to protect our children.
Encouraging Conflict Resolution. The Departments of Education and Justice have developed and
distributed 40,000 conflict resolution guides to schools and community organizations, providing guidance on
how to develop effective conflict resolution programs; Education and Justice are training community officials
and educators on these conflict resolution measures.
Targeting Young People with a National Anti-Drug Media Campaign. In July 1998. President Clinton
launched the national expansion of the Anti-Drug Media Campaign first proposed in last year's drug strategy
and budget. The 5-year, $2 billion campaign is designed to let teens know when they turn on the television.
listen to the radio, or surf the 'Net -- that drugs are dangerous, wrong and can kill you.
Building and Strengthening 14,000 Community Anti-Drug Coalitions. In 1997, President Clinton signed
into law the bipartisan Drug-Free Communities Support Program. Over the next five years this program will
provide $143.5 million to help community coalitions rid their streets of drugs the coalitions are made up of
young people, parents, media, law enforcement, religious and other civic organizations and school officials.
Under this program, the President recently announced new Federal assistance to enhance grassroots efforts in
93 communities in 46 states to prevent youth drug abuse. This assistance will fund the work of broad-based
community coalitions to target young people's use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
STRENGTHENING SCHOOLS, PROMOTING DISCIPLINE AND SUPPORTING
LEARNING
Working Toward Smaller Classes with Well-Prepared Teachers. President Clinton has proposed helping
school districts reduce class size in grades 1-3 to a nationwide average of 18 students by helping them to hire
an additional 100,000 well-prepared teachers. This initiative will help children learn to read well in the early
grades by giving them more individualized attention, will help teachers get the training and preparation they
need to succeed and help educators maintain discipline and order which fosters a better learning environment.
Providing Early Education to More Children with Head Start and Early Head Start. Since 1993, the
Clinton Administration has expanded Head Start by 57 percent, from $2.8 billion in FY93 to $4.4 billion in
FY98. Now, 830,000 children are enrolled in Head Start, 200,000 more today than in 1992. In addition, the
landmark Head Start Act Amendments of 1994 established the Early Head Start program, which expands
Head Start to low-income families with children under three and to pregnant women. Under the President's
budget, by 1999 nearly 50,000 infants, toddlers and their families will be served by Early Head Start. Studies
have shown that investments made during the early stages of life reduce tendencies towards violence later in
adulthood. Additionally, early investments also ensure that children are ready to learn when they enter school.
Replacing Crumbling Schools with Safer Ones. The proposed School Modernization Initiative will, if
enacted, provide communities with interest-free bonds to help renovate, modernize and build over 5,000
schools nationwide.
Teaching Every Child to Read by the Third Grade. More than 1,000 colleges have committed work-study
students to tutor children in reading, and thousands of AmeriCorps members and senior volunteers are
organizing volunteer reading campaigns. In addition, a proposed early literacy bill, such as the America
Reads Initiative, will provide more tutors after school, improve the teaching of reading in our schools, and
help parents help their children learn to read.
Striving for Excellence with National Education Standards. Seeking high national standards for all
students, the President has proposed a first-ever national test in 4th grade reading and 8th grade math. Goals
2000 is helping States to establish voluntary standards of excellence and to plan and implement steps to raise
educational achievement. In addition, the Title I program is helping more than 10 million disadvantaged
students reach high academic standards by giving them extra help with basic and advanced skills.
Expanding Choice and Accountability in Public Schools. The number of public charter schools has
increased from only one charter school in the nation in 1993 to more than 1,000 charter schools this year,
providing greater choices in public education to families across the nation. The Administration has also called
for an end to social promotion, aggressive intervention in failing schools, and higher standards for students,
teachers and schools.
PROMOTING SCHOOL SAFETY, PREVENTING YOUTH VIOLENCE
AND ENCOURAGING LEARNING
--The Clinton Administration Record
MAKING OUR SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITIES SAFER AND DRUG-FREE
Forging School-Based Partnerships Between Schools and Law Enforcement. Under the new
School-Based Partnerships grant program, the Clinton Administration released $16.4 million in grants to 155
law enforcement agencies in September. The School-Based Partnerships grants will be used by policing
agencies to work with schools and community-based organizations to address crime at and around schools.
This initiative emphasizes using principles of community policing and problem-solving methods to address the
causes of school-related crime. The grants will help forge or strengthen partnerships between local law
enforcement and schools to focus on school crime, drug use and discipline problems.
Helping Teachers and Principals Respond to the Early Warning Signs of Troubled Youth. President
Clinton directed the Secretary of Education and the Attorney General to develop a guide to help teachers and
principals identify and respond to the early warning signs of troubled youth that can lead to school violence.
In August 1998, the Departments of Justice and Education released Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide
to Safe Schools. This guide provides schools and communities with information on how to identify the early
warning signs and take action steps to prevent and respond to school violence. Every school in the nation
received a copy of the guide.
Issuing the First Annual Report on School Safety. In December 1997, President Clinton called for an
Annual Report on School Safety, which will be released on October 15, 1998. The report will include: an
analysis of all existing national school crime data and an overview of state and local crime reporting: examples
of schools and strategies that are successfully reducing school violence, drug use and class disruption; actions
that parents can take locally to combat school crime; and resources available to schools and communities to
help create safe, disciplined and drug-free schools.
Strengthening and Expanding the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act. In 1994, President
Clinton expanded the Drug-Free Schools Act into the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Act, making violence
prevention a key part of this program. The Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program provides support for violence
and drug prevention programs to 97% of the nation's school districts. Schools use these funds to keep
violence, drugs and alcohol away from students and out of schools. The President's FY99 budget expands the
Safe and Drug-Free Schools program by $50 million to fund 1,300 Drug and Violence Prevention
Coordinators that will help junior high and middle schools across the country develop and implement effective
strategies to keep our kids safe and away from drugs.
Enforcing Zero Tolerance for Guns and Other Weapons in Schools. In October 1994, President Clinton
signed into law the Gun-Free Schools Act, requiring states to have in effect a law requiring local education
agencies (LEAs) to expel students who bring guns to school. The President issued a Presidential Directive
later that month to enforce "zero tolerance" for guns in schools, a policy requiring the expulsion of students
who bring guns to schools. In school year 1996-97, the U.S. Department of Education estimates that, under
zero tolerance policies, 6,093 students were expelled from public schools for bringing a firearm to school.
Supporting Civic, Community and Faith-Based Organizations. Recognizing the important role that civic,
community and faith-based organizations can play in reducing crime, the Administration launched a new
Values-Based Violence Prevention Initiative to make $2.2 million in grants available to 16 community-based
collaboratives, including religiously-affiliated organizations, that target youth violence, gangs, truancy, and
other juvenile problems by promoting common-sense values and responsibility.
Providing Safe After-School Opportunities for Up to Half a Million Children a Year. Last year (FY98).
the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program was expanded by $40 million. This funding will
enable 315 rural and urban schools in 36 states to provide school-based after-school programs, including on
weekends and during the summer. This year, the President proposed a major expansion of this program to
provide safe and educational after-school opportunities for up to 500,000 school-age children in rural and
urban communities across the country. In addition, the Education Department released a report in June 1998,
titled Safe and Smart: Making the After-School Hours Work for Kids. This report shows that after-school
programs can lower juvenile crime and improve academic performance. Safe and Smart was sent to every
school district in the country.
Cracking Down on Truancy. Truancy prevention initiatives have been shown to keep more children in
school and dramatically reduce daytime crime. The Education Department issued a guidebook to the 15,000
school districts nationwide which outlines the central characteristics of a comprehensive truancy prevention
policy and highlights model initiatives in cities and towns across the country. Since then, the Education
Department has provided grants to local school districts to develop innovative truancy prevention programs of
the kind described in the guidebook.
Encouraging Schools to Adopt School Uniform Policies. School uniforms have been found to be a
promising strategy to reduce violence while promoting discipline and respect in school. Because of this, the
Clinton Administration has encouraged schools to consider adopting school uniform policies by sharing with
every school district a school uniforms manual prepared by the Department of Education in consultation with
local communities and the Department of Justice. Since the President highlighted school uniforms, a growing
number of schools have adopted these policies including: New York City, Dade County, San Antonio,
Houston, Chicago and Boston.
Supporting Curfews at the Local Level. Community curfews are designed to help keep children out of
harm's way and enhance community safety. Because of their success, President Clinton has encouraged
communities to adopt curfew policies. A 1997 survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors has shown that 276
of 347 cities surveyed or 80 percent -- had youth curfew laws, up from 70 percent in 1995.
Developed a Comprehensive Anti-Gang and Youth Violence Strategy. President Clinton has proposed a
comprehensive strategy to (1) target gangs and violent youths by hiring new prosecutors and probation
officers, and expanding anti-gang task forces and the use of racketeering statutes (i.e., RICO) for gang-related
offenses; (2) crack down on kids and guns by prohibiting violent juveniles from buying guns and increasing
penalties for selling handguns to youths; and (3) keep kids off the streets and out of trouble by expanding
after-school programs and promoting anti-truancy initiatives and youth curfews.
Keeping Guns Out of the Hands of Children. A number of laws and initiatives are keeping guns out of the
hands of children and away from criminals. For instance, since the Brady Law's enactment, 250,000 felons,
fugitives and stalkers have been denied handguns, and the 1994 Crime Bill banned 19 of the deadliest assault
weapons and their copies keeping assault weapons off America's streets. The Youth Crime Gun
Interdiction Initiative (YCGII) is cracking down on the illegal gun markets that supply firearms to juveniles
and criminals in 27 target cities. The YCGII has already traced more than 93,000 guns, providing law
enforcement with crucial investigative leads about illegal gun trafficking. The Administration's FY99 budget
proposal contains an expansion of YCGII. In addition to these programs, President Clinton signed a directive
to every federal agency, requiring child safety locking devices with every handgun issued to federal law
enforcement officers. And, in an historic agreement, eight major gun manufacturers have voluntarily agreed
to provide child safety locking devices with all their handguns, helping to protect our children.
Encouraging Conflict Resolution. The Departments of Education and Justice have developed and
distributed 40,000 conflict resolution guides to schools and community organizations, providing guidance on
how to develop effective conflict resolution programs; Education and Justice are training community officials
and educators on these conflict resolution measures.
Targeting Young People with a National Anti-Drug Media Campaign. In July 1998. President Clinton
launched the national expansion of the Anti-Drug Media Campaign first proposed in last year's drug strategy
and budget. The 5-year, $2 billion campaign is designed to let teens know when they turn on the television.
listen to the radio, or surf the 'Net that drugs are dangerous, wrong and can kill you.
Building and Strengthening 14,000 Community Anti-Drug Coalitions. In 1997, President Clinton signed
into law the bipartisan Drug-Free Communities Support Program. Over the next five years this program will
provide $143.5 million to help community coalitions rid their streets of drugs -- the coalitions are made up of
young people, parents, media, law enforcement, religious and other civic organizations and school officials.
Under this program, the President recently announced new Federal assistance to enhance grassroots efforts in
93 communities in 46 states to prevent youth drug abuse. This assistance will fund the work of broad-based
community coalitions to target young people's use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
STRENGTHENING SCHOOLS, PROMOTING DISCIPLINE AND SUPPORTING
LEARNING
Working Toward Smaller Classes with Well-Prepared Teachers. President Clinton has proposed helping
school districts reduce class size in grades 1-3 to a nationwide average of 18 students by helping them to hire
an additional 100,000 well-prepared teachers. This initiative will help children learn to read well in the early
grades by giving them more individualized attention, will help teachers get the training and preparation they
need to succeed and help educators maintain discipline and order which fosters a better learning environment.
Providing Early Education to More Children with Head Start and Early Head Start. Since 1993, the
Clinton Administration has expanded Head Start by 57 percent, from $2.8 billion in FY93 to $4.4 billion in
FY98. Now, 830,000 children are enrolled in Head Start, 200,000 more today than in 1992. In addition, the
landmark Head Start Act Amendments of 1994 established the Early Head Start program, which expands
Head Start to low-income families with children under three and to pregnant women. Under the President's
budget, by 1999 nearly 50,000 infants, toddlers and their families will be served by Early Head Start. Studies
have shown that investments made during the early stages of life reduce tendencies towards violence later in
adulthood. Additionally, early investments also ensure that children are ready to learn when they enter school.
Replacing Crumbling Schools with Safer Ones. The proposed School Modernization Initiative will, if
enacted, provide communities with interest-free bonds to help renovate, modernize and build over 5,000
schools nationwide.
Teaching Every Child to Read by the Third Grade. More than 1,000 colleges have committed work-study
students to tutor children in reading, and thousands of AmeriCorps members and senior volunteers are
organizing volunteer reading campaigns. In addition, a proposed early literacy bill, such as the America
Reads Initiative, will provide more tutors after school, improve the teaching of reading in our schools, and
help parents help their children learn to read.
Striving for Excellence with National Education Standards. Seeking high national standards for all
students, the President has proposed a first-ever national test in 4th grade reading and 8th grade math. Goals
2000 is helping States to establish voluntary standards of excellence and to plan and implement steps to raise
educational achievement. In addition, the Title I program is helping more than 10 million disadvantaged
students reach high academic standards by giving them extra help with basic and advanced skills.
Expanding Choice and Accountability in Public Schools. The number of public charter schools has
increased from only one charter school in the nation in 1993 to more than 1,000 charter schools this year,
providing greater choices in public education to families across the nation. The Administration has also called
for an end to social promotion, aggressive intervention in failing schools, and higher standards for students,
teachers and schools.
Roger V. Salazar
10/14/98 11:19:19 AM
Record Type: Record
To:
Toby C. Graff/WHO/EOP, Julie E. Mason/WHO/EOP
CC:
Subject: Advisory -- WH Conference on School Safety
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR PLANNING PURPOSES ONLY
Contact: 202/456-7150
October 13, 1998
THE PRESIDENT AND FIRST LADY TO HOST
WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON SCHOOL SAFETY
Washington, D.C. - President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will host
the White House Conference on School Safety: Causes and Prevention of Youth Violence on
October 15, 1998. The Conference will be a day-long event held in the White House Conference
Center and in the East Room of the White House and will include participation by Attorney
General Janet Reno, Education Secretary Richard Riley, Members of Congress, and state and
local elected officials. More than 100 individuals from around the country, including teachers,
principals, schools superintendents, members of law enforcement, experts from medical and
psychological fields, clergy and religious leaders and other community representatives will
attend the conference. The conference will be broadcast via satellite to over 600 locations
nationwide and cybercast on the Internet.
WHAT:
The President and First Lady host the White House Conference on School
Safety
WHERE:
The White House
WHEN:
All Day. Thursday, October 15, 1998
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:
8:30 am
Morning Workshop Sessions
White House Conference Center, Jackson Place
POOL PRESS ONLY (FOR OPENING REMARKS ONLY)
1) Education and Safety -- Chair, Secretary of Education Richard Riley
2) Early Warning Signs, Mental Health Interventions and Crisis
Response -- Chair, Margaret Hamburg, Assistant Secretary of Health
and
Human Services for Planning and Evaluation
3) School, Community and Law Enforcement
Partnerships Chair, Associate Attorney General Raymond Fisher
4) Causes of Youth Violence in Early Childhood Development
Chair, Attorney General Janet Reno
NOTE: Four separate pools will be formed for the morning workshop sessions. Media interested
in serving as pool for these workshops should contact the White House Press Office at (202)
456-7150. These workshops will not be available via satellite or cybercast.
- MORE -
-2-
10:30 am
Morning Plenary Session
East Room, The White House
OPEN PRESS
Opening Session and Conference Overview
The First Lady, Attorney General Janet Reno,
Secretary of Education Richard Riley, and panel participants
12:45 pm
Afternoon Panel I
East Room, The White House
OPEN PRESS
Discussion of the Causes and Prevention of Youth Violence that Affect
our Schools and Communities
The President, Vice President, First Lady, and panel participants
2:45 pm
Afternoon Panel II
East Room, The White House
OPEN PRESS
Discussion of Initiatives and Strategies that Work to Reduce Youth
Violence
The First Lady, Attorney General Janet Reno, Secretary of Education
Richard Riley, and panel participants
NOTE: Panel participants will be available for interviews on the White House North
Lawn following Afternoon Panel I and Afternoon Panel II. Media without White House
credentials or needing clearance should contact the White House Press Office
at
202/456-7150. Media wishing to pre-set should gather in the briefing room at 9:00
am for
escort to the East Room. Final escort for the morning session will be at 10:15
am.
Satellite Information:
All East Room sessions of the White House Conference on School Safety will be
broadcast via satellite. Over 600 communities across the country will be hosting events around
this live national satellite broadcast. Contact the White House Press
Office for locations in
your communities. In addition, media can downlink the satellite broadcast from the following
coordinates:
C-BAND COORDINATES
Ku-BAND COORDINATES
Satellite:
GE 2
Satellite:
Galaxy 3
Transponder: 1
Transponder: 17
Channel:
1
Channel: 17
Frequency: 3720 MHZ Vertical
Frequency: 12043 MHZ Vertical
- MORE - 3-
Cybercast Information:
The White House Conference on School Safety Cybercast can be accessed at the
following world wide web address: www.whitehouse.gov/WH/New/Safety/
Panel Participants:
The following are some of the individuals who will participate in panel discussions
during the White House Conference on School Safety.
Paul Kingery, Ph.D., Director, Hamilton Fish National Institute on School and
Community Violence, Rosslyn, VA
Marlene Wong, Director, L.A. School of Mental Health, Valley Branch, CA
Suzanne Wilson, Parent, Jonesboro, AR
Mayor Deedee Corradini, Salt Lake City, UT
Tony Earles, Professor, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
U.S. Representative Bobby Etheridge (D-NC)
Paul Evans, Commissioner, Boston Police Department, Boston, MA
Liberty Franklin, Everett Boys and Girls Club, Everett, WA
Jamon Kent, Superintendent, Springfield Public Schools, Springfield, OR
Joanna Quintano, Teacher, Coral Way Elementary School, Miami, FL
Thomas C. Frazier, Police Commissioner, Baltimore Police Department, Baltimore,
MD
Lt. Gary French, Boston's Operation Ceasefire, Roslindale, MA
Mariana Gaston, Director, Resolving Conflict Creatively Program, New York, NY
Lynn McDonald, Ph.D., Founder, Families and Schools Together (FAST), Madison,
WI
Irma Howard, FAST Graduate, New Orleans, LA
Sandy McBrayer, Executive Director, Children's Initiative, San Diego, CA
30-30-30-
bc-SCHOOLSAFETY
White House conference to focus on causes, prevention of school violence
Eds: With sidebar SCHOOLVIOLENCE
By DENNIS CAMIRE
Gannett News Service
WASHINGTON - A new report on school violence, to be released Thursday as
the White House has a national conference on school safety, shows an overall
decline of school crime, a stable rate of serious violent crime and fewer
students carrying weapons to school.
The report, compiled by the Education and Justice Departments, also
details attacks in schools against both teachers and students, notes a growing
gang presence in schools and shows more students today are fearful in schools
than in the past.
All of us must take the issue of school safety seriously, said
Attorney General Janet Reno. We cannot rest until every child is safe at
school and in the community.
The report information sets the scene for the day-long conference that
includes representatives from each of the communities - Pearl, Miss., Paducah,
Ky., Jonesboro, Ark., and Springfield, Ore. - that saw students shooting other
students in their schools. More than 100 people from around the country,
including President Clinton, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Vice President
Al Gore, Attorney General Janet Reno and Education Secretary Richard Riley,
are involved.
The conference will focus on causes and prevention of youth violence in
its morning session. In the afternoon, it will center on initiatives and
strategies that work to reduce violence.
Pearl, Miss., and its schools will be among the 600 schools and other
locations nationwide that will be linked by satellite to the national
conference while holding their own conference at the same time. Pearl
officials said their conference will focus attention on local problems, learn
from solutions found to problems in other areas and highlight their own
successful initiatives.
The school crime report found that homicides in schools, such as those
that occurred at Pearl in which one student was killed and seven others
injured by a student with a deer rifle, are extremely rare events.
While the number of multiple-victim homicides at schools increased from
two with four victims in 1992 and 1993 to six with 16 victims in 1997 and
1998, the overall number of violent deaths of students at schools has
remained steady.
The report found that 10 percent of the schools reported at least one
incident of serious violent crime, such as physical attacks or fights with a
weapon, rape, robbery, murder or suicide. But 43 percent of the schools
reported no incidents of crime, and 47 percent had at least one incident of
less serious or nonviolent crime.
Riley said the report proves that the vast majority of America's schools
are still among the safest places for young people to be.
We can also stake some satisfaction that the tough measures to keep guns
out of schools are having a real impact, he said. Even one incident of
crime in a school is too many, and I especially worry about the increasing
presence of gangs in school.
Parents, educators and communities are encouraged to use the report as a
tool to help them find solutions to address this important issue'' in a way
that meets their local needs, Riley said.
The report showed that the overall school crime rate declined between 1993
and 1996, from 164 to 128 school-related crimes for every 1,000 students
between 12 and 18 years of age. Crime victimization outside of school declined
from about 140 to 117 crimes for every 1,000 students during the same period.
Most school crime is theft, not serious violent crime, the report found.
In 1996, theft made up 62 percent of crimes against students in school, and in
the same year, about 26 of 1,000 students were victims of serious violent
crimes away from school compared to 10 of every 1,000 students at school or
going to and from school.
But the report showed that from 1989 to 1995, students became more fearful
of their safety at school. In 1989, about 6 percent of students aged 12
through 19 sometimes or most of the time feared they were going to be attacked
or harmed at school. By 1995, that number had risen to 9 percent.
During the same period, the percentage of students fearing an attack while
traveling to and from schools rose from 4 percent to 7 percent.
Raymond Fischer, an associate attorney general, said he rejected the
notion of what some are calling a school crime epidemic, but only because of
what has been learned through various conferences over time.
I think that initial reaction generally has been dispelled, he said.
but the reason people were fearing for their safety in schools is what they
were seeing on the nightly news every night. When that's drummed in, the kids
begin to pick up on it, obviously, and that creates a climate.
Other report findings include:
- On average from 1992 to 1996, public and private school teachers
reported about 30 violent crimes and 16 thefts for every 1,000 teachers.
- From 1993 to 1997, there was an overall decline from 12 percent to 9
percent among students in grades nine through 12 who reported carrying a
weapon to school in the previous month. In 1996 and 1997, states and
territories expelled 6,093 students form bringing firearms to school.
- Between 1989 and 1995, the percentage of students in urban, suburban and
rural schools who reported street gangs in their schools increased from 15
percent to 28 percent.
- School security measures are increasing with 96 percent of public
schools reporting some type in place.
The report also shows steps that schools, parents, businesses, communities
and elected officials can take to develop their own school safety plan and
lists resources that can be used to obtain more information.
---
**** filed by:GN-F(--) on 10/14/98 at 18:49EDT ****
**** printed by: WHPR (SCOH) on 10/15/98 at 12:43EDT ****
MUSIC
TELEVISION
PRESS
RELEASE
MTV JOINS PRESIDENT CLINTON AT WHITE HOUSE SUMMIT ON
SCHOOL VIOLENCE AND ANNOUNCES COMPREHENSIVE ANTI-
VIOLENCE CAMPAIGN --
"FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS: TAKE A STAND AGAINST VIOLENCE"
YEAR-LONG CAMPAIGN AIMS AT PROVIDING SOLUTIONS TO VIOLENCE
Young Adults See Violence As Single Most Important Issue Affecting Their Lives
Washington, D.C./New York, NY, October 15, 1998 - MTV today announced a
comprehensive, year-long campaign aimed at raising awareness and providing actionable
solutions to youth violence. Today, President Clinton, at the White House Summit on
School Violence, announced MTV's partnership with the US Departments of Justice and
Education to help youth take a stand against violence and acknowledged the importance
of MTV's campaign, which will begin in January 1999.
"Fight For Your Rights: Take A Stand Against Violence" will involve special
programming, Public Service Announcements, grass roots events, and MTV News special
reports all designed to give MTV's audience a voice in the national debate on violence and
to provide them with tangible tactics to take a stand against violence.
Through partnerships with The Department of Justice, The Department of Education and
the National Endowment of the Arts, MTV has developed a Youth Action Guide which
will be distributed throughout the campaign. The guide will outline 5 different actions,
aimed at engaging youth in solutions to violence, as well as providing alternative outlets to
violence. MTV viewers will be able to receive the guide by calling a special 800 number
that will be promoted throughout the year on MTV during programming and on-air
promotion devoted specifically to the topic of youth violence. MTV will partner with
cable distributors across the country on an extensive off-air campaign which will aim to
reduce violence through local programs.
In addition, MTV is teaming up with the Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA) and Nimbus Manufacturing to produce up to one million enhanced CDs which
will include recordings and comments on violence from some of today's hottest artists and
a CD ROM focused on conflict resolution skills. The CD will be promoted on MTV and
made available, free of charge, to any individual requesting a Youth Action Guide.
-more-
MTV PRESS OFFICES 1515 BROADWAY NEW YORK, NY 10036
PH: 212 258 8000 FAX: 212 258 8759
Violence is the number one concern of the 12-34 year old audience, according to a poll
conducted by Penn and Schoen exclusively for MTV. In addition, 12-34 year olds are the
demographic group that is most affected by violence both as the victims and the
aggressors.
Both on air and off, MTV will focus it's campaign on three different types of violence
which most affect its young audience: Violence in the Schools; Violence in the Streets
(hate violence and gang violence) and; Sexual Violence. Through high profile
programming events, coverage in MTV News, and thought-provoking on-air promos, the
campaign will aim at providing ideas and solutions beyond curfews and school uniforms.
For example, MTV will partner with the American Psychological Association to produce a
news program on "Warning Signs" with an 800 number and a guide directed at helping
youth recognize the signs of potential violent behavior. Focusing on solutions, such as
peer mentoring, conflict resolution programs, artistic responses to violence and youth
advocacy groups, the campaign will give young people the tools to take a stand against
violence.
In announcing the campaign, Judy McGrath, President, MTV commented, "MTV is at its
best when it gives our audience a voice to address their concerns. Clearly, violence affects
their lives in a direct way, and it's incredibly timely and important for MTV to speak
directly to these issues, and to offer some concrete action steps for viewers. If we can
help one young person in trouble, this campaign will be a success."
MTV will work with the following partners to engage youth in solutions to violence:
America's Promise, Creative Partnership for Prevention, Harvard School of Public Health,
National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, National Center for Conflict Resolution
Education, National Institute for Dispute Resolution, National Institute for Dispute
Resolution and Conflict Resolution Education, The National Mentoring Partnership,
National Youth in Action Campaign, The National Youth Network, PAX and Rock the
Vote.
Detailed programming and off-air plans for "Fight For Your Rights: Take A Stand Against
Violence" will be announced later this year.
MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom Inc., owns and operates five cable television
programming services MTV: Music Television, M2, VH1, Nickelodeon/Nick at
Nite, and Nick at Nite's TV Land all of which are trademarks of MTV Networks.
Information about MTV and M2 is available on MTV Online, on America Online
(Keyword: MTV) and the World Wide Web (http://mtv.com).
For More Information Contact:
Tina Exarhos
Senior Vice President, Communications
(212)258-8727
PRESS
RELEASE
MTV JOINS PRESIDENT CLINTON AT WHITE HOUSE SUMMIT ON
SCHOOL VIOLENCE AND ANNOUNCES COMPREHENSIVE ANTI-
VIOLENCE CAMPAIGN --
"FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS: TAKE A STAND AGAINST VIOLENCE"
YEAR-LONG CAMPAIGN AIMS AT PROVIDING SOLUTIONS TO VIOLENCE
Young Adults See Violence As Single Most Important Issue Affecting Their Lives
Washington, D.C./New York, NY, October 15, 1998 - MTV today announced a
comprehensive, year-long campaign aimed at raising awareness and providing actionable
solutions to youth violence. Today, President Clinton, at the White House Summit on
School Violence, announced MTV's partnership with the US Departments of Justice and
Education to help youth take a stand against violence and acknowledged the importance
of MTV's campaign, which will begin in January 1999.
"Fight For Your Rights: Take A Stand Against Violence" will involve special
programming, Public Service Announcements, grass roots events, and MTV News special
reports all designed to give MTV's audience a voice in the national debate on violence and
to provide them with tangible tactics to take a stand against violence.
Through partnerships with The Department of Justice, The Department of Education and
the National Endowment of the Arts, MTV has developed a Youth Action Guide which
will be distributed throughout the campaign. The guide will outline 5 different actions,
aimed at engaging youth in solutions to violence, as well as providing alternative outlets to
violence. MTV viewers will be able to receive the guide by calling a special 800 number
that will be promoted throughout the year on MTV during programming and on-air
promotion devoted specifically to the topic of youth violence. MTV will partner with
cable distributors across the country on an extensive off-air campaign which will aim to
reduce violence through local programs.
In addition, MTV is teaming up with the Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA) and Nimbus Manufacturing to produce up to one million enhanced CDs which
will include recordings and comments on violence from some of today's hottest artists and
a CD ROM focused on conflict resolution skills. The CD will be promoted on MTV and
made available, free of charge, to any individual requesting a Youth Action Guide.
-more-
MTV PRESS OFFICES
1515 BROADWAY NEW YORK, NY 10036
PH: 212 258 8000 FAX: 212 258 8759
Violence is the number one concern of the 12-34 year old audience, according to a poll
conducted by Penn and Schoen exclusively for MTV. In addition, 12-34 year olds are the
demographic group that is most affected by violence -- both as the victims and the
aggressors.
Both on air and off, MTV will focus it's campaign on three different types of violence
which most affect its young audience: Violence in the Schools; Violence in the Streets
(hate violence and gang violence) and; Sexual Violence. Through high profile
programming events, coverage in MTV News, and thought-provoking on-air promos, the
campaign will aim at providing ideas and solutions beyond curfews and school uniforms.
For example, MTV will partner with the American Psychological Association to produce a
news program on "Warning Signs" with an 800 number and a guide directed at helping
youth recognize the signs of potential violent behavior. Focusing on solutions, such as
peer mentoring, conflict resolution programs, artistic responses to violence and youth
advocacy groups, the campaign will give young people the tools to take a stand against
violence.
In announcing the campaign, Judy McGrath, President, MTV commented, "MTV is at its
best when it gives our audience a voice to address their concerns. Clearly, violence affects
their lives in a direct way, and it's incredibly timely and important for MTV to speak
directly to these issues, and to offer some concrete action steps for viewers. If we can
help one young person in trouble, this campaign will be a success."
MTV will work with the following partners to engage youth in solutions to violence:
America's Promise, Creative Partnership for Prevention, Harvard School of Public Health,
National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, National Center for Conflict Resolution
Education, National Institute for Dispute Resolution, National Institute for Dispute
Resolution and Conflict Resolution Education, The National Mentoring Partnership,
National Youth in Action Campaign, The National Youth Network, PAX and Rock the
Vote.
Detailed programming and off-air plans for "Fight For Your Rights: Take A Stand Against
Violence" will be announced later this year.
MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom Inc., owns and operates five cable television
programming services -- MTV: Music Television, M2, VH1, Nickelodeon/Nick at
Nite, and Nick at Nite's TV Land -- all of which are trademarks of MTV Networks.
Information about MTV and M2 is available on MTV Online, on America Online
(Keyword: MTV) and the World Wide Web (http://mtv.com).
For More Information Contact:
Tina Exarhos
Senior Vice President, Communications
(212)258-8727
TELEVISION
PRESS
RELEASE
MTV JOINS PRESIDENT CLINTON AT WHITE HOUSE SUMMIT ON
SCHOOL VIOLENCE AND ANNOUNCES COMPREHENSIVE ANTI-
VIOLENCE CAMPAIGN --
"FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS: TAKE A STAND AGAINST VIOLENCE"
YEAR-LONG CAMPAIGN AIMS AT PROVIDING SOLUTIONS TO VIOLENCE
Young Adults See Violence As Single Most Important Issue Affecting Their Lives
Washington, D.C./New York, NY, October 15, 1998 - MTV today announced a
comprehensive, year-long campaign aimed at raising awareness and providing actionable
solutions to youth violence. Today, President Clinton, at the White House Summit on
School Violence, announced MTV's partnership with the US Departments of Justice and
Education to help youth take a stand against violence and acknowledged the importance
of MTV's campaign, which will begin in January 1999.
"Fight For Your Rights: Take A Stand Against Violence" will involve special
programming, Public Service Announcements, grass roots events, and MTV News special
reports all designed to give MTV's audience a voice in the national debate on violence and
to provide them with tangible tactics to take a stand against violence.
Through partnerships with The Department of Justice, The Department of Education and
the National Endowment of the Arts, MTV has developed a Youth Action Guide which
will be distributed throughout the campaign. The guide will outline 5 different actions,
aimed at engaging youth in solutions to violence, as well as providing alternative outlets to
violence. MTV viewers will be able to receive the guide by calling a special 800 number
that will be promoted throughout the year on MTV during programming and on-air
promotion devoted specifically to the topic of youth violence. MTV will partner with
cable distributors across the country on an extensive off-air campaign which will aim to
reduce violence through local programs.
In addition, MTV is teaming up with the Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA) and Nimbus Manufacturing to produce up to one million enhanced CDs which
will include recordings and comments on violence from some of today's hottest artists and
a CD ROM focused on conflict resolution skills. The CD will be promoted on MTV and
made available, free of charge, to any individual requesting a Youth Action Guide.
-more-
MTV PRESS OFFICES
1515 BROADWAY NEW YORK, NY 10036
PH: 212 258 8000 FAX: 212 258 8759
Violence is the number one concern of the 12-34 year old audience, according to a poll
conducted by Penn and Schoen exclusively for MTV. In addition, 12-34 year olds are the
demographic group that is most affected by violence -- both as the victims and the
aggressors.
Both on air and off, MTV will focus it's campaign on three different types of violence
which most affect its young audience: Violence in the Schools; Violence in the Streets
(hate violence and gang violence) and; Sexual Violence. Through high profile
programming events, coverage in MTV News, and thought-provoking on-air promos, the
campaign will aim at providing ideas and solutions beyond curfews and school uniforms.
For example, MTV will partner with the American Psychological Association to produce a
news program on "Warning Signs" with an 800 number and a guide directed at helping
youth recognize the signs of potential violent behavior. Focusing on solutions, such as
peer mentoring, conflict resolution programs, artistic responses to violence and youth
advocacy groups, the campaign will give young people the tools to take a stand against
violence.
In announcing the campaign, Judy McGrath, President, MTV commented, "MTV is at its
best when it gives our audience a voice to address their concerns. Clearly, violence affects
their lives in a direct way, and it's incredibly timely and important for MTV to speak
directly to these issues, and to offer some concrete action steps for viewers. If we can
help one young person in trouble, this campaign will be a success."
MTV will work with the following partners to engage youth in solutions to violence:
America's Promise, Creative Partnership for Prevention, Harvard School of Public Health,
National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, National Center for Conflict Resolution
Education, National Institute for Dispute Resolution, National Institute for Dispute
Resolution and Conflict Resolution Education, The National Mentoring Partnership,
National Youth in Action Campaign, The National Youth Network, PAX and Rock the
Vote.
Detailed programming and off-air plans for "Fight For Your Rights: Take A Stand Against
Violence" will be announced later this year.
MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom Inc., owns and operates five cable television
programming services -- MTV: Music Television, M2, VH1, Nickelodeon/Nick at
Nite, and Nick at Nite's TV Land -- all of which are trademarks of MTV Networks.
Information about MTV and M2 is available on MTV Online, on America Online
(Keyword: MTV) and the World Wide Web (http://mtv.com).
For More Information Contact:
Tina Exarhos
Senior Vice President, Communications
(212)258-8727
safety.wpd
Page 1
WHSO LAYOUT Draft 3
a/o 10/7/98 L. Schwartz
WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON SCHOOL SAFETY
Thursday, October 15, 1998
all tours canceled
Conference Start: 7:30 a.m. WH Conference Center - Registration and Break Out
Sessions.
Gate Opens:
10:00 a.m.
POTUS/FL/VP/MEG 9:50 a.m. Brief
Map Room
10:20 a.m.
Meet
Blue Room
10:30 a.m.
Session I
East Room
150/Open Press
12:30 p.m. Lunch
State Dining Room
140/Closed
Press
1:50 p.m.
Meet
Blue Room
2:00 p.m.
Session II
East Room
150/Open Press
Approx. 150 guests/Open Press/Business Attire
8 Social Aides
4 Volunteers - NW gate and other areas tbd
Wednesday, October 14, 1998
3:00 p.m.
Room, satellite and technical set-up for monitors etc.
Thursday, October 15, 1998
7:30 a.m.
Participants register at 726 Jackson Place for the conference,
and have preliminary sessions.
9:45 a.m.
Participants proceed to the NW Gate from Jackson Place.
10:00 a.m.
NW Gate Visitors Gate opens, guests proceed into East Room.
Panel I participants proceed to the Blue Room for to meet the
Principals.
*Note extraneous "special guests" will proceed to Room 450
OEOB to watch the Conference. Contact: Lynn Cutler, Mike
(Richard's intern)
safety.wpd
Page 2
9:50 a.m.
THE PRESIDENT, MRS. CLINTON, THE VICE PRESIDENT, and
MRS. GORE, proceed to the Map Room for briefing.
Contact: Richard Socarides, Neera Tanden
10:20 a.m.
THE PRESIDENT, MRS. CLINTON, THE VICE PRESIDENT, and
MRS. GORE meet Panel I participants in the Blue Room.
Blue Room Participants
Mrs. Liberty Franklin, Boys and Girls Club Youth of the Year
Hon. Deedee Corradini, Mayor Salt Lake City, Utah
Mr. Tony Earles, Professor, Harvard University
Mr. Paul Evans, Commissioner, Boston Police Department, MA
Mr. Jamon Kent, Superintendent, Springfield, OR Public Schools
Ms. Marlene Wong, Director, L.A. School of Mental health, Valley Branch,
CA
Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-NC)
Joanna Quintero, Teacher, Miami, FL (tentative)
Ms. Suzanne Wilson
10:30 a.m.
THE PRESIDENT, MRS. CLINTON, THE VICE PRESIDENT, MRS.
GORE, and Panel I participants are announced into East Room
and take their seats at the table on stage.
10:30 a.m.-
Session I (see separate sheet)
12:30 p.m.
12:30 p.m.
Session I concludes, THE PRESIDENT, THE VICE PRESIDENT
and MRS. GORE depart. MRS. CLINTON proceeds to the Residence or
tbd to hold momentarily until guests have gone through the buffet and
are seated in the State Dining Room.
Participants proceed to lunch in the State Dining Room via the
Green Room into the Blue Room to pick up escort cards and
into the Cross Hall for the buffet.
Approx. 1:00 p.m.
MRS. CLINTON returns to the State Floor and begins
lunch program by introducing Sen. Kennedy, Robert Chase and Sandy
safety.wpd
Page 3
Feldman.
1:30 p.m.
Lunch and lunch program concludes.
MRS. CLINTON proceeds to the Map Room for briefing on
Session II or private time in Residence prior to Session II.
Guests proceed to restrooms etc. and are seated by Social
Aides in the East Room for Session II.
1:40 p.m.
Panel II participants proceed to the Blue Room to meet MRS.
CLINTON.
1:50 p.m.
MRS. CLINTON proceeds to the Blue Room to greet Panel II
participants.
Blue Room Participants
Attorney General Reno
Secretary Riley
Lt. Gary french
Sandy McBrayer
Dr. Paul Kingery
Dr. Lynn McDonald
Irma Howard
Mariana Gaston
Thomas Frazier
2:00 p.m.
MRS. CLINTON and Panel II participants are announced into
East Room and take their seats at the table on stage.
2:00 p.m. - -
Session II
3:45 p.m.
3:30 p.m.
Busses arrive East Executive Avenue.
Contact: Bronson Frick
3:45 p.m.
MRS. CLINTON makes closing remarks and departs.
Guests depart East Gate for reception off site via busses on East
Exec.
STATE FLOOR NOTES: Strings and piano in Grand Foyer - perhaps only piano
safety.wpd
Page 4
EAST ROOM NOTES: 150 chairs in East Room, 10 X 32 stage at south end of
East Room; 24ft. Table on stage; 8 gold chairs on stage; 4 comfortable - "good"
chairs for the 4 Principals; 2 sided table tents for panelists; monitors placed in
room;
LUNCH NOTES: escort card table set in Blue Room for seating cards at lunch;
Lunch buffet outside Red Room; tables/chairs in State Dining Room; strings and
piano in Grand Foyer to play until lunch program begins; stand up microphone for
lunch program; Social Aides direct guests to State Dining Room/Ground Floor
restrooms.
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October 14, 1998
WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON SCHOOL SAFETY
DATE:
October 15, 1998
LOCATION:
The East Room
BRIEFING TIME:
12:15 pm - 12:35 pm
EVENT TIME:
12:45 pm - 2:30 pm
FROM:
Bruce Reed
Richard Socarides
I.
PURPOSE
To bring together a broad coalition of youth violence experts and advocates,
educators, elected officials, law enforcement, and prevention and
intervention practitioners -- as well as communities across the country
through 600 satellite sites -- to discuss and learn more about what we do to
make our schools and communities safer.
II.
BACKGROUND
Although schools are generally safer today than they were just a few years
ago -- and statistics show that students are safer sitting in a classroom than
walking down the street there is still much more that can be done to
improve school safety and security. In particular, the multiple shootings that
took place in schools in Pearl, MS, Paducah, KY, Jonesboro, AK, and
Springfield, OR, serve as painful reminders that no community is immune
from senseless violence -- and that all communities must do their best to
prevent such tragedies from ever occurring.
At the conference, you will unveil the first Annual Report on School Safety,
prepared by the Departments of Justice and Education in response to a
directive by you after the Paducah shooting last December. The report is
intended to give parents, principals and policy makers a yearly snapshot of
school crime, as well as to provide information on what practical steps they
can take to make their schools safer. [*Key findings of the report are
attached.]
In your opening remarks you will announce the following new initiatives that
address many of the problems identified in the Annual Report:
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(1) A New Federal Response for Violent Deaths in Schools. You will
propose a $12 million School Emergency Response to Violence -- or
Project SERV -- to help schools and local communities respond to
school-related violent deaths, such as those that occurred last year in
Jonesboro, Arkansas; Paducah, Kentucky; Pearl, Mississippi; and
Springfield, Oregon. Developed with input from local officials and
educators in these and other communities, Project SERV will enable
the federal government to assist local communities in much the same
way FEMA assists in response to natural disasters.
(2) Targeted Resources for Schools with Serious Crime Problems. To
help give the estimated 10% of schools with serious crime problems
the tools they need to put the security of our children first, you will
announce a new $65 million initiative to hire up to 2,000 community
police and School Resource Officers to work in schools -- and to train
police, educators and other members of the community to help
recognize the early warning signs of violence.
(3) Reforms to Help Make All Schools Safe, Disciplined and Drug-Free.
You will outline a plan to overhaul the nearly $600 million Safe and
Drug-Free Schools and Communities Program. Under this new
proposal, schools will be required to adopt rigorous, comprehensive
school safety plans that include: tough, but fair, discipline policies;
safe passage to and from schools; effective drug and violence policies
and programs; annual school safety and drug use report cards; links to
after school programs; efforts to involve parents; and crisis
management plans.
(4) A Community-Wide Response to School Safety and Youth
Violence. To help communities throughout the country promote a
coordinated, comprehensive response to school safety, you will also
launch a new Safe Schools Safe Communities initiative designed to
help 10 cities develop and implement community-wide school safety
plans. A minimum of $25 million in discretionary grants from the
Departments of Education, Justice and Health and Human Services --
or $1-3 million per site -- will be made available for this initiative.
Finally, you will announce a partnership between the federal
government and MTV to engage youth in solutions to violence.
Beginning in 1999, MTV will launch a year-long media campaign --
"Fight For Your Rights: Take A Stand Against Youth Violence" --
designed to give young adults a voice in the national debate on school
and youth violence. Working with the Departments of Education and
Justice, and the National Endowment for the Arts, MTV will distribute
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a Youth Action Guide that aims to engage youth in mentoring and
other positive solutions to violence. The guide will be made available
through a 1-800 number at the Justice Department and through MTV.
In an earlier panel, the First Lady will have introduced one of the MTV
media campaign segments.
III. PARTICIPANTS
Briefing Participants:
Bruce Reed/Elena Kagan
Marsha Scott
Melanne Verveer
Ron Klain
Michael Cohen/Tanya Martin
Richard Socarides
Jose Cerda
Leanne Shimabukuro
Neera Tanden
Lynn Cutler
Presidential Panel Participants:
The Vice President
The First Lady
Jamon Kent, Superintendent of Springfield Public Schools, Springfield,
Oregon
Police Commissioner Paul Evans, Boston, Massachusetts
Mayor Deedee Corradini, Pres. of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, St. Lake
City, Utah
Liberty Franklin, National Boys and Girls Club Youth of the Year, Everett,
Washington
Tony Earles, Professor Harvard School of Public Health
Joanna Quintana Barroso, Third Grade Teacher, Coral Way Elementary,
Miami, Florida
Representative Bobby Etheridge
IV.
PRESS PLAN
Open Press.
V.
SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
- YOU will be announced into the room accompanied by the Vice President
and the First
Lady.
- The Vice President makes remarks and introduces YOU.
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- YOU will make remarks.
- YOU will make remarks and then take your seat at the table.
- YOU will then moderate the discussion by calling on each individual.
- YOU, the Vice President, and the First Lady will have the option of asking
follow up
questions to each speaker.
*Suggested speaking order and questions attached.]
VI. REMARKS
Provided by Speechwriting.
VII. ATTACHMENTS
- Summary of Key Findings.
- Suggested Sequence of Events.
- Conference Agenda
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SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS OF THE ANNUAL REPORT
Students less likely to be victimized but more likely to feel unsafe. Although
the number of multiple homicide events at schools has increased since 1993
(from 2 to 6 -- and with 4 times as many victims), the overall school crime
rate has actually dropped (from 164 crimes per 1,000 students in 1993 to
about 128 such crimes in 1996). However, the percentage of students
reporting that they felt unsafe at or on their way to school has increased.
Most schools safer than community at large. While the overall level of
school and non-school crime is about the same (about 3 million crimes in
each setting), students are more than twice as likely to experience serious
violent crime while out of school. And the very worst violent victimizations
-- murders and suicides rarely occur in or near schools. Fewer than 1% of
the 7,357 thousand children who were murdered in 1992-93 -- or 63 -- were
killed at school.
Serious crime and violence concentrated in a small percentage of schools.
Only about 10% of public schools report serious or violent crimes to their
local police departments. Nearly half -- or 47% -- of schools report less
serious or non-violent crimes to police, and 43% report absolutely no crimes
at all.
Violence more likely in larger, urban schools and with older students. One
third of large schools (1,000 + students) report serious violent crimes to
police, compared with less than one tenth of small schools. Also urban
schools are twice as likely as rural schools to report serious violent crimes,
and middle and high schools are 4 times more likely than elementary schools
to report such crimes.
Fist fights and theft the most common crimes. Overall, physical attacks and
fights without weapons are the crimes most often reported to police by
middle and high schools. Theft is the most common school crime overall. In
1996, less than 10% of crimes against students were of a serious or violent
nature.
Fewer weapons in schools. About 6% of high school seniors less than in
recent years are carrying firearms and other weapons to schools. Also, the
percentage of seniors intentionally injured with or without weapons -- has
not changed significantly over the past 20 years.
Gang presence nearly doubled. Between 1989 and 1995, the percentage of
students reporting the presence of street gangs in their schools increased
from 15% to 28% including large increases at urban, suburban and rural
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schools.
Violence and drugs linked. Students who reported being the victims of
violent crimes at schools were more likely to report the availability of drugs
at school. The presence of gangs and guns is also related to school crime
and the victimization of students.
Teachers often crime victims. On average, 3% of teachers are the victims of
violent crimes, and nearly 5% are the victims of theft at school.
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The White House Conference on School Safety
October 15, 1998
Questions and Answers (Internal)
GENERAL CONFERENCE QUESTIONS
Question:
Why are you hosting a White House Conference on School Safety?
Answer:
Although schools are among the safest places for America's young
people, we know that violent crime continues to plague a number of our
schools. The recent school shooting tragedies are a stark reminder of this.
We know that the problems children face in school often reflect the problems
of their communities: drugs, gangs, and guns. Fortunately, we also know a
lot about the causes of youth violence and school violence, as well as what
works to prevent it. The President is convening the White House Conference
on School Safety so that we can share with people around the country the
wealth of information we have. Well over 600 satellite sites will be
participating in this Conference; they will listen to, and learn from, students,
parents, teachers, law enforcement and other experts about why school
violence happens and what works to prevent it.
Question:
What is happening at the Conference?
Answer:
The White House Conference on School Safety will work toward
finding solutions to this challenge: How do schools, families and
communities work together to make sure that every child is safe in every
school and community in America? The President, Vice President and First
Lady will explore solutions to this challenge with the Attorney General, the
Secretary of Education, elected officials, students, parents, teachers, law
enforcement and other experts.
The day-long event in the East Room of the White House includes
morning workshops and panel discussions. The opening panel will
set-up the day by examining the problem and the causes of school and
youth violence. The second panel will turn towards solutions, with the
President making a number of policy announcements. The third and
final panel will explore best practices and model safety strategies that
have been shown to reduce school and youth violence.
Question: What has the President done on the issue of school safety?
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Answer:
Throughout his Presidency, President Clinton has worked to strengthen
America's schools, communities and families, by giving Americans the tools
they need to fulfill their responsibilities and giving children the ability to reach
their full potential in a safe and healthy environment. To that end, President
Clinton and this Administration have worked to promote school safety,
prevent youth violence and encourage learning. The President is working to
make our schools safer and drug-free with programs like School-Based
Partnerships which helps to forge or strengthen partnerships between local
law enforcement and schools to focus on school crime, drug use and
discipline problem or the zero tolerance for guns in schools policy which
requires the expulsion of students for bringing firearms to schools. Last
month, the President released the Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide
to Safe Schools. This guide provides schools and communities with
information on how to identify the early warning signs and take action steps
to prevent and respond to school violence. And the President's
comprehensive Anti-Gang and Youth Violence Strategy is a full-scale assault
on juvenile crime in America. These are just a few examples.
Question: Are America's schools unsafe?
Answer:
America's schools are quite safe. While we need to work to make
them safer, we know that for the most part our schools are safer than the
communities in which they are located. Data from the Annual Report on
School Safety indicates that 43 percent of schools reported NO incidents of
crime, and 90 percent of schools reported NO incidents of serious violent
crime.
But even though schools are generally safe, no school or community is
immune from senseless violence, as last school year's tragedies
reminded us. And although students are safer sitting in a classroom
than walking down the street, serious crime problems persist, gang
presence in schools doubled between 1989 and 1995, thousands of
kids bring guns to school, and discipline remains the #1 problem in the
classroom. We will be addressing these issues in the Conference.
Question: If America's schools are, for the most part, so safe, why did these
recent tragedies occur?
Answer:
The recent tragedies in Pearl, Paducah, Jonesboro, Springfield, Oregon
are extremely rare (less than one percent of homicides among this age group
occurs in a school setting). Nevertheless, they are truly tragic incidents that
we hope never happen again. We may never understand why a young man
SSCONF.QA2
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would walk into a school and shoot his fellow students and teachers --
perhaps because of media influences, availability of guns, insufficient mental
health counseling. While we need to better understand why these incidents
occurred, it is more important that we ensure they don't happen again.
Much of what is happening at this conference will help schools and
communities in that regard.
Question: Whose responsibility is it to create safer schools and communities?
Answer:
We cannot make schools truly safe unless we make the communities
-- of which those schools are a part -- safe as well. And we cannot make
schools and communities safe unless students, parents, teachers, law
enforcement, government agencies, businesses and elected officials join
together to develop community-wide and comprehensive responses to the
unique issues that face every school and community. Fundamentally,
creating safe schools and communities is a local issue; but we at the Federal
level stand ready to offer our assistance and partnership.
Question: How did you select these individuals who are panelists?
Answer:
We received many recommendations and worked to make sure that
the panels represent a good cross-section of America, as well as
perspectives from individuals who have a lot of firsthand experience with
school safety and youth violence in general. The panelists include noted
experts in their fields, participants from communities affected by the recent
school shootings, a student, educators and other stakeholders. We are
looking forward to thoughtful discussions which focus not only on the
problems and challenges with respect to school safety -- but primarily on the
solutions.
Question: The panels do not appear to be very bipartisan. Why not?
Answer: School and youth safety aren't partisan issues. Our panelists are a
good cross-section of America -- actually, of the 16 or so panelists
(excluding principals), only two are elected officials, one is a member of
Congress and the other is a mayor. And this Administration encourages
participation from both sides of the aisle on these important issues.
Question: What is the First Lady's role at this Conference? Why is the First Lady
playing such a large role in this conference? What does she know about this
issue?
SSCONF.QA2
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Answer:
The First Lady will chair the opening panel which will set-up the day
by examining the problem and the causes of school and youth violence and
she will participate in the second panel which will turn towards solutions.
Lastly, the First Lady will chair the third and final panel which will explore
best practices and model safety strategies that have been shown to reduce
school and youth violence.
Throughout her career, the First Lady has worked on issues affecting
children and families. And one of the very first projects she worked on
as a young attorney at the Children's Defense Fund 25 years ago was
a study of what happens to juveniles incarcerated with adults. She
found that children placed in adult prisons experience unspeakable
horrors, and in fact, as a result of this research, Congress acted in
1974 to separate juveniles from adults in prison. Since then Mrs.
Clinton has worked on a number of initiatives, including home
visitation, mentoring programs, and early education programs, that
reduce juvenile delinquency, crime rates, teen birth rates, and other
signs that children are at risk.
Question: What is the purpose of the morning breakout sessions? Who is
participating in these sessions?
Answer:
The morning break-out sessions are critical opportunities for the
Conference's participants to brainstorm, to share ideas with Attorney General
Reno, Education Secretary Riley, other senior members of the Administration
and with each other. Each of the break-out sessions will focus on a different
element of creating safe learning environments. We will examine (i)
education and safety, (ii) school, community and law enforcement
partnerships, (iii) root causes of youth violence, and (iv) early warning signs,
mental health interventions and crisis response.
QUESTIONS ON NEW PROPOSALS
Question: What did the President announce today?
Answer:
The President will announce a series of new initiatives that address
many of the problems identified in the Annual Report on School Crime and
Safety. Specifically, he will propose:
(1) A New Federal Response for Violent Deaths in Schools. President
Clinton will propose a $12 million School Emergency Response to
SSCONF.QA2
Page 5
Violence -- or Project SERV -- to help schools and local communities
respond to school-related violent deaths, such as those that occurred
last year in Jonesboro, Arkansas; Paducah, Kentucky; Pearl,
Mississippi; and Springfield, Oregon. Developed with input from local
officials and educators in these and other communities, Project SERV
will enable the federal government to assist local communities in much
the same way FEMA assists in response to natural disasters.
(2) Targeted Resources for Schools with Serious Crime Problems. To
help give the estimated 10% of schools with serious crime problems
the tools they need to put the security of our children first, the
President will announce a new $65 million initiative to hire up to
2,000 community police and School Resource Officers to work in
schools -- and to train police, educators and other members of the
community to help recognize the early warning signs of violence.
(3) Reforms to Help Make All Schools Safe, Disciplined and Drug-Free.
President Clinton will announce his plan for a significant overhaul of
the nearly $600 million Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities
Program. Under the President's proposal, schools will be required to
adopt rigorous, comprehensive school safety plans that include: tough,
but fair, discipline policies; safe passage to and from schools; effective
drug and violence policies and programs; annual school safety and
drug use report cards; links to after school programs; efforts to involve
parents; and crisis management plans.
(4) A Community-Wide Response to School Safety and Youth
Violence. To help communities throughout the country promote a
coordinated, comprehensive response to school safety, the President
will launch a new Safe Schools -- Safe Communities initiative designed
to help 10 cities develop and implement community-wide school
safety plans. A minimum of $25 million in discretionary grants from
the Departments of Education, Justice and Health and Human Services
-- or $1-3 million per site -- will be made available for this initiative.
The President will announce a partnership with MTV to engage youth
in solutions to violence. He will announce that MTV, beginning in
1999, will launch a year-long media campaign -- "Fight For Your
Rights: Take A Stand Against Youth Violence" -- designed to give
young adults a voice in the national debate on school and youth
violence. Working with the Departments of Education and Justice,
and the National Endowment for the Arts, MTV will distribute a Youth
Action Guide that aims to engage youth in mentoring and other
positive solutions to violence. The guide will be made available
SSCONF.QA2
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through a 1-800 number at the Justice Department and through MTV.
Question: Are you announcing any new funding for these programs?
Answer:
The $65 million for the community police in schools initiative and $25
million for the Safe Schools-Safe Communities demonstration project would
be funded through our FY 99 appropriations. We have identified funds that
we could use within those appropriations bills -- none of which have been at
issue during budget discussions. So, once Congress finally enacts these
spending measures, we can begin to fund our initiatives. We expect to
transmit legislation to Congress for our proposal to create a new emergency
federal response to violent school deaths (Project SERV), and will include the
$12 million to pay for it in our FY 2000 budget.
Community Police Officers for Schools
Question: What does your community police for schools initiative accomplish?
Answer:
To help give the estimated 10% of schools with serious crime
problems the tools they need to put the security of our children first, the
President will announce a new $65 million initiative to hire approximately
2,000 community police and School Resource Officers to work in schools --
and to train police, educators and other members of the community to help
recognize the early warning signs of violence.
The initiative, administered through the Justice Department's Office of
Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), offers $60 million to
help communities hire school resource officers to combat school
violence. This initiative offers an incentive for local law enforcement
agencies -- in the form of waiving a local matching requirement -- to
build working relationships with schools to use community policing
efforts to prevent and combat school violence. In addition, the
President's Initiative will dedicate $5 million through the Regional
Community Policing Institutes to communities to help train school
resource officers, and to train educators and other members of the
community to recognize the early warning signs of school violence.
Question:
Who is eligible to participate in the COPS initiative?
Answer:
Any local law enforcement agency utlizing officers as part of a
comprehensive community policing strategy to combat crime in and around
schools may apply for the program through the COPS Office.
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Question: What is a school resource officer?
Answer:
School resource officers are sworn, fully trained officers assigned to
work in a school. The presence of a school resource officer helps provide a
school with a sense of security and order, as well as strong link to their local
police department. From teaching substance abuse prevention, to mentoring
troubled kids, to intervening with potentially violent situations between
students, school resource officers across the country are combine the
functions of law enforcement and education, and helping to improve school
environments.
Question:
What is the need for the COPS initiative?
Answer:
School related crime and disorder is a serious concern in communities
of all sizes across the nation. Many communities are discovering that school
resource officers are making a difference in the battle to provide our children
with a safe learning environment. The President's initiative will help even
more communities that are interested to use these officers in creating their
own solutions to school safety and violence.
Safe and Drug-Free Schools Reform
Question: Are you proposing increased funding for the Safe and Drug-Free
schools program?
Answer:
This proposal outlines the broad framework and requirements for
federal support of state and local drug and/or violence prevention and
reduction efforts. While this plan does anticipate some level of increased
funding, it also will provide more targeting of resources to provide stronger
support to school districts for comprehensive approaches for the reduction of
drugs and violence in schools. Discussions are currently underway to
establish budget proposals for all programs in the President's FY 2000
budget.
Question: This program has been criticized for wasting funds because school
districts have have spent them on programs that would not appear to have
any impact on reducing drug use and violence. How is this proposal going to
prevent the misuse of funds?
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Answer:
A key element of our proposal to overhaul the Safe and Drug-Free
Schools program is to strengthen accountability for school districts receiving
federal funds. These districts will have to develop a plan based on their
actual crime, drug and discipline problems -- and spend funds on activities
that have shown to be effective in creating drug-free and safe school
environments. These plans must also provide for the publication of an
annual report card to the public on school-related crime and drug incidents.
Moreover, this proposal will strengthen the capacity of states to provide
technical assistance and training to local districts to ensure that their drug
and violence prevention and reduction approaches are effective.
Comprehensive Safe School-Safe Communities Initiative
Question: Where will funds for the Coordinated Grants Program come from?
Answer:
Funds for the Coordinated Grants Program will come from three
agencies: Department of Justice, Education Department and the Department
of Health and Human Services. Various programs within these three agencies
will contribute funds for this effort. For example, the Office of Juvenile
Justice Delinquency Prevention will contribute a portion of funds from their
Juvenile Mentoring Program and its Gang Free Schools and Communities -
Community Based Gang Intervention Program for this effort; the Justice
Department will contribute funds from its COPS Initiative; the Department of
Education will contribute a portion of their Safe and Drug Free Schools
National Program funds; and the Department of Health and Human Services
will contribute funds from its Family Strengthening Program. Further, a
portion of the funds appropriated for expansion of Boys and Girls Clubs will
be linked to this effort.
A minimum of $25 million in discretionary grants from FY1999 will be
made available for this initiative, and more funding may ultimately be
dedicated to it dependent upon final FY 99 appropriations outcomes.
New Federal Response to Violent Deaths in Schools
Question: What types of incidents will this initiative respond to?
Answer:
While details concerning the types of incidents which the Federal
Government will respond to have not yet been decided, it has been
determined that the Federal Government will at a minimum respond to
incidents such as those experienced last school year in Paducah, Kentucky;
Pearl, Mississippi; Jonesboro, Arkansas; and Springfield, Oregon. Prior to
making a final determination as to other types of incidents that will be
SSCONF.QA2
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responded to, the Federal Government will seek the advice of educators,
victims, law enforcement officials, victim service advocates, parents, mental
health workers and emergency service personnel.
QUESTIONS ON RELATED LEGISLATION
Question: Why hasn't this Administration pushed harder for juvenile crime
legislation?
Answer:
This Administration has pushed aggressively for powerful juvenile
crime legislation legislation which strikes the right balance between
accountability and prevention for America's youth. All the way back in
February 1997, this Administration submitted to the Congress the
"Anti-Gang and Youth Violence Act of 1997"-a vital part of the
Administration's strategy to mount a full-scale assault on juvenile crime in
America. While we have sought to work with Congress to pass meaningful
legislation, we don't believe we should accept bad juvenile crime legislation
which lacks resources for prosecutors and courts and provisions to crack
down on kids and guns simply for the sake of claiming success. We are
disappointed that the Congress has been unable to pass legislation that could
help to stem juvenile crime and improve the safety of our communities.
SHOOTING-RELATED QUESTIONS
Question: The kids involved in the Jonesboro case were only 11 and 13
years-old-- neither of whom could be charged as adults for this horrible
tragedy. Doesn't this seem to suggest that we should have a national age
floor to be able to prosecute juveniles as adults?
Answer:
Current federal law generally allows for the prosecution of 15 year-old
juveniles as adults for certain drug and gun crimes, and in limited cases, even
13 year-olds can be tried as adults in federal court. We passed these lower
ages as part of the 1994 Crime Bill. In addition, our juvenile crime legislation
would give greater flexibility for federal prosecutors to prosecute juveniles as
adults, and would expand the list of crimes which allow for such prosecution
to include certain violent felonies and drug offenses. We believe that these
are sufficiently tough provisions.
Question: Guns played a tragic role in these shootings. Is this Administration
doing enough to keep guns out of the hands of children? What more can be
done to avoid these tragedies?
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Answer:
Our first priority, must be to do everything we can to help
communities save young lives and prevent juvenile crime and violence from
happening in the first place. And the truth is: we already know that tough,
targeted deterrence and better prevention will do this. For example, in
Boston, Federal, state and local law enforcement --and the entire criminal
justice system, police, prosecutors, probation officers and courts --worked
together to deliver a tough, targeted message on gun violence. The result:
the gangs were literally disarmed, and no juvenile was killed with a firearm
for a 2 ½ year period. The President's juvenile crime legislation combines this
type of tough, targeted enforcement --with schools that are open later and
on weekends, when most violent youth crime occurs --so we can prevent
youth crime and violence before it happens.
But we can also do more to make sure that we help keep illegal guns
out of the hands of children. We should raise penalties for juveniles
who possess handguns, and for adults who illegally transfer handguns
to juveniles. We should extend the Brady Law, so that young people
who commit serious and violent offenses can't purchase handguns as
soon as they become adults. And we should continue to crack down
on illegal gun markets, by increasing penalties for straw purchases and
for gang-related firearms offenses.
Question:
Can we stop these senseless acts from happening? Do they just
happen?
Answer:
We can create safer environments for learning and we can prevent
many crimes from occurring. This is not an easy task but it is one that can
be done. One of the cornerstones of any strategy to create safer schools and
safer communities is getting the entire community --including parents,
students, teachers, mental health service providers, clergy, law
enforcement--involved in designing programs and policies that meet the need
of the school and the community.
In August, the President released a booklet called, "Early Warning
Timely Response-- A Guide to Safe Schools", which provides teachers,
principals, and parents with information on how to identify the early
warning signs of violence, and actions steps to prevent and respond to
school violence. The Annual Report on School Safety, released
yesterday, also provides some tips for parents, students, businesses,
etc. on what they can do to create safer schools and communities and
provides examples of proven strategies and models.
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Question: In most of these instances, including in Springfield with Kip Kinkel, the
mental health of these boys seems to be in question. If mental illness is the
root cause, can we prevent these random acts from happening?
Answer:
The Administration has been working very hard to help schools -- and
others who interact with children -- to identify those students who are in
need of assistance to improve the linkages between mental health services
and schools. The President recently released a guide on the early warning
signs of violence which provides teachers, administrators, and parents with
guidance on how to identify students who are in need of mental health
services. We believe the guide will help schools identify those students who
are in need of mental health services earlier, so they can receive the help
they need.
But there's another answer, too, and it goes to the heart of why a
child's cry for help often goes unheeded. The simple fact is that
mental illness is still a very scary idea that many believe shouldn't be
talked about or acted upon. Through the work of Mrs. Gore and HHS'
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA), we have been working to educate the Nation to the
realities of mental health problems and to break through the stigma
that, for too long, has stood between a person in need of care and the
impetus to seek that care.
Question: Most people feel that mental health services are not adequately
funded. Are these services being funded at appropriate levels both locally and
at the Federal level? If not, why not?
Answer:
Funding whether at the federal or state level -- is but one of the
issues that has affected the range and availability of mental health services.
Since the late 1960s, when large numbers of people were released from
state institutions, community mental health systems have been called upon
to provide the bulk of mental health services. Until recently, the stigma of
mental illnesses has separated mental health care not only from other types
health care, but also from the capacity to link with schools, social service
agencies, employment programs, and other supportive services. Today, the
health of these collaborations is increasingly robust -- but variably so, across
the country. The challenge that we are meeting today has been to both
leverage our resources and to build partnerships with the broad range of
mental health constituencies at the national, state, and local levels to
improve their systems of care for people of all ages with mental health
problems.
Page 12
~0036395.15
Page 1
October 14, 1998
WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON SCHOOL SAFETY
DATE:
October 15, 1998
LOCATION:
The East Room
BRIEFING TIME:
12:15 pm - 12:35 pm
EVENT TIME:
12:45 pm - 2:30 pm
FROM:
Bruce Reed
Richard Socarides
I.
PURPOSE
To bring together a broad coalition of youth violence experts and advocates,
educators, elected officials, law enforcement, and prevention and
intervention practitioners -- as well as communities across the country
through 600 satellite sites -- to discuss and learn more about what we do to
make our schools and communities safer.
II.
BACKGROUND
Although schools are generally safer today than they were just a few years
ago -- and statistics show that students are safer sitting in a classroom than
walking down the street -- there is still much more that can be done to
improve school safety and security. In particular, the multiple shootings that
took place in schools in Pearl, MS, Paducah, KY, Jonesboro, AK, and
Springfield, OR, serve as painful reminders that no community is immune
from senseless violence -- and that all communities must do their best to
prevent such tragedies from ever occurring.
At the conference, you will unveil the first Annual Report on School Safety,
prepared by the Departments of Justice and Education in response to a
directive by you after the Paducah shooting last December. The report is
intended to give parents, principals and policy makers a yearly snapshot of
school crime, as well as to provide information on what practical steps they
can take to make their schools safer. [*Key findings of the report are
attached.]
In your opening remarks you will announce the following new initiatives that
address many of the problems identified in the Annual Report:
~0036395.15
Page 2
(1) A New Federal Response for Violent Deaths in Schools. You will
propose a $12 million School Emergency Response to Violence -- or
Project SERV -- to help schools and local communities respond to
school-related violent deaths, such as those that occurred last year in
Jonesboro, Arkansas; Paducah, Kentucky; Pearl, Mississippi; and
Springfield, Oregon. Developed with input from local officials and
educators in these and other communities, Project SERV will enable
the federal government to assist local communities in much the same
way FEMA assists in response to natural disasters.
(2) Targeted Resources for Schools with Serious Crime Problems. To
help give the estimated 10% of schools with serious crime problems
the tools they need to put the security of our children first, you will
announce a new $65 million initiative to hire up to 2,000 community
police and School Resource Officers to work in schools -- and to train
police, educators and other members of the community to help
recognize the early warning signs of violence.
(3) Reforms to Help Make All Schools Safe, Disciplined and Drug-Free.
You will outline a plan to overhaul the nearly $600 million Safe and
Drug-Free Schools and Communities Program. Under this new
proposal, schools will be required to adopt rigorous, comprehensive
school safety plans that include: tough, but fair, discipline policies;
safe passage to and from schools; effective drug and violence policies
and programs; annual school safety and drug use report cards; links to
after school programs; efforts to involve parents; and crisis
management plans.
(4) A Community-Wide Response to School Safety and Youth
Violence. To help communities throughout the country promote a
coordinated, comprehensive response to school safety, you will also
launch a new Safe Schools -- Safe Communities initiative designed to
help 10 cities develop and implement community-wide school safety
plans. A minimum of $25 million in discretionary grants from the
Departments of Education, Justice and Health and Human Services --
or $1-3 million per site -- will be made available for this initiative.
Finally, you will announce a partnership between the federal
government and MTV to engage youth in solutions to violence.
Beginning in 1999, MTV will launch a year-long media campaign --
"Fight For Your Rights: Take A Stand Against Youth Violence" --
designed to give young adults a voice in the national debate on school
and youth violence. Working with the Departments of Education and
Justice, and the National Endowment for the Arts, MTV will distribute
~0036395.15
Page 3
a Youth Action Guide that aims to engage youth in mentoring and
other positive solutions to violence. The guide will be made available
through a 1-800 number at the Justice Department and through MTV.
In an earlier panel, the First Lady will have introduced one of the MTV
media campaign segments.
III.
PARTICIPANTS
Briefing Participants:
Bruce Reed/Elena Kagan
Marsha Scott
Melanne Verveer
Ron Klain
Michael Cohen/Tanya Martin
Richard Socarides
Jose Cerda
Leanne Shimabukuro
Neera Tanden
Lynn Cutler
Presidential Panel Participants:
The Vice President
The First Lady
Jamon Kent, Superintendent of Springfield Public Schools, Springfield,
Oregon
Police Commissioner Paul Evans, Boston, Massachusetts
Mayor Deedee Corradini, Pres. of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, St. Lake
City, Utah
Liberty Franklin, National Boys and Girls Club Youth of the Year, Everett,
Washington
Tony Earles, Professor Harvard School of Public Health
Joanna Quintana Barroso, Third Grade Teacher, Coral Way Elementary,
Miami, Florida
Representative Bobby Etheridge
IV.
PRESS PLAN
Open Press.
V.
SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
- YOU will be announced into the room accompanied by the Vice President
and the First
Lady.
- The Vice President makes remarks and introduces YOU.
~0036395.15
Page 4
- YOU will make remarks.
- YOU will make remarks and then take your seat at the table.
- YOU will then moderate the discussion by calling on each individual.
- YOU, the Vice President, and the First Lady will have the option of asking
follow up
questions to each speaker.
[*Suggested speaking order and questions attached.]
VI. REMARKS
Provided by Speechwriting.
VII. ATTACHMENTS
- Summary of Key Findings.
- Suggested Sequence of Events.
- Conference Agenda
~0036395.15
Page 5
SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS OF THE ANNUAL REPORT
Students less likely to be victimized but more likely to feel unsafe. Although
the number of multiple homicide events at schools has increased since 1993
(from 2 to 6 -- and with 4 times as many victims), the overall school crime
rate has actually dropped (from 164 crimes per 1,000 students in 1993 to
about 128 such crimes in 1996). However, the percentage of students
reporting that they felt unsafe at or on their way to school has increased.
Most schools safer than community at large. While the overall level of
school and non-school crime is about the same (about 3 million crimes in
each setting), students are more than twice as likely to experience serious
violent crime while out of school. And the very worst violent victimizations
-- murders and suicides - rarely occur in or near schools. Fewer than 1% of
the 7,357 thousand children who were murdered in 1992-93 or 63 -- were
killed at school.
Serious crime and violence concentrated in a small percentage of schools.
Only about 10% of public schools report serious or violent crimes to their
local police departments. Nearly half or 47% -- of schools report less
serious or non-violent crimes to police, and 43% report absolutely no crimes
at all.
Violence more likely in larger, urban schools and with older students. One
third of large schools (1,000+ students) report serious violent crimes to
police, compared with less than one tenth of small schools. Also urban
schools are twice as likely as rural schools to report serious violent crimes,
and middle and high schools are 4 times more likely than elementary schools
to report such crimes.
Fist fights and theft the most common crimes. Overall, physical attacks and
fights without weapons are the crimes most often reported to police by
middle and high schools. Theft is the most common school crime overall. In
1996, less than 10% of crimes against students were of a serious or violent
nature.
Fewer weapons in schools. About 6% of high school seniors less than in
recent years are carrying firearms and other weapons to schools. Also, the
percentage of seniors intentionally injured - with or without weapons has
not changed significantly over the past 20 years.
Gang presence nearly doubled. Between 1989 and 1995, the percentage of
students reporting the presence of street gangs in their schools increased
from 15% to 28% including large increases at urban, suburban and rural
~0036395.15
Page 6
schools.
Violence and drugs linked. Students who reported being the victims of
violent crimes at schools were more likely to report the availability of drugs
at school. The presence of gangs and guns is also related to school crime
and the victimization of students.
Teachers often crime victims. On average, 3% of teachers are the victims of
violent crimes, and nearly 5% are the victims of theft at school.
office of
Juned
367-5911
Withdrawal/Redaction Marker
Clinton Library
DOCUMENT NO.
SUBJECT/TITLE
DATE
RESTRICTION
AND TYPE
001. fax
To Toby Graff from Kate Carr [Personally Identifiable Information]
10/14/1998
b(6)
[partial] (1 page)
COLLECTION:
Clinton Presidential Records
First Lady's Office
Lissa Muscatine
OA/Box Number: 20080
FOLDER TITLE:
School Safety Conference
2015-0275-S
rc2045
RESTRICTION CODES
Presidential Records Act - |44 U.S.C. 2204(a)]
Freedom of Information Act - [5 U.S.C. 552(b)]
P1 National Security Classified Information [(a)(1) of the PRA]
b(1) National security classified information [(b)(1) of the FOIA]
P2 Relating to the appointment to Federal office [(a)(2) of the PRA]
b(2) Release would disclose internal personnel rules and practices of
P3 Release would violate a Federal statute [(a)(3) of the PRA]
an agency [(b)(2) of the FOIA]
P4 Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential commercial or
b(3) Release would violate a Federal statute [(b)(3) of the FOIA]
financial information [(a)(4) of the PRA]
b(4) Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential or financial
P5 Release would disclose confidential advice between the President
information [(b)(4) of the FOIA]
and his advisors, or between such advisors [a)(5) of the PRA]
b(6) Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
P6 Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
personal privacy [(b)(6) of the FOIA]
personal privacy |(a)(6) of the PRA]
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purposes [(b)(7) of the FOIA]
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of gift.
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2201(3).
concerning wells [(b)(9) of the FOIA]
RR. Document will be reviewed upon request.
14-001-1998 10.10
Night&Day
THE MAIL ON SUNDAY REVIEW
Northcliffe House
2 Derry Street
Kensington
London W8 5TS
Telephone 0171-938 7051
Fax 0171-937 7488
Toby Graff,
First Lady's Press Office,
The White House
14th October, 1998.
BY FAX:
001 202 456 7805
This is to confirm that Russell Miller is an accredited correspondent of Night & Day,
the magazine of The Mail on Sunday, and is working on a major profile of the First
Lady. His date of birth is
(b)(6)
and he does not have a social security
[001]
number as he is a British Citizen. Mr Miller is anxious to attend the two panels at the
White House tomorrow and would be grateful for any facilities you can supply.
Could you please fax details to him at the Watergate Hotel (fax no: 337 7915) where
he will be arriving late tonight.
Yours sincerely,
C.M.Can P.M. Can
KATE CARR
Deputy Editor
THE MAIL ON SUNDAY (a division of Associated Newspapers Ltd) Registered No. 84121
TOTAL P.01
FYI
Just a diaft we'll get
final tomorrow.
SKOOLSF4.PTS
Page 1
DRAFT
THE WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON SCHOOL SAFETY
October 15, 1998
The White House Conference on School Safety. Although schools are
generally safer today than they were just a few years ago -- and statistics
show that students are safer sitting in a classroom than walking down a
street -- there is still much more that we can do to improve school safety and
security. In particular, the multiple shootings that took place in schools in
Pearl, MS, Paducah, KY, Jonesboro, AK, and Springfield, OR, serve as
painful reminders that no community is immune from senseless violence --
and that all communities must do their best to prevent such tragedies from
ever occurring. The White House Conference on School Safety provides an
opportunity for Americans to learn more about how they can make their own
schools and communities safer.
Unveiling the First Annual Report on School Safety. At the conference, the
President will unveil the first Annual Report on School Safety -- a report
intended to give parents, principals and policy makers an accurate, yearly
snapshot of the school crime, as well as to provide information on what
practical steps they can take to make their schools safer.
Major Findings of the Report:
Students less likely to be victimized but more likely to feel unsafe.
Although the number of multiple homicide events at schools has
increased since 1993 (from 2 to 6 -- and with 4 times as many
victims), the overall school crime rate has actually dropped (from 164
crimes per 1,000 students in 1993 to about 128 such crimes in
1996). However, the percentage of students reporting that they felt
unsafe at or on their way to school has increased.
Most schools safer than community at large. While the overall level of
school and non-school crime is about the same (about 3 million crimes
in each setting), students are more than twice as likely to experience
serious violent crime while out of school. And the very worst violent
victimizations murders and suicides
-- rarely occur in or near schools. Fewer than 1% of the 7,357
thousand children who were murdered in 1992-93 -- or 63 -- were
killed at school.
Serious crime and violence concentrated in a small percentage of
schools. Only about 10% of public schools report serious or violent
crimes to their local police departments. Nearly half -- or 47% -- of
schools report less serious or non-violent crimes to police, and 43%
SKOOLSF4.PTS
Page 2
report absolutely no crimes at all.
Violence more likely in larger, urban schools and with older students.
One third of large schools (1,000 + students) report serious violent
crimes to police, compared with less than one tenth of small schools.
Also urban schools are twice as likely as rural schools to report serious
violent crimes, and middle and high schools are 4 times more likely
than elementary schools to report such crimes.
Fist fights and theft the most common crimes. Overall, physical
attacks and fights without weapons are the crimes most often
reported to police by middle and high schools. Theft is the most
common school crime overall. In 1996, less than 10% of crimes
against students were of a serious or violent nature.
Other Important Findings:
Fewer weapons in schools. About 6% of high school seniors -- less
than in recent years are carrying firearms and other weapons to
schools. Also, the percentage of seniors intentionally injured -- with or
without weapons -- has not changed significantly over the past 20
years.
Gang presence nearly doubled. Between 1989 and 1995, the
percentage of students reporting the presence of street gangs in their
schools increased from 15% to 28% -- including large increases at
urban, suburban and rural schools.
Violence and drugs linked. Students who reported being the victims of
violent crimes at schools were more likely to report the availability of
drugs at school. The presence of gangs and guns is also related to
school crime and the victimization of students.
Teachers often crime victims. On average, 3% of teachers are the
victims of violent crimes, and nearly 5% are the victims of theft at
school.
The President's Call to Action. During a panel discussion with a group of
recognized school safety advocates and youth violence experts, the President
will announce a series of new initiatives that address many of the problems
identified in the Annual Report on School Safety. Specifically, he will
propose:
(1) A New Federal Response for Violent Deaths in Schools. President
SKOOLSF4.PTS
Page 3
Clinton will propose a $12 million School Emergency Response to
Violence -- or Project SERV -- to help schools and local communities
respond to school-related violent deaths, such as those that occurred
last year in Jonesboro, Arkansas; Paducah, Kentucky; Pearl,
Mississippi; and Springfield, Oregon. Developed with input from local
officials and educators in these and other communities, Project SERV
will enable the federal government to assist local communities in much
the same way FEMA assists in response to natural disasters.
(2) Targeted Resources for Schools with Serious Crime Problems. To
help give the estimated 10% of schools with serious crime problems
the tools they need to put the security of our children first, the
President will announce a new $65 million initiative to hire 2,000
community police and School Resource Officers to work in schools --
and to train police, educators and other members of the community to
help recognize the early warning signs of violence.
(3) Reforms to Help Make All Schools Safe, Disciplined and Drug-Free.
President Clinton will announce his plan for a significant overhaul of
the nearly $600 million Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities
Program. Under the President's proposal, schools will be required to
adopt rigorous, comprehensive school safety plans that include: tough,
but fair, discipline policies; safe passage to and from schools; effective
drug and violence policies; annual school safety report cards; links to
after school programs; efforts to involve parents; and crisis
management plans.
(4) A Community-Wide Response to School Safety and Youth
Violence. To help communities throughout the country promote a
coordinated, comprehensive response to school safety, the President
will launch a new Safe Schools Safe Communities initiative designed
to help 10 cities develop and implement community-wide school
safety plans. A minimum of $25 million in discretionary grants from
the Departments of Education, Justice and Health and Human Services
-- or $1-3 million per site will be made available for this initiative.
The President will announce a partnership with MTV to engage youth
in solutions to violence. He will announce that MTV, beginning in
1999, will launch a year-long media campaign "Fight For Your
Rights: Take A Stand Against Youth Violence" -- designed to give
young adults a voice in the national debate on school and youth
violence. Working with the Departments of Education and Justice,
and the National Endowment for the Arts, MTV will distribute a Youth
Action Guide that aims to engage youth in mentoring and other
SKOOLSF4.PTS
Page 4
positive solutions to violence. The guide will be made available
through a 1-800 number at the Justice Department and through MTV.
WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON SCHOOL SAFETY:
Causes and Prevention of Youth Violence
October 15, 1998
" [L]earning cannot occur unless our schools are safe and orderly places where teachers can teach and
children can learn. Wherever there is chaos where there should be calm, wherever there is disorder where there
should be discipline, make no mistake about it, it's not just a threat to our classrooms it is a threat to the
strength and vitality of America We have to do more I will host the first ever White House Conference on
School Safety to find new solutions to this profound challenge."
-- President Clinton, July 20, 1998
White House Conference on School Safety
On October 15, 1998, the President will host the White House Conference on School Safety: Causes
and Prevention of Youth Violence. The Conference will be a day-long event in the East Room of the White
House that will include participation by the President, Vice President, First Lady and Mrs. Gore; workshops;
a morning panel discussion; and an afternoon session that will explore best practices and model safety
strategies. The Conference will include communities recently affected by school shootings and will be
linked by satellite to communities and schools across the country.
Although schools remain among the safest places for America's young people, even one incident of
violent crime in a school is too many. The Conference's goals include: building on the existing body of
knowledge about young people and aggressive or violent behavior; listening and learning from students,
parents, teachers, law enforcement and other experts about the safety of our children both in and out of
school; sharing best practices and exploring new solutions; and developing strategies to put these safety
models in place in schools and communities across the nation. The White House Conference on School
Safety will work toward finding solutions to this challenge: How do schools, families and communities work
together to make sure that every child is safe in every school in America?
The President Will Issue the First Annual Report on School Safety
At the Conference, the President will issue the first Annual Report on School Safety, which will
include: an analysis of all existing national school crime data and an overview of state and local school
crime data; examples of schools and strategies that are successfully reducing school violence, drug use, and
class disruption; actions that parents can take locally to combat school crime; and resources available to
schools and communities to help create safe, disciplined and drug-free schools. In addition, the President
will announce a number of new initiatives to help schools and communities prevent and respond to violence.
Conference Participants
The President, Vice President, First Lady, and Mrs. Gore will be joined by the Attorney General, the
Secretary of Education, Members of Congress, a number of state and local elected officials, including
mayors, and approximately 100 other Conference participants. These participants will include: students,
parents, teachers, principals, school superintendents, members of law enforcement, experts from the medical
and psychological fields, clergy and religious leaders and other community representatives.
Roger V. Salazar
10/14/98 11:19:19 AM
Record Type: Record
To:
Toby C. Graff/WHO/EOP, Julie E. Mason/WHO/EOP
CC:
Subject: Advisory -- WH Conference on School Safety
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR PLANNING PURPOSES ONLY
Contact: 202/456-7150
October 13, 1998
THE PRESIDENT AND FIRST LADY TO HOST
WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON SCHOOL SAFETY
Washington, D.C. President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will host
the White House Conference on School Safety: Causes and Prevention of Youth Violence on
October 15, 1998. The Conference will be a day-long event held in the White House Conference
Center and in the East Room of the White House and will include participation by Attorney
General Janet Reno, Education Secretary Richard Riley, Members of Congress, and state and
local elected officials. More than 100 individuals from around the country, including teachers,
principals, schools superintendents, members of law enforcement, experts from medical and
psychological fields, clergy and religious leaders and other community representatives will
attend the conference. The conference will be broadcast via satellite to over 600 locations
nationwide and cybercast on the Internet.
WHAT:
The President and First Lady host the White House Conference on School
Safety
WHERE:
The White House
WHEN:
All Day. Thursday, October 15, 1998
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:
8:30 am
Morning Workshop Sessions
White House Conference Center, Jackson Place
POOL PRESS ONLY (FOR OPENING REMARKS ONLY)
1) Education and Safety -- Chair, Secretary of Education Richard Riley
2) Early Warning Signs, Mental Health Interventions and Crisis
Response -- Chair, Margaret Hamburg, Assistant Secretary of Health
and
Human Services for Planning and Evaluation
3) School, Community and Law Enforcement
Partnerships -- Chair, Associate Attorney General Raymond Fisher
4) Causes of Youth Violence in Early Childhood Development --
Chair, Attorney General Janet Reno
NOTE: Four separate pools will be formed for the morning workshop sessions. Media interested
in serving as pool for these workshops should contact the White House Press Office at (202)
456-7150. These workshops will not be available via satellite or cybercast.
- MORE -
-2-
10:30 am
Morning Plenary Session
East Room, The White House
OPEN PRESS
Opening Session and Conference Overview
The First Lady, Attorney General Janet Reno,
Secretary of Education Richard Riley, and panel participants
12:45 pm
Afternoon Panel I
East Room, The White House
OPEN PRESS
Discussion of the Causes and Prevention of Youth Violence that Affect
our Schools and Communities
The President, Vice President, First Lady, and panel participants
2:45 pm
Afternoon Panel II
East Room, The White House
OPEN PRESS
Discussion of Initiatives and Strategies that Work to Reduce Youth
Violence
The First Lady, Attorney General Janet Reno, Secretary of Education
Richard Riley, and panel participants
NOTE: Panel participants will be available for interviews on the White House North
Lawn following Afternoon Panel I and Afternoon Panel II. Media without White House
credentials or needing clearance should contact the White House Press Office
at
202/456-7150. Media wishing to pre-set should gather in the briefing room at 9:00
am for
escort to the East Room. Final escort for the morning session will be at 10:15
am.
Satellite Information:
All East Room sessions of the White House Conference on School Safety will be
broadcast via satellite. Over 600 communities across the country will be hosting events around
this live national satellite broadcast. Contact the White House Press
Office for locations in
your communities. In addition, media can downlink the satellite broadcast from the following
coordinates:
C-BAND COORDINATES
Ku-BAND COORDINATES
Satellite:
GE 2
Satellite:
Galaxy 3
Transponder: 1
Transponder: 17
Channel:
1
Channel:
17
Frequency: 3720 MHZ Vertical
Frequency: 12043 MHZ Vertical
- MORE - - 3-
Cybercast Information:
The White House Conference on School Safety Cybercast can be accessed at the
following world wide web address: www.whitehouse.gov/WH/New/Safety/
Panel Participants:
The following are some of the individuals who will participate in panel discussions
during the White House Conference on School Safety.
Paul Kingery, Ph.D., Director, Hamilton Fish National Institute on School and
Community Violence, Rosslyn, VA
Marlene Wong, Director, L.A. School of Mental Health, Valley Branch, CA
Suzanne Wilson, Parent, Jonesboro, AR
Mayor Deedee Corradini, Salt Lake City, UT
Tony Earles, Professor, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
U.S. Representative Bobby Etheridge (D-NC)
Paul Evans, Commissioner, Boston Police Department, Boston, MA
Liberty Franklin, Everett Boys and Girls Club, Everett, WA
Jamon Kent, Superintendent, Springfield Public Schools, Springfield, OR
Joanna Quintano, Teacher, Coral Way Elementary School, Miami, FL
Thomas C. Frazier, Police Commissioner, Baltimore Police Department, Baltimore,
MD
Lt. Gary French, Boston's Operation Ceasefire, Roslindale, MA
Mariana Gaston, Director, Resolving Conflict Creatively Program, New York, NY
Lynn McDonald, Ph.D., Founder, Families and Schools Together (FAST), Madison,
WI
Irma Howard, FAST Graduate, New Orleans, LA
Sandy McBrayer, Executive Director, Children's Initiative, San Diego, CA
30-30-30-
White House Conference on School Safety:
Causes and Prevention of Youth Violence
Program Agenda
draft 10-13-98
October 15, 1998
7:30 am - 8:30 am
Registration - White House Conference Center
8:30 am - 9:45 am
Morning Workshop Sessions - White House Conference Center
Preliminary discussion groups with Senior Administration
officials:
1) Education and Safety
Lincoln Room
Chaired by Secretary of Education Richard Riley with Deputy
Attorney General Eric Holder
[includes participation by U.S. Representative Harold Ford, Jr.
(D-TN)]
2) Early Warning Signs, Mental Health Interventions and Crisis
Response
Truman Conference Room
DES?
Chaired by ???? with Assistant Secretary of Health and
Human Services Margaret "Peggy" Hamburg
[includes participation by U.S. Representative Donna Christian-
Green (D-VI)]
3) School, Community and Law Enforcement Partnerships
Jackson Room
Chaired by Associate Attorney General Ray Fisher with Deputy
Undersecretary of the Treasury Jim Johnson
[includes participation by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR)]
4) Causes of Youth Violence in Early Childhood Development
Eisenhower Room
Chaired by Attorney General Janet Reno with Assistant Secretary
Elementary
of Edcuation Gerald Tirozzi
[includes participation by U.S. Representative Mathew Martinez
+
(D-CA)]
After these sessions, please follow directions to the North West
Gate of the White House for the Morning Plenary
10:30 am - 11:15 pm
Morning Plenary Session - White House East Room
Conference Overview
gue welcome
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton - Chaned
Video by MTV
Presentation
(Tentative) Vice President of the United States Albert Gore
Order?
Attorney General Janet Reno
2mm
Secretary of Education Richard Riley 2
mn
new Nat report
Paul Kingery, Ph.D., Director, Hamilton Fish National Institute
on School and Community Violence, Rosslyn, VA
Marlene Wong, Director, L.A. School of Mental Health,
Valley Branch, CA
Suzanne Wilson, Parent, Jonesboro, AR
11:30 pm - 12:30 pm
Lunch - White House State Dinning Room
First Lady Hillary Rodham-Clinton
U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA)
Robert Chase, President of the National Education Association
Sandra Feldman, President of the American Federation of Teachers
12:45 pm - 2:30 pm
Afternoon Panel I
Discussion of the Causes and Prevention of Youth Violence that
Affect our Schools and Communities
President of the United States William Jefferson Clinton
deliverable
2
Vice President of the United States Albert Gore
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
Mayor Deedee Corradini, Salt Lake City, UT
Tony Earles, Professor, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
U.S. Representative Bobby Etheridge (D-NC)
Paul Evans, Commissioner, Boston Police Department,
Boston, MA
Liberty Franklin, Boys and Girls Club Youth of the Year,
Jamon Kent, Superintendent, Springfield, OR Public Schools
Joanna Quintano, Teacher, Coral Way Elementary School,
Miami, FL
2:45 pm - 4:00 pm
Afternoon Panel II - White House East Room
Discussion of Initiatives and Strategies that work to Reduce Youth
Violence
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton - opening nerales (anis)
Attorney General Janet Reno - moderator & introduce to videos
Secretary of Education Richard Riley
Thomas C. Frazier, Police Commissioner, Baltimore Police
Department, Baltimore, MD
Lt. Gary French, Boston's Operation Ceasefire, Roslindale, MA
Mariana R. Gaston, Director, Resolving Conflict Creatively
Program, New York, NY
Irma Howard, FAST Graduate, New Orleans, LA
Sandy McBrayer, Executive Director, Children's Initiative, San
Diego, CA
Lynn McDonald, Ph.D., Founder, Families and Schools Together
(FAST), Madison, WI
reginal gress after
4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Reception - Sponsored by the National Education Association and
the American Federation of Teachers at 1201 16th Street, NW,
Washinton, DC 20036
(buses located at the East Visitors Gate on East Executive Avenue
beginning at 4:00 p.m. will take you to the NEA. NEA is providing
buses to bring people back to the White House)
Proclanation: Nat'l school Suifety Day
3pm.
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION
INTERNAL USE ONLY
As of October 5, 1998
Proposed Program
White House Conference on School Safety:
Causes and Prevention of Youth Violence
October 15, 1998
140 participants
Registration 7:30am-8:30am WH Conference Center
Morning Breakout Sessions (4) 8:30am-9:45am WH Conference Center [open press]
1)
Education and Safety
?
pool or
availablety aftervad
Chaired by Secretary Riley
Systemic Educational Approaches (ranging from quality of education issues, such
as small class size, adequate screening for learning disabilities, etc. to traditional
discipline approaches such as school uniform policies and truancy prevention)
Includes participation by Rep. Harold Ford, Jr.
2)
Early Warning Signs/Mental Health Interventions/Crisis Response
Chaired by Mrs. Gore (w/ HHS Asst. Secretary Margaret "Peggy"Hamburg)
Includes participation by Rep. Donna Christian-Green
3)
School, Community and Law Enforcement Partnerships
Chaired by DOJ (w/ McCaffrey)
Multi-Agency Community Approaches (will also include discussion of gun
policy)
4)
Root Causes/Early Childhood Development
Chaired by AG Reno
(will include discussion of family environments and parenting skills, early
exposure to violence, etc.)
Includes participation by Rep. Martin Frost
NOTE: subcommittee working on developing break-out program will report on Tues, 10/6.
Morning Plenary 10:30am- 12:15pm WH East Room [open press]
Conference Intro: 3-4 minute MTV-produced video featuring youth perspective (subject
to script review)
AG- GMA, Today
wed, CBS necked
Welcoming Remarks by Mrs. Clinton (3-5 minutes)
Remarks by Mrs. Gore (3-5 minutes)
Remarks by the Vice President (and introduction of the President) (7 minutes)
Remarks by the President (15 minutes)
Possible Announcements:
Grants - consolidation of project grants and announce specific grants
Annual Report on School Safety early release
FEMA like response program
Safe and Drug Free Schools Re ? authorization (may not be ready)
Uniforms (?)
Juvenile records announcement
MTV partnership
Bullying Manual
COPS Announcement
Anti harassment guide No.
Panel (11:10am-12:20pm) [open press]
Panelists would include four principals and eight outside panelists:
(Note: Cabinet in front row. No audience participation. Down linked by satellite.
No uplink sites.)
Hon. Deedee Corradini, Mayor, Salt Lake City, Utah
Mr. Tony Earles, Professor, Harvard University, MA
Mr. Paul Evans, Commissioner, Boston Police Department, MA
Ms. Liberty Franklin, Boys and Girls Club Youth of the Year
Mr. Jamon Kent, Superintendent, Springfield, OR Public Schools
Ms. Suzanne Wilson, Parent of Student Killed in Jonesboro, AR
Ms. Marlene Wong, Director, L.A. School of Mental Health, Valley Branch, CA
introduce
HOLDING ONE SLOT -- Rep Bob Etheridge (D-NC) or
1
NYC Teacher -- AFT, Hispanic
closed
LUNCH WH State Dinning Room 12:30pm-1:45pm [open press]
Featuring comments by Mrs Clinton, Robert Chase, Sandy Feldman and senator Robb
and Rep. Martinez (D-CA)
AFTERNOON PANEL WH East Room 2:00pm-3:45pm [open press]
First Lady will lead conference participants in a wide-ranging discussion focused on
solutions. Four videos of best practices Short videos (approx.3 min. each) will
introduce model school safety strategies that amplify the first Annual Report on School
heme: programs that work
highlight 4programs
Safety. The four programs are:
4 expert
Families and Schools Together, a family-strengthening program
Resolving Conflict Creatively Program, a conflict-resolution program
Baltimore Police Athletic League, an after-school program
San Diego County's Comprehensive Strategy, a community-wide initiative to
reduce juvenile crime and delinquency.
S
from audrence from doenline sites
Off-site conference participants would receive satellite transmission. Panel composed of
two research experts on each strategy will answer questions and respond to comments.
Reno and Riley participate on panel. Pre-screened question from satellite sites and from
live East Room audience.
Proposed participation by Rep Carolyn McCarthy
maybe attench
RECEPTION National Education Association Headquarters, 16th Street 4:00pm-5:30pm
Remarks by Cabinet, WH Staff, Chase, Rep Peter DeFazio -- Need confirmations
Gender:
A List
Male
65
Female
42
Category By A:
Business
3
Congress
1 (This is the rec. from Rep. Barney Frank)
Education
18
Elected
11
Expert
11
Foundation
2
Law
15
Medical
4
National
17
Panel
9 (This includes Howard Spivak, who will not be a panelist)
Parent
3
Religious
2
Site
5
Youth
5
TOTAL
107
This total number does not include Congress, Cabinet, Sub-Cabinet, Staff, Reception
Race by A:
AA
20
AR
1
AS
4
H
7
NA
3
Per.
1
Viet. 1
G/L
4
D
2 (These are disability groups - does not include what might be grouped as mental health
or possible panelists)
Site Registration Form
By completing this form, you are agreeing to
Please Join Us For a
coordinate a viewing site. PLEASE PRINT.
Name
Agency
FIRST CLASS
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
DOJ/OJJDP
Permit No. G-91
White House Conference
on School Safety:
Address
Causes and Prevention
City
State
Zip
of Youth Violence
Phone
A Live National Satellite Broadcast Presented by the
Fax
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
E-mail
Thursday, October 15, 1998
Viewing Site
Please respond by October 9, 1998 to:
Mail:
JJTAP
ATTN: Becky Ritchey
300 Stratton Building/EKU
521 Lancaster Avenue
Richmond, KY 40475-3102
Phone:
Fax:
E-mail:
(606) 622-6671
(606) 622-4397
[email protected]
Maximum number of participants expected at
viewing site:
Live Coverage of the
] 0 (broadcast will be videotaped only)
White House Conference on School Safety
] 1-10
] 51-75
] 11-25
] 26-50
[ ]101+
Please describe the occupational field(s) (e.g.,
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
11:00 AM-1:00 PM EDT*
] 76-100
rebroadcast from
1:15-2:30 PM EDT*
law enforcement, juvenile justice, court worker,
Satellite Broadcast with the First Lady (Live)
adult corrections, student, etc.) and other charac-
teristics of the participants likely to attend your
viewing site:
U.S. Department of Justice
2:30-4:30 PM EDT*
Office of Justice Programs
Washington, DC 20531
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use $300
*All times are listed as Eastern Daylight Time and are subject to change.
Produced by the Juvenile Justice Telecommunications Assistance Project
(Grant #95-JN-MU-0001)
White House Conference on School Safety:
Registration
Causes and Prevention of Youth Violence
Registration is free! If you are interested in coordi-
nating and facilitating a downlink site in your
Satellite Broadcast
community, please complete the registration form
and submit it by October 9, 1998. You must register
to receive broadcast coordinates. If you are unable
Program Overview
to facilitate a site but would like to view the video-
On October 15, 1998, President Clinton will host the White House Conference on School Safety. He will be
conference, please contact us after October 9 for
joined by the Vice President, Mrs. Clinton, and Mrs. Gore. The conference will be a day-long event at the
registered sites in your area.
White House that will include an important policy address by the President and panel discussions that will
To view the program, you should identify a facility
explore best practices and model school safety strategies. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
that can receive the satellite coordinates. This
Prevention (OJJDP), in partnership with the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program of the Department of
means the facility must have a steerable satellite
Education, is pleased to sponsor satellite coverage of the event.
dish. The broadcast will be available on C-Band.
Although schools remain among the safest places for America's youth, even one incident of violent crime in
Agencies to contact in your community to schedule
a school is too many. The goals of the conference include building on the existing body of knowledge about
a viewing site are cooperative extension offices,
young people and aggressive or violent behavior; learning more from experts about safety in schools and
community colleges, local school systems, univer-
communities; sharing best practices and exploring new solutions; and developing strategies to put these
sities, and local cable television companies.
safety models in place in our Nation's schools and in our communities as a whole.
Site Facilitation
Local sites are encouraged to stage a mini-conference
Satellite coverage of the event is as follows:
on this topic in the community. When you register to
Live coverage will be from 11:00 AM-1:00 PM EDT and will cover the President's remarks and expert
be a site coordinator/facilitator, we will send you all
panel discussions. At 1:15 PM EDT, this segment will be rebroadcast. At 2:30 PM EDT, the broadcast
of the relevant information (i.e., Participant Packet,
coverage will go live again for panel and audience discussion of strategies and programs that are family,
Facilitator Guide, and Technical Information Guide)
community, and school focused and which lead to both safer communities and safer schools. First Lady
approximately one week before the broadcast. The
Hillary Rodham Clinton will moderate this broadcast, which will also include video presentations of
Facilitator Guide will include information on how to
model approaches and programs.
stage an event at your local site around the satellite
coverage. You are requested to copy the Participant
Packet and provide one to each of your site's partici-
Broadcast Objectives
Audience
pants on the day of the broadcast.
Bring community members together to:
This important broadcast is designed for a cross
Promote and provide information concerning
section of the community including teachers, school
Video Rights
school safety and youth crime prevention issues.
leaders, parents, judges, prosecutors, State and local
You are encouraged to videotape the broadcast for
juvenile justice agency representatives, drug preven-
use as a future resource. No rights are reserved by
Review model approaches and programs.
tion specialists, law enforcement officials, youth
OJJDP or its contractor, the Juvenile Justice
Discuss steps to comprehensive school safety
service providers, juvenile probation officers, and
Telecommunications Assistance Project (JJTAP).
planning.
community leaders who are committed to ensuring
This broadcast will be closed-captioned for the
Explore ways of linking safe schools to broader
that our communities are safer and that the Nation's
hearing impaired.
community and family-based efforts.
schools remain a safe haven for children.
CC
Clinton Presidential Records
Digital Records Marker
This is not a presidential record. This is used as an administrative
marker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff.
This marker identifies the place of a publication.
Publications have not been scanned in their entirety for the purpose
of digitization. To see the full publication please search online or
visit the Clinton Presidential Library's Research Room.
12
School Safety: Protecting Children in
Your Community
A Guide to COPS School Safety
Initiatives
U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services
STATE OFFICE AMERICA
School Safety:
Protecting Children in
Your Community
A Guide to COPS
School Safety Initiatives
Safety Initiatives
Protecting the Children
Kids Will Be Safe
THE
COPS Will Help
Clinton Presidential Records
Digital Records Marker
This is not a presidential record. This is used as an administrative
marker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff.
This marker identifies the place of a publication.
Publications have not been scanned in their entirety for the purpose
of digitization. To see the full publication please search online or
visit the Clinton Presidential Library's Research Room.
Preventing Bullying
20
PREVENTING
BULLYING
A Manual
For Schools And
Communities