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At-Risk Convening/School Safety [2]
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Withdrawal/Redaction Sheet
Clinton Library
DOCUMENT NO.
SUBJECT/TITLE
DATE
RESTRICTION
AND TYPE
001. letter
Larry Bentz to POTUS re thank you [partial] (2 pages)
06/15/1998
b(6)
COLLECTION:
Clinton Presidential Records
First Lady's Office
Jennifer Klein
OA/Box Number: 13528
FOLDER TITLE:
At Risk Convening/School Safety [2]
2014-0536-S
kc1517
RESTRICTION CODES
Presidential Records Act |44 U.S.C. 2204(a)]
Freedom of Information Act 15 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 PRAJ
h(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 PRAJ
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]
b(7) Release would disclose information compiled for law enforcement
purposes ((b)(7) of the FOIA]
C. Closed in accordance with restrictions contained in donor's deed
b(8) Release would disclose information concerning the regulation of
of gift.
financial institutions [(b)(8) of the FOIA]
PRM. Personal record misfile defined in accordance with 44 U.S.C.
b(9) Release would disclose geological or geophysical information
2201(3).
concerning wells [(b)(9) of the FOIA]
RR. Document will be reviewed upon request.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Discussion Around the Root Causes of School Violence
Bok, Sissela
Author of Mayhem: Violence as Public Entertainment
Harvard University Department of Population Studies
tel. -- (o) (617) 495-3012
fax -- (o) (617) 495-5418
E-mail -- [email protected]
Butterfield, Fox
Author of All God's Children: The Bosket Family and the American
Tradition of Violence
The New York Times
tel. -- (o) (617) 338-0909
Earles, Tony
Main Researcher: The Project on Human Development in Chicago
Neighborhoods, Harvard University.
tel. -- (o) 617-432-3892
Finnegan, William
Author of Cold New World: Growing Up in a Harder Country
New Yorker Magazine
tel. -- (o) (212) 536-5621
tel. -- (h) (212) 663-4150
fax -- (h) (212) 663-8797
Fox, James
Author of Mass Murder; Overkill; and, Killer on Campus
Northwestern University College of Criminal Justice
tel. -- (o) (312) 908-7937
Hewlett, Sylvia Ann Author of The War Against Parents (with Cornel West)
National Parenting Association
tel. -- (o) (212) 362-7575
tel. -- (h) (212) 724-6460
fax -- (o) (212) 362-1916
Hyman, Dr. Steven Director of the National Institute of Mental Health
tel. -- (o) (301) 435-4670
Karr-Morse, Robin Author of Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence
5852 SW Barnes Road
Portland, Oregon 97225
ph h 503-297-9269
ph W 503-227-6091
Kennedy, David
Author of "Can We Keep Guns Away From Kids?" in
The American Prospect
Harvard University JFK School of Government
tel. -- (o) (617) 495-7533
fax -- (o) (617) 496-9053
E-mail -- [email protected]
Rivers, Rev. Eugene Director of the Ella J. Baker House in Dorchester, MA
tel. -- 617-282-6704
Snyder, Dr. Howard Director of the National Center for Juvenile Justice in Pittsburgh, PA
tel. -- (o) (412) 227-6950
West, Cornel
Author of The War Against Parents (with Sylvia Ann Hewlett)
Harvard University Department of Afro-American Studies
tel. -- (o) (617) 495-7868
fax -- (o) (617) 496-2871
Bruce Perry, MD PhD, Senior Fellow, Civitas Initiatives.
6621 Fannin Street, MC 3-3301
Houston, Texas 77730
ph 713-770-3750
Ron Suskind, Wall Street Journal reporter and author of A Hope in the Unseen.
tel. 202-862-6607
Deborah Prothrow-Stith is Professor in the Division of Public Health Practice at the Harvard
School of Public Health.
tel. 617-432-0814
The Attorney General
The Secretary of Education
Melanne Verveer
Rahm Emanual
Bruce Reed
TO:
The First Lady
FROM:
Jen Klein, Neera Tanden, Nicole Rabner
RE:
School Violence
DATE:
July 16, 1998
Since our last discussion on the recent outbursts of violence in schools, we have been working
with the President's advisors to create a schedule of events on school violence that would frame
the Administration's response to the issue around root causes of the tragedies. In so doing, we
hope to shield it from partisan exploitation in the future
Last week, the President endorsed Child Access Prevention (CAP) legislation, which would
impose liability on adults if they allow children easy access to loaded firearms. This event
attempted to connect the school shootings to efforts to keep guns out of the hands of children. In
framing the discussion around such issues as guns, we believe conservatives will be less likely to
raise the specter of school violence as a political issue because gun control is such a difficult issue
for many Republicans.
In addition, we are in the planning process for future events around school violence that would
build on these recent efforts:
Meeting with Experts: We are now planning your private meeting with experts from diverse
fields to discuss the root causes of these extreme incidences of violence. The purpose of this
meeting is to give you (and the President if he joins you) an opportunity to hear different views on
the subject, in order to better inform future discussions and events. The participants will have a
wider variety of expertise than the President's closed meeting with experts on April 24th,
touching upon such topics as the media's promotion of violence, the problem of family
breakdown, and increased access to guns. This meeting is currently scheduled for July 29th.
Guideline for Helping Principals and Teachers Respond to the Early Warning Signs of Troubled
Youth: The President's advisors plan to release a new guide on early warning signs of troubled
youth developed by the National Association of School Psychologists, in conjunction with the
Departments of Education and Justice. The guide will help schools identify the early warning
signs that lead to violence and will recommend actions schools can take when students act in a
violent or threatening manner. The President's advisors are planning to have the President release
these guidelines as part of a radio address in August.
Additional Police Support for Schools: The President will be able to announce new Justice
Department COPS Office grants to state and local law enforcement agencies to help place more
police officers in schools. This event could be the subject of a radio address in late August or in
September.
National School Safety Day / Annual Report on School Safety
The President will participate in a National School Safety Day, set for early October, on which he
and other Administration officials would discuss the broader problem of violence in our schools
and would address students across the country through satellite downlinks. During this event, the
President would release the National Report on School Safety, which will provide an overview of
crime and violence in schools and will highlight programs and activities that have proven to be
effective in helping to create safe environments for learning. As part of his activities, he will meet
with the experts and representatives of communities affected by these recent school shootings to
discuss how we as a nation can address the underlying problems leading to these recent outbursts
of school violence. We recommend that you participate in this day of activities.
It
cutz
DC
aryp
clearedose by Cerdborra
Mickey
aas letter
to HRC, 30.00
July 13, 1998
Mr. Larry Bentz
Principal
Thurston High School
333 North 58th Street
Springfield, Oregon 97478-6999
Dear Larry:
Thanks so much for your warm note about my visit to
Springfield. I'm glad I could spend time with you
and meet your family, and it's good to know that your
children are doing better now. I was also pleased by
your kind words about Gretchen Michael and my advance
staff.
During my time in Springfield, I was deeply moved by the
feelings of courage, hope, and optimism shared by so many.
Although I know it will be difficult for the community to
heal after such a tragedy, I'm confident that the bravery
and extraordinary spirit of the students, parents, teachers,
and administrators will help Thurston High look forward to
a future full of promise. As we continue our discussions
on ways to make our schools safer, I will keep your comments
in mind.
You, your family, Thurston High School, and the people of
Springfield remain in my thoughts and prayers.
Sincerely,
Bru Crinten
twas very moved by your
account of your own chicomen- itiliary and #
have workut hardto phonute adoption Thank
you for doingit - of agu with you about prevention.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
;
July 13, 1998
Mr. Larry Bentz
Principal
Thurston High School
333 North 58th Street
Springfield, Oregon 97478-6999
Dear Larry:
Thanks SO much for your warm note about my visit to
Springfield. I'm glad I could spend time with you
and meet your family, and it's good to know that your
children are doing better now. I was also pleased by
your kind words about Gretchen Michael and my advance
staff.
During my time in Springfield, I was deeply moved by the
feelings of courage, hope, and optimism shared by so many.
Although I know it will be difficult for the community to
heal after such a tragedy, I'm confident that the bravery
and extraordinary spirit of the students, parents, teachers,
and administrators will help Thurston High look forward to
a future full of promise. As we continue our discussions
on ways to make our schools safer, I will keep your comments
in mind.
You, your family, Thurston High School, and the people of
Springfield remain in my thoughts and prayers.
Sincerely,
Brin Crinten
twas very moved by your
account of your own chicomen- and #
have workut hardto Monute adoption Thous
you for doingit - of agree with you about presention.
Withdrawal/Redaction Marker
Clinton Library
DOCUMENT NO.
SUBJECT/TITLE
DATE
RESTRICTION
AND TYPE
001. letter
Larry Bentz to POTUS re thank you [partial] (2 pages)
06/15/1998
b(6)
COLLECTION:
Clinton Presidential Records
First Lady's Office
Jennifer Klein
OA/Box Number: 13528
FOLDER TITLE:
At Risk Convening/School Safety [2]
2014-0536-S
kc1517
RESTRICTION CODES
Presidential Records Act - |44 U.S.C. 2204(a)]
Freedom of Information Act - 15 U.S.C. 552(b)]
PI 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 PRAJ
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
b(7) Release would disclose information compiled for law enforcement
purposes [(b)(7) of the FOIA]
C. Closed in accordance with restrictions contained in donor's deed
b(8) Release would disclose information concerning the regulation of
of gift.
financial institutions [(b)(8) of the FOIA]
PRM. Personal record misfile defined in accordance with 44 U.S.C.
b(9) Release would disclose geological or geophysical information
2201(3).
concerning wells |(b)(9) of the FOIA]
RR. Document will be reviewed upon request.
[001]
HIGH
A
Thurston Senior High School
333 N. 58th Street
Springfield, Oregon 97478-6999
INOFIELD
(503) 744-5000
June 15, 1998
The President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President
I would like to thank you for your visit to Thurston High School last Saturday. The impact was
immediate, healing. and I I believe long-lasting.
The Thurston community has been slowly working its way back to some semblance of normality,
but in the back of everyone's mind for the last three weeks has been the shooting. Your
appearance provided both comfort and affirmation of the strength of the community, their love
for their children, and their belief in the quality of Thurston High. Both Sunday and today,
everywhere I went people sought me out and expressed their appreciation. Similar impact
occurred with the student body, who had already demonstrated incredible resilience and
maturity, and continue to do so. The visit of the President helped eased the pain of this year
being known as the "year of the shooting" by making it also known as the "year the President
came to Thurston". I cannot begin to describe the impact upon the families most closely
involved. The scene in the library was both moving and awe-inspiring. As 1 walked with you
around the library I sensed the emotion and comfort that the Thurston families felt. Clearly
your visit was a tremendous step forward for most of those present.
(b)(6)
(b)(6)
My further thanks for your support of the concepts contained in the bill introduced by Senator
Wyden, Senator Smith, and Congressman DeFazio last week - it may have made a difference in
our case. I would also hope and ask for future efforts that might concentrate on more
prevention. If Bill and Faith Kinkel had access to more effective interventions perhaps this
wouldn't have happened. There just isn't anything out there for parents to access. A common
situation that we run in to all the time with challenging students is the response from police
and/or Services to Children and Families that they can't intervene until "the student has done
something". Well, Kip did something and it was too late. I don't say this to find fault with either
agency - I've been associated with CSD/SCF far too long as a foster parent not to appreciate the
efforts of the people who work there, and also have a long-standing and positive relationship
with the Springfield Police Department. The sad reality is that there is a tremendous void in
services for teen-agers perhaps some day we'll learn how to fill it.
I must also pass on my appreciation for the work of your staff in planning and implementing the
actual visit. They were all extremely sensitive to our situation and allowed me to adjust plans
as needed to fit my perception of our needs (particularly in regards to the arranging of limited
media coverage). In particular | owe a great deal to Gretchen Micheal who lead the team - she
was simply outstanding to work with. I would never have known that this was her first
experience as the lead.
In any case, thank you again for your visit to Thurston High. It made a difference, you made a
difference, both for me professionally and personally. Thank you.
Sincerely,
LAMY Beng
Larry Bentz
Principal
NUMAN SERVICES
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES
Chief of Staff
8
DEPARTMENT
Washington, D.C. 20201
FACSIMILE
DATE: 6/12/98
TO:
Jennifer Klein
FAX#:
456-2878
FROM: Mary Beth Donahue
Chief of Staff
Phone:
202/690-7431 Fax: 202/401-5783
COMMENTS:
To follow is the executive Summary of the
HHS report which was referenced in The
Philadelphia Inquirer on May 20, 1998.
Please call me to discuss.
Pages [including this cover]
101
CHIEF OF STAFF
4015783 202 FAX 18:57 FRI 06/12/98
Adolescent Time Use, Risky Behavior and Outcomes: An Analysis
of National Data
Nicholas Zill, Christine Winquist Nord, and Laura Spencer Loomis
Westat, Inc.
September 11, 1995
For the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Participating in positive, goal-directed activities gives teenagers a chance to develop skills, build
character, and sample different fields of human endeavor. It may also lessen their chances of engaging in
risky behaviors, such as drug use or delinquency, by occupying idle time, strengthening commitment to
school and other conventional institutions, and exposing teens to beneficial peer and adult influences.
There has been considerable debate, however, as to how effective youth programs are in preventing
misbehavior. More evidence is needed as to how today's teenagers spend their time and whether
constructive activities help to deter problem behavior.
The present study made use of several large-scale data bases to examine the time-use patterns of
American adolescents in the late 1980s and early 1990s, compare them with those exhibited by young
people 10 to 20 years ago, and test whether participation in extracurricular activities reduces the chances
that young people will engage in various risky behaviors. The data analyzed came from Monitoring the
Future (an annual survey of high school seniors), the Longitudinal Study of American Youth, the
National Education Longitudinal Study begun in 1988, and an earlier longitudinal study called High
School and Beyond. The risky behaviors studied were dropping out of school, having children while still
teenagers, being delinquent, smoking, using marijuana or cocaine, and binge drinking.
The study found that U.S. teenagers have a lot of discretionary time available to them and, for most, that
time is not being filled with activities that build their skills or characters. For example, today's 10th grade
students devote on average only one half hour per day to homework. Less than 20 percent of them read
for pleasure almost every day, only 15 percent work daily on hobbies, arts, or crafts, and just 5 percent
routinely use personal computers for schoolwork or recreation. Less than a third attend religious
activities once a week or more, about a fifth participate in youth groups or organized recreational
programs that often, and a similar fraction take weekly classes outside of school in music, art, language,
or dance. One in eight takes weekly sports lessons outside of school, while one in fourteen volunteers or
performs community service activities.
How then do teenagers spend the considerable amounts of free time at their disposal? They watch
television (two and a half hours per day, on average); they talk with other teens on the telephone (60
percent say they do so on a daily basis); and they hang out with friends in malls and other neighborhood
hangouts (64 percent do this at least one or twice a week). As they get older, they work for pay at
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relatively low-skill jobs that do little to prepare them for the more complex and demanding jobs at which
they are likely to later work. Sixty percent of U.S. 12th graders and 27 percent of 10th graders do seven
or more hours of paid work per week during the school year.
When the study compared adolescent time use in the 1990s with that in the mid-1970s or early 1980s,
overall patterns were surprisingly similar. The changes found were mostly in a negative direction as far as
constructive use of time was concerned. For example, high school students in 1990 spent no more time
doing homework than earlier cohorts did, despite taking courses that were supposedly more rigorous.
Teenagers in the 1990s were less likely to read books, do household chores, or attend religious services
on a regular basis than their predecessors were. Compared to the early 1980s, fewer students in the 1990s
participated in band, orchestra or chorus in school, in traditional hobby clubs such as photography or
chess, or in cheerleading or drill team. On the other hand, almost as many went out for varsity sports, and
slightly more took part in academic clubs, such as science, computer, or foreign language clubs, math
team, or debating society. Overall, however, the increased emphasis on academics that has supposedly
dominated American education in recent years has not resulted in much apparent change in intellectual
effort or studying behavior among American adolescents.
Not only is the time use of the average American teenager relatively unproductive, there is considerable
inequality in the extent to which different groups of teens use their free time in constructive as opposed to
idle or detrimental ways Young people from families with low levels of parent education or family
income, who would seem to be most in need of organized skill-building and character-nurturing activities,
were found to be least likely to engage in such activities. Likewise, students whose parents were
uninvolved in the PTA and other school-related activities did not participate in constructive free-time
activities as often, nor spend as much time doing homework, as students with involved parents. Students
enrolled in general or vocational/technical programs in high school had much less exposure to
extracurricular activities than students enrolled in academic or college-preparatory programs.
The time-use patterns of 10th graders were predictive of what they would be doing one year after high
school. Those who were "homework-focused" were twice as likely to be enrolled full time in
postsecondary school as those who were focused on paid employment as 10th graders. Conversely, those
in the latter group were twice as likely as those in the former to be employed full time after high school.
However, the link between doing more paid work as a teenager and full-time employment as a young
adult was weaker than the association between doing more homework and full-time college enrollment.
This indicates that the jobs that adolescents hold are not giving them the skills or experience necessary to
obtain stable full-time employment after high school.
Time-use patterns of 10th graders were also predictive of whether they would engage in a variety of risky
behaviors. For example, compared to those who reported spending 1-4 hours per week in extracurricular
activities, students who reported spending no time in school-sponsored activities were 57 percent more
likely to have dropped out by the time they would have been seniors; 49 percent more likely to have used
drugs; 37 percent more likely to have become teen parents; 35 percent more likely to have smoked
cigarettes; and 27 percent more likely to have been arrested. These significant negative relationships were
found after controlling for related family, school, and student characteristics such as parent education and
income levels, parent involvement in school-related activities, and students' grades. Up to a point,
students who spent more time (5-19 hours per week) in extracurricular activities were even less likely to
engage in risky behavior. However, there was not as great a deterrent effect among those who spent large
amounts of time (20 or more hours per week) in extracurricular pursuits.
One behavior that proved an exception to the rule that extracurricular participation reduced risky conduct
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was binge drinking. After other factors were controlled, time in extracurricular activities did not show a
significant relationship with underage drinking. The difference may be due to the greater social
acceptability of drinking in adult society, compared with cocaine or marijuana use, or to another finding
of the study. This was that one form of extracurricular activity -- varsity sports -- actually seemed to
predispose young people to binge drinking.
When data on adolescent time use and risky behavior were analyzed separately for males and females,
similar relationships were found. One difference was that the deterrent effect of extracurricular
participation on teen childbearing was more clearly evident among females than males. Similar
relationships were also observed when the number of activities in which students participated was used as
a measure of extracurricular involvement instead of hours per week.
Participation in two specific forms of extracurricular activity, varsity sports and music or drama, showed
somewhat different relationships to later risky behavior. Students who participated in varsity sports were
less likely than non-participants to drop out of school or become smokers by their senior years. On the
other hand, student athletes were significantly more likely to have engaged in binge drinking, as noted
above. Also, male (but not female) athletes were more likely to have become teen parents. By contrast,
students who participated in band, orchestra, chorus, or in a school play or musical were significantly less
likely than non-participants to engage in nearly all the problem behaviors: dropping out of school, being
arrested, becoming smokers, using drugs, or engaging in binge drinking. Female (but not male)
performers were also less likely than non-performers to have become teen parents.
The findings indicate that organized youth activities can help to deter risky behavior in adolescence and
young adulthood However, the effectiveness of an activity depends not just on the degree to which it
occupies idle time, but also on the extent to which it develops skills, creates challenges, and provides
fulfilling experiences for teen participants. It depends as well on the attitudes that other participants have
about engaging in specific high-risk behaviors. If the group code encourages some forms of risky
behavior, such as binge drinking or sexual promiscuity, participation in the activity may be
counterproductive.
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DEPARTMENTS OF EDUCATION AND JUSTICE
ACTIVITIES TO BE ENGAGED IN TO RESPOND TO SCHOOL VIOLENCE
In response to the recent series of homicides, shootings, and
threats of homicide the Departments of Education and Justice are
proposing the following activities:
ANNUAL REPORT ON SCHOOL SAFETY: ED and Justice are
developing a Report on School Safety. The Report will
provide the public with an overview of crime and violence in
school's as well as an overview of what programs and
activities have proven to be effective in helping to create
safe environments for learning.
Proposed Date for Completion/Release:
October/November
1998
Department Leads:
NATIONAL SCHOOL SAFETY DAY: ED and Justice are proposing
that the President set aside a day (same day that Annual
Report on School Safety is released) when he and other
Administration officials can talk about the need to end
violence that is occurring in our schools. Activities being
contemplated include: Address to students by the President;
release of teachers guide on activities to be engaged in
during the day.
Proposed Date for Completion/Release:
October/November
1998
Department Leads:
GUIDELINE FOR HELPING PRINCIPALS AND TEACHERS RESPOND TO THE
EARLY WARNING SIGNS OF TROUBLED YOUTH: ED and Justice will
join with the National Association of School Psychologists
to develop a guide on early warning signs of troubled youth.
The guide will help schools identify the early warning signs
that lead to violence and offer recommended actions schools
can take when students act in a violent or threatening
manner.
Proposed Date for Completion/Release:
August 1998
Department Leads:
ED/JUSTICE LISTENING SESSIONS WITH YOUTH: The Secretary and
Attorney General will host several (specific number to be
determined) sessions with youth. The sessions which will be
conducted over the next year will provide the Secretary and
Attorney General with the opportunity to talk directly to
youth about issues related to crime, violence, drugs, and
guns. Youth view's regarding possible solutions to the
problem will be sought.
Proposed Date for Completion/Release:
First Session to be
held in July.
Department Leads:
LINKING MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES TO SCHOOLS: ED and Justice
will work with officials from HHS to develop better
processes for linking community mental health services to
schools. Currently, many schools lack resources to provide
adequate mental health services to students, these services
however are available in some communities. Processes for
linking schools to community mental health services will be
developed.
Proposed Date for Completion/Release: Meeting with HHS to
be held in June/July.
Department Leads:
DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE PLAN FOR RESPONDING TO CRISIS: This
component has two aspects. They are as follows:
--Model Crisis Plan: ED and Justice will develop a Model
Crisis Response Plan for school districts. The Plan would
provide schools with recommendations as to what they should
do when an emergency / crisis strikes.
-Responding to Crisis (Federal Role) : ED and Justice will
reanalyze their response to school crisis and disasters. ED
and Justice currently offer assistance to schools and
communities immediately following a disaster. The procedure
for providing assistance to schools needs to be reexamined.
Proposed Date for Completion/Release:
Department Leads:
STUDY OF ALTERNATIVE SCHOOLS: ED will undertake a major new
study of alternative schools to ascertain how these schools
(including such alternatives as Charters) can be better
used as Valternatives to the street for students who have
been expelled from school.
Proposed Date for Completion/Release:
Department Leads:
GUIDELINES FOR RESPONDING WHEN GUNS AND OTHER WEAPONS COME
INTO SCHOOL:: Justice and ED will be developing guidance for
educators on what to do when weapons come into a school.
ED/Justice will examine procedures used in Boston and other
jurisdictions for evaluating all students who bring weapons
to schools.
Proposed Date for Completion/Release:
Department Leads:
ADDITIONAL POLICE SUPPORT FOR SCHOOLS: The President asked
the Attorney General and Secretary of Education to &report
back to me before the start of the school year on ways that
we can help to provide more police in our schools, just as
we have provided more police in our communities.
Proposed Date for Completion/Release: August
1998
Department Leads:
MEETING WITH SITES IMPACTED BY SCHOOL VIOLENCE: ED and
Justice will hold meeting with sites impacted by recent
shootings (Pearl, Paducah, Jonesboro, Springfield, Richmond,
Edinboro, Moses Lake) to assess what Federal agencies did
after the shooting that was helpful as well as what we could
be doing.
Proposed Date for Completion/Release:
July/August 1998
Department Leads:
HOSTING MEETING OF ED AND JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS TO
COORDINATE RESPONSES TO SCHOOL CRIME AND VIOLENCE: ED and
Justice will host meeting of major constituent groups, e.g.,
NEA, AFT, PTA, CSSO, CGCS, and IACP, PERF, NOBLE, NSSA etc.
to coordinate activities around issue of school safety.
Proposed Date for Completion/Release. July 1998
Department Leads:
DEVELOPMENT OF MODEL DISCIPLINARIAN CODE (A CODE FOR THE
21ST CENTURY) ED and Justice will examine school discipline
issues that have arisen over course of past several years
that are not being adequately addressed by schools, e.g.,
threats to injure or kill other students, and with support
of experts from educational groups and law enforcement
develop model responses to the issues.
Proposed Date for Completion:
Department Leads:
DATA COLLECTION:
Resistance to Pres.
involvement too soft
JULY 8 MEETING ON AT RISK YOUTH
Message:
Prevention works
I.
PURPOSE
we can build on ir
okay w/ structure
As the nation's attention remains focused on the issue of school violence, and as
13 Kinds of
Congress considers a juvenile justice that does not include funding for prevention, you speaker,
would bring together a broad cross-section of experts and practitioners to discuss the
issue of at-risk youth. The discussion would highlight successful prevention programs
that work to reduce juvenile crime, delinquency and other social problems.
II. STRUCTURE
The program would begin with opening remarks by the President (tentative), you, and
Attorney General Reno. You would then moderate a panel discussion on at risk youth,
addressing: (1) what it means to be "at risk"; (2) what promising models exist in
communities across the country; and (3) how we can replicate programs that are working.
At the conclusion of the panelists' presentations, you would open the program to
questions from the audience.
The event is scheduled to be held in the State Dining Room. There would be
approximately 10 participants in the panel discussion and an audience of 80-90 people.
A.
Opening Remarks
B.
Panel Discussion
1.
What does it mean to be "at risk"?
Proposed speakers
Dr. Howard Snyder, National Center for Juvenile Justice, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. He would discuss statistics on juvenile crime rates, divorce rates,
teen pregnancy rates, and changing demographics in general.
David Hawkins, President, Developmental Research and Programs, Inc., Seattle,
Washington. He would discuss the four primary influences on children's lives --
family, peers, schools and community and how each can determine whether
children have the support they need to develop appropriately or become at risk of
delinquency.
2.
What promising models are working in communities across the
country?
a. Family
Proposed Speaker:
Dr. David Olds, University of Denver Health Sciences Center, Denver,
Colorado. Dr. Olds would discuss the proven success of early intervention
-- particularly home visiting -- to prevent child abuse and reduce juvenile
crime. The Elmira, New York nurse home visiting program that Dr. Olds
developed and evaluated found 79 percent fewer verified reports of child
abuse and neglect; a 15-year follow-up of the families served found 54
percent fewer arrests among their children by children's 15th birthday.
The program is being replicated in Memphis, Tennessee, and Denver,
Colorado.
b. School/Peers
Proposed Speakers:
Geoffrey Canada, Director of the Beacon Schools Program, New York
City. The Beacon Schools create safe, drug-free havens where children
and youth receive vocational training, counseling, and academic
enrichment. Community-based organizations work collaboratively with
community advisory councils and schools to develop and manage the 40
Beacon schools. Students' performance on standardized reading tests has
improved, and police report fewer juvenile felonies in the community.
Reba Bullock, Life Skills program, Baltimore Public Schools, Baltimore.
The Life Skills program is a substance abuse prevention program for
junior high/middle school students. The program provides information and
counseling to help students resist pressure from the media and their peers
to use drugs and to raise their own expectations about their futures. Reba
Bullock would discuss how the Life Skills program has been effective in
reducing alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use among young adolescents.
(Bullock has found that these results have been sustained through the end
of high school.)
Pam Riley, Ed.D., Director of the North Carolina Center for the
Prevention of School Violence, Raleigh, NC. Dr. Riley would discuss her
work on violence prevention using conflict resolution and peer mediation,
education for students about the law and legal system, and other school-
based interventions.
c. Community
Proposed speakers:
Reverend Rivers of Boston (cover of Newsweek). Rev. Rivers would
discuss how his faith-based anti-gang initiative creates partnerships among
churches, community police, and community-based organizations, to reach
out to youth, particularly those at risk of gang involvement.
Deanne Calhoun, Executive Director of Youth ALIVE!, Oakland,
California. Ms. Calhoun would discuss Oakland's fight against youth gun
violence through partnerships with law enforcement, prevention programs
and public education.
Ron Roberts, San Diego County Board of Supervisors, San Diego. Mr.
Roberts would discuss San Diego's efforts to coordinate with schools,
police officers, health and social service providers, clergy, business
people, and community leaders to promote the healthy development of
children while also taking a tough stance against juvenile offenders. The
city has established a Children's Trust Fund to invest in prevention.
Dr. Earls, Director of the Project on Human Development in Chicago
Neighborhoods. This research project has found that neighborhood
cohesiveness/collective efficacy is the key indicator of pro-social
behavior. Dr. Earls would discuss efforts in Chicago and elsewhere to
help support neighborhood efficacy as part of larger anti-crime initiatives.
3.
How can we replicate programs that are working?
Proposed speaker:
Del Elliott, Ph.D, Director, Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence,
University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado. Dr. Elliott focuses on replicating
programs that work in the area of crime, delinquency, violent behavior, substance
abuse, and school drop out.
C.
Questions and Answers from Audience
III.
POSSIBLE ANNOUNCEMENT
We hope to announce specific new commitments (by organizations such as the Boys and
Girls Clubs and police groups) to help reach the goals of the Safe Kids Coalition -- a
private initiative coordinated by the Department of Justice and led by the United Way.
This coalition has committed to:
Create constructive after-school opportunities for 100,000 more children;
Reduce truancy by one-third in 200 communities;
Ensure that 100,000 more children participate in effective programs to prevent
and discourage drug and alcohol abuse;
Enroll at least 500,000 children -- approximately 10% of the children eligible for
Medicaid but uninsured -- in health insurance programs.
I Develop new programs in 200 communities to teach gun owners about safe,
responsible gun ownership; and to get illegal guns out of the hands of juveniles.
TO:
Hillary Rodham Clinton
FROM:
Jen and Neera
RE:
Youth Violence Event Ideas
DATE:
June 23, 1998
Based on our previous conversations we wanted to discuss your interest in the following
proposed events:
1. A private meeting with experts and thinkers to discuss the root causes of these recent extreme
incidences of violence in our schools. Such a discussion could include authors and academics,
such as Cornel West and Sylvia Ann Hewlett, author of The War Against Parents; William
Finnegan, author of Cold New World; Fox Butterfield, author of All God's Children: The Bosket
Family and the American Tradition of Violence; Robert Coles; Shirley Burggraf, author of The
Feminine Economy and Economic Man; Sissela Box, author of Mayhem: Violence as Public
Entertainment; Steve Marans, of the Yale Child Study Center; and Robin Karr-Morse, author of
Ghosts in the Nursery. We are now gathering recommendations for participants and could
schedule this meeting for any time in July.
Yes
No
2. As part of the at-risk convening, we were planning to announce new commitments to a private
initiative coordinated by the Department of Justice and led by the United Way, called the Safe
Kids Coalition. The Department is still very interested in your involvement in an event where you
would announce specific commitments by organizations such as the Boys and Girls Clubs and
police groups. This coalition has committed to:
Create constructive, engaging after-school opportunities for 100,000 more children;
Reduce truancy by one-third in 200 communities;
Ensure that 100,000 more children will participate in effective programs to prevent and
discourage drug and alcohol abuse;
Enroll at least 500,000 children -- approximately 10% of the children eligible for Medicaid
but uninsured -- in health insurance programs.
Develop new programs in 200 communities to teach gun owners about safe, responsible
gun ownership; and to get illegal guns out of the hands of juveniles.
Yes
No
3. The President's policy advisors are in the planning stages for a series of events around the
issue of school violence.
1) Early warning guide release: This guide will be authored by the Department of Justice and the
Department of Education and will contain research-based information for principals and teachers
on how to identify and refer deeply-troubled youths. One thought is to release this guide at a
meeting with officials from Springfield, Jonesboro, and other cities recently affected by school
shootings. The guide should be ready by the end of August.
2) National School Safety Day. The Department of Justice has proposed marking a specific day
on which the President would address students and teachers on school safety, with downlinks to
schools across the country. As part of the event, the President would unveil an annual report on
school safety that will contain data on school crime, as well as successful strategies to reduce
school violence, and a checklist for parents on school safety. This event could take place in late
September and early October.
3) Various smaller developments. The Departments of Education and Justice are in the process of
developing other, smaller guidelines and reports that the President may choose to release. These
include the development of a crisis management plan; a study on alternative schools to place
expelled kids; and guidelines to respond to guns and other weapons in schools.
Are you interested in taking part in any of these events?
Yes
No
In addition, we are now in the process of discussing a larger convening with the President's crime,
education and health policy staff and hope to forward you ideas upon your return from China.
Person, Title (Issue)
Address
Recommended By
Qualifications for
Recommendation
David Olds, Ph.d, Director (Early
Prevention Research Center for
Department of Justice
Dr. Olds, original work examined
Childhood/Prevention Efforts)
Family and Child Health
the effects of prenatal and
University of Colorado Health
postpartum nurse visitation
Sciences Center
programs in Elmira, NY. He
303 E. 17th Avenue, Suite 200
currently is carrying out an urban
Denver, CO 80203
replication of the Elmira study in
Memphis, Tennessee; a 15-year
follow-up study of the Elmira
sample which found that children
of the participating mothers had
more than 50% fewer arrests;
and another replication in Denver
area.
David Hawkins, President (Risk
Developmental Research and
Department of Justice
Dr. Hawkins, along with his
Factor Analysis)
Programs, Inc.
colleague Dr. Richard Catalano,
130 Nickerson, Suite 107
is the lead practitioner and
Seattle, WA 286-98109
academic in the area of risk-
(206) 286-1805
focused prevention. He
fax: (206) 286-1462
pioneered the development of
programs to fill service gaps in
area of juvenile delinquency,
violence, teen pregnancy, school
dropouts and drug and alcohol
abuse.
Del Elliott, Ph.D, Director (Pre-
Center for the Study and
Department of Justice
Dr. Elliott is Professor of
School, Testing What Works)
Prevention of Violence
Sociology and Director of the
University of Colorado Campus
Center for the Study and
Box 442
Prevention of Violence, Institute
Boulder, CO 80303
of Behavioral Science, University
(303) 492-1266
of Colorado. He focuses on
fax: (303) 443-3297
replicating programs that work in
the area of crime, delinquency,
violent behavior, substance
abuse, and school drop out.
Pam Riley, Ed.D., Director
North Carolina Center for the
Department of Justice
Dr. Riley is the Director of the
(School-based Prevention and
Prevention of School Violence
North Carolina Center for the
Intervention)
20 Enterprise Street, Suite 2
Prevention of School Violence.
Raleigh NC 27607
Prior to her current position, she
(919) 515-9397
was a high school principal and
fax: (919) 515-9561
teacher. She is North Carolina's
Coordinator of Youth for Justice.
Reverend Ray Hammond
National Ten Point Leadership
Department of Justice
The Ten Point Coalition is a non-
(Mentoring, Involvement of
Foundation
profit organization providing
Faith-Based Organizations)
Ella J. Baker house
church-anchored, street-level
411 Washington Street
work with some of America's
Boston, MA 02124
most at-risk children. The
(617) 282-6704
foundation's primary mission is
FAX: (617) 822-1832
to help provide African-
American Christian Churches
with strategic vision,
programmatic structure and
financial resources necessary to
support inner city youth.
Dr. Meda Chesney-Lind
Women's Studies Program
Department of Justice
Ms. Chesney-Lind is the author
(Working with Girls)
University of Hawaii at Manoa
of over fifty monographs and
2424 Maile Way
papers on the subject of women
Honolulu, HI 96822
and crime, and female
(808) 956-6313
delinquency. She is a past VIP
fax: (808) 956-9616
president of the Western Society
of Criminology. She received the
Paul Trappen Award for
Outstanding contribution to the
field of Criminology.
Deanne Calhoun, Executive
Youth ALIVE!
Department of Justice
Ms. Calhoun spearheads
Director (Gun Violence
3012 Summit Avenue, Suite 3670
Oakland, California's fight
Prevention)
Summit Medical Center
against youth gun violence,
Oakland, CA 94609
through partnerships with law
(510) 444-6191
enforcement, prevention
fax: (510) 444-6195
programs and public education.
Glenda Hatchett, Chief Judge
Fulton County Juvenile Court
Department of Justice
Judge Hatchett is noted for
(Juvenile Court)
445 Capitol Avenue, SW
national leadership in innovations
Atlanta, GA 30312
in the Juvenile Court System.
(404) 730-1128
Judge Hatchett envisioned an
fax: (404) 730-1120
early intervention program for
unruly and ungovernable
children, providing services to
the children and families to
prevent the children from
becoming delinquent. The
truancy project is a collaboration
among attorney volunteers and
the court. Judge Hatchet has also
worked with President Jimmy
Carter on the Atlanta Project, an
effort to fight social problems in
urban areas.
Bernadine Broadhouse (Juvenile
Department of Justice
Washington state prosecutor,
Prosecution)
excellent first-time offender
program More information
later.
Chief Whering (Community
c/o Steve Marans
Department of Justice
Chief Whering is Chief of Police
Policing)
Yale Child Study Center
in Yale, New Haven, location of
47 College Street, Suite 212
the Child Development-
New Haven, CT 06510
Community Policing (CD-CP)
(203) 785-7047
Program, an innovative program
between the New haven
Department of Police Services
and the Child Study Center at the
Yale University School of
Medicine. The CD-CP program
has provided a wide range of
coordinated police and clinical
responses.
Rose Alverado, Ph.D. (Early
University of Utah
Department of Justice
Dr. Rose Alvarado is a Research
Childhood/Family Strengthening)
Department of Health Education
Assistant Professor in the Health
HPER N-215
Promotion and Education
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
Department and is currently the
(801) 581-7718
Director of the Family
fax: (801) 581-5872
Strengthening project funded by
the Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention.
William E. Milliken, President
Communities in Schools, Inc.
Department of Justice
Heads an organization that
(School Drop Out Prevention)
1199 North Fairfax Street, Suite
brokers social services to
300
173,000 youth in 879 school-
Alexandria, VA 22314-1436
based project sites. Board
(703) 519-8999
member of the America 2000
fax: (703) 519-7213
Coalition, The Family School, the
Community Learning and
Information Network. Served as
a White House Advisor on Youth
Issues during the Carter
Administration.
Finn-Aage Esbensen, Professor
Department of Criminal Justice
Department of Justice
As a researcher, Dr. Esbensen
(Gang Prevention)
1100 Neilhardt
has an extensive record of
Lincoln, NE 68588-0630
publications and presentations on
(402) 472-6383
topics which include the
relationship between gang
membership and delinquent
behavior, community structure,
social disorganization, and drug
impact and the impact of
diversion.
Joe Marshall, Founder (After
Omega Boys Club and Street
Department of Justice
One of the most significant youth
School Programs)
Soldiers
workers in the country. Founded
P.O. Box 884463
Omega Boys Club and weekly
San Francisco, CA 94188-4463
radio station program of "street
(415) 826-8664
soldiers", aimed at getting
juveniles to turn in their guns.
Gary Walker, President (After
Public/Private Ventures
Department of Justice
Public/Private Ventures provides
School Programs)
2005 Market Street, Suite 900
state-of-the-art research on youth
Philadelphia, PA 19103
development and conducted the
(215) 5567-4400
impact study of Big Brothers/Big
fax: (215) 557-4469
Sisters of America.
Scott Henggler, Professor of
171 Ashley Avenue Annex 3
Department of Justice
Dr. Henggler is Professor of
Psychiatric and Behavioral
Charleston, SC 29425
Psychiatry and Behavioral
Sciences (Intervention Programs)
(803) 792-8003
Sciences and Director of the
fax: (803) 792-7813
Family Services Research Center
at the Medical University of
South Carolina. Much of Dr.
Henggler's research concerns
serious antisocial behavior in
adolescence and the development
of effective treatments for such
behavior.
Rolf Loeber, Professor
University of Pittsburgh
Department of Justice
Dr. Loeber is an expert on the
(Pathways to Serious and Violent
Western Psychiatry Institute and
causes of delinquency, substance
Offending)
Clinic
use and mental health problems
3811 O'Hara Street
in juveniles. Dr. Loeber has
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-2593
lectured extensively on social and
(412) 383-1015
behavioral factors in the
development of serious
aggression, risk factors and
prevention of anti-social
behavior.
Geno Natalucci-Persichetti,
National Association of Juvenile
Department of Justice
Serves as Director of Ohio's
President (Juvenile Corrections)
Corrections and Detention
Department of Youth Services.
Administration
Has provided national leadership
51 N. High Street, #881
in juvenile treatment over the
Columbus, OH 43266-8783
past 20 years.
(614) 466-8783
Tony Earles
Chicago Project
NIJ
In studies of neighborhood crime
patterns, found that the key
variable is collective efficacy:
involvement of adults in the lives
of children.
Ron Roberts (Comprehensive
San Diego County Bd of
Department of Justice
San Diego is coordinating with
Community-Wide Initiatives)
Supervisors, San Diego
schools, cops, health and social
(619)531-5544
service providers, clergy,
business people, and community
leaders to promote the healthy
development of children while
holding those juveniles that
offend accountable. The city has
established a Children's Trust
Fund to invest in prevention at
the front end.
Deborah Yates, Director
Thomas O' Farrell Youth Center
Department of Justice
(Aftercare)
Public Papers of the Presidents
March 7, 1996
CITE: 32 Weekly Comp. Pres. Doc. 438
LENGTH: 5126 words
HEADLINE: Remarks in a Roundtable Discussion at the White House Leadership
Conference on Youth, Drug Use, and Violence in Greenbelt
BODY:
The President. Well, hello and good afternoon. Let me again thank all of you
who are participating and all of you who came to the White House yesterday. I
know that the event which we just held with the students at Eleanor Roosevelt
was shown here, so I have no further introductory remarks. I'm anxious to get to
the panel, except to say one thing briefly.
In the 12 years that I served as the Governor, when I had the opportunity not
only to go to every community in my State but from time to time to travel
throughout the country, I saw a modern example of what the framers of the
Constitution intended when they set up State governments, and they basically
devolved a certain amount of authority throughout our country. They wanted the
States and, ultimately, communities to be laboratories of democracy. And they
thought, the people who set our country up, that once in any laboratory a
solution to a problem was found it would be like science, that that then would
be adopted and people would go on to another set of problems.
What I think is happening in our country, is that nearly every serious
challenge we face has been dealt with brilliantly by somebody, somewhere,
whether it's in education or in dealing with the crime problem or you name it.
The one place where their laboratory of democracy probably fell down is that its
human affairs are not like science, and very often, even though things are
working well, they're not adapted, adopted, embraced as they should be.
So I think that all of you who are struggling and working to find ways to
mobilize the energies not only of your communities but willing, then, to see it
spread across the country are doing the most important thing you could be doing
because it's the second half of what the framers of the Constitution knew we'd
have to do in order to meet all the challenges of the future. I mean, they
couldn't have imagined the world that we live in now, but they set up a system
that requires the second half -- and you are that.
I thank you for being here. I'm anxious to go forward, and I'd like to begin
by having, I think, about four opening statements, beginning with Joe Califano.
And I want to begin by just thanking you, sir, for the work that you have done
at your center and the work that you have done for so many years now to try to
help people deal with all kinds of substance abuse problems. And we'd be glad to
hear from you.
[Joseph Califano, director, Center for Alcohol and Substance Abuse, thanked the
President, commended the White House Conference, broadly linked cigarette
smoking with drug abuse, and commended the President's effort to prevent
cigarette smoking among youth.]
The President. Reverend Jackson?
[Civil rights leader Jessie Jackson thanked the President for his years of
interest in the subject and then surveyed the students asking how many students
knew people in their age group who had died or been jailed because of drugs, who
knew fellow students who brought guns to school, and asked how many students had
told school officials. He said that the lack of response to the last question
demonstrated silent complicity with the drug and violence culture and added that
the effort to win the war on drugs mast be initiated as a struggle by youth. He
linked the media and poverty to the drug and violence culture and added that the
national response was to lock them up rather than to lift them up. He advocated
targeting the base of the drug culture, like the enemy base in a war. He
advocated a parents' coalition of 20,000 in 50 cities to get more deeply
involved in their children's education, working with teachers to improve
children's lives, as well as 100 ministers working with juvenile court judges to
reclaim youth rather than jail them. He concluded by urging the young to rise up
and be the warriors and leaders in the struggle.]
The President. Let me just say, yesterday Reverend Jackson and I spent a few
minutes together in preparation for this day. And he went through what he was
going to say. And the thing I want to say, quite apart from the incredible power
of his remarks, is that he has given us a way to take what is working and to
spread it across the country. And we now have to see if we're willing to do
that.
Can you find 20,000 parents in 50 cities? Can you find this number of
churches in 50 cities? Can we prove that we can take these -- if you want to
prove that you -- we know objectively we can't jail our way out of the crisis,
but we have never presented, frankly, a constructive alternative that we could
spread across the country. You can build a jail in one city and another, and it
looks about the same. This program or that program or the other program may not
look the same in every community.
So the great -- the enduring genius of what he has said today may well be his
plan that would allow us to systematically make a difference across the country
and offer us an alternative approach to this in the future. And I thank you,
sir.
Jim -- Mr. Burke.
[James Burke, chairman, Partnership for a Drug-Free America, said there was not
a single social issue in this country in which illegal rugs was not embedded. He
then cited the progress made in recent years against drug use which he
attributed to changing attitudes towards drugs. He said that the media had made
a major contribution to changing the Nation's attitude toward drugs after Len
Bias died. He advocated listening to the children and getting them involved in
the solution.]
The President. I would like to now call on a remarkable person who has
probably laid a costlier sacrifice on the altar of our modern troubles than
almost any other American, and who has responded by devoting her life to trying
to help us work our way out of it, Dr. Lonise Bias. Thank you for being here.
[Lonise Bias, mother of Len Bias who died a drug-related death in June 1986
and Jay Bias who was murdered in December 1994, advocated four essentials to
resolve the program: unconditional love; community (come unity); faith in Jesus;
and a commitment to character over image. She said that many problems with our
young people stems directly from the flow of information and that we must
monitor the source of the information reaching our children. She said that when
she started addressing young people, she spoke largely to the issues of drugs
and self-esteem but that new issues constantly advance, such as violence, moral
values, HIV/AIDS, and respect for authority and advocated changing our approach
to adapt to the changing needs of young people.]
The President. We have a number of distinguished people on this panel, and
I'd like to -- I think it's time we began with the young people and hear from
them. So I will just call on them and then I want to call on some of the other
panelists who are here who have done so many important things. But let me begin
by asking Karen Lee, who is a senior here at Eleanor Roosevelt, who joined
Students Against Violence a year ago, immediately after her classmate, Julie
Ferguson, was abducted across from the school and killed. I'd like to ask her
what has been happening here, what happened in the antiviolence program and
where it's going, and what impact it's had on the students in the schools.
[Ms. Lee said that after the death of classmates, students and faculty were
scared, angry, and hurt, but decided to join together and fight against the
violence. The group believed that violence is often the result of the lack of
alternatives, and they tried to provide some of those alternatives, such as peer
mediation, peer counseling and mentoring programs. The groups also worked to
raise community awareness to the presence of violence and held memorials,
candlelight vigils, and just simple gatherings to remind them of the past and
give hope for the future.]
The President. How many students here at the school are involved in it?
[Ms. Lee said that Students Against Violence had approximately 20 very active
members.]
The President. Thank you. I want to come back to that in a moment with some
of our other panelists, but I'd like to go now to Izaak Prado, who is a junior
at a community school in Visalia, California. A former drug user, a former gang
member who is in the second phase of the Tulare County Juvenile Drug Court in
Visalia, he's returned to school; he says his attitude and his outlook have
changed and that in his program associated with the drug court he attends
mandatory drug counseling, sets goals, and learns from the experience of older
men about how to handle peer pressure and stay away from drugs.
There are a lot of people talking here today; you've actually had to walk the
walk. And I thank you just for having the courage to sit up here on this panel.
I would like to ask you to make whatever statement you would like to make about
your experience and what you would say to other young people and what you think
you could to to make a difference there.
Mr. Prado. Well, I'm here because I got in trouble. I got in trouble for
possession.
The President. I just want to make sure they can hear you. I think they
turned the mike up. That's good.
[Izaak Prado described the program and how his attitude had changed toward
drugs and gangs and said that the program should be expanded nationally.]
The President. Could you tell the people who are here how you happened to be
placed in the drug court when you were arrested, or whatever happened to you?
How did you wind up going into the drug court?
Mr. Prado. Well, I was arrested, and I was sent to see the judge. And since
my case was in affiliation with drugs, they gave me an opportunity to come into
the program.
The President. You had the choice about whether to go into the drug program
or be punished conventionally in the criminal justice system, right?
Mr. Prado. Yes. And I chose to be part of the program. And it's not like you
can just drop out of the program if you feel you can't complete it. You know,
once you make it, it's a commitment, and you have to stay in it for
approximately 9 months.
The President. Let me say that a lot of people here in this audience will be
familiar with the drug courts, but one of the first ones in the country was
established in Miami. And I happened to have, just by family accident, the
exposure to it many years ago because my brother-in-law was the public defender
in the drug court. So I have sat for hours on end on two different occasions in
the Miami drug court. And all the people there also have to voluntarily choose
to be in the drug court's jurisdiction to choose the path of rehabilitation to
avoid automatic jailing of people who just got into this.
And one of the parts of our crime bill that we're still struggling to
preserve funding for is a small stream of money to help people establish these
drug courts around the country. And you're a pretty good walking advertisement
for it, and I thank you for what you've done.
I wonder if any of the other panelists would like to ask Izaak a question
before I go on to anyone else. Anyone have a question you want to ask him?
Well, I thank you. You hang in there.
[Reverend Jackson asked Mr. Prado if he was afraid that after he leaves the
program he will return to drug use. Mr. Prado said that when he started he
thought he would but that the program had changed his attitude.]
The President. You heard Dr. Bias say it's what happens in your mind that's
the most important thing. So, you hang in there. We're for you.
I'd like to ask Margaret Alstaetter, who's here to my left, a freshman at
Wilmington College in Ohio, and she's the Students Against Drinking and Driving
Student of the Year. To raise awareness of alcohol-related issues, she
coordinated a mock accident, planned public service announcements, organized Red
Ribbon Week activities, and conducted a lot of other projects involving local
elemental schools and young people.
And so I'd like to ask her to say whatever is on her mind and ask her whether
she thinks the SADD movement has helped to change the attitude of students about
what is or is not the cool thing to do, or is or is not an acceptable thing to
do, and whether or not it -- whether having a chapter like this at every
college and at every high school in the country would make a difference in the
culture, to go back to what Mr. Burke said about our ability to change people's
views of this. But talk a little about your own experience and tell us what you
think.
[Ms. Alstaetter discussed SADD's main program, the Contract for Life, and
described its main components of empowerment, caring, and prevention. She said
that SADD is not a set program but something that each chapter designs for
itself, her chapter working closely with, drug-free programs in elementary
schools. She described Red Ribbon Week in which high school students develop
entertainment with anti-drug themes and present them to elementary school
students, and described several special days with anti-drug themes.]
The President. Thank you very much. Let me ask you this: How many people are
in your organization?
Student. In my high school, we have about 70 active members.
The President. That's good.
Barry McCaffrey. Let me, if I may, intervene. We're scheduled to terminate at
1:15 p.m., but, Mr. President, knowing how valuable your time is, nonetheless
you did make me your Drug Czar. So could we go beyond this to 1:30 p.m., do you
think, to get some of the power of these comments out on the table?
The President. He's only been out of uniform for a few days, and he's already
off schedule. [Laughter] I would like to stay very much until at least 1:30
p.m., until we hear from everybody. Thank you very much, General.
Let me say, I think -- I wanted you to hear from these three students. Now,
I'd like to come back and sort of pick up the issues, starting with -- Karen
talked about school violence and I would like to call on a couple of people now
to discuss how they have dealt with it.
Carl Cohn is the superintendent of the Long Beach Unified School District in
California. It's the third largest school district in California; there are
81,000 students in this school district. And 2 weeks ago, I went to his school
district to one of the schools there, named for the great American baseball
player, Jackie Robinson. And he was, as far as I know, the first major school
district in the country to implement for elementary and junior high school
students a school uniform policy.
I went out there because we had worked, particularly through the Attorney
General's office and through the Department of Education, through Secretary
Riley, to make sure that the school district and that others who wish to do the
same thing could do so legally, explain how it could best be done, and then put
together a handbook which you could then mail to every school district in the
country explaining how Long Beach had done what they've done and how a school
district who was interested in this could do it.
And when I first heard about it and, indeed, when I mentioned it in the State
of the Union Address, my last State of the Union Address, I always try to keep
up with the reaction -- on balance, it was the most positive reaction I ever
got, except for all of the nasty letters I got from kids saying, "How dare you
suggest that school uniforms would be a good thing. It would be the most
boring, awful thing that ever happened, our liberties would be trampled," and in
one fell swoop, one remark, I turned myself into an old fogey before the entire
country. But I must say, having gone out there, since the State of the Union, I
think that at least every American needs to hear about the Long Beach
experience, particularly in light of what Karen said and others have said.
So, Carl, the floor is yours.
[Mr. Cohn said that since introducing the uniforms, there had been a dramatic
reduction in school crime at the elementary and middle school level.]
The President. Let me just inject a couple of facts here, in case any of you
are thinking about this. First of all, there was not a uniform school district
policy. He allowed every school, by some process or another, to choose their
uniforms. And they were basically just comfortable school clothes, like I saw
one of the young people was in a -- the uniform for the boys was blue slacks and
a white shirt with a collar every day. It wasn't -- and there was some variation
within that. And then the uniform for the girls was the same thing or a skirt.
And each school got to choose their own colors and got to decide what the
parameters of the uniform were. If the school chose, the teachers and the
principal also wore the uniform, but that varied by school. But the young man
that he mentioned, for example, said his school was located in a high crime area
where the gangs associated gang membership with the colors red and blue, so the
school chose black, white, and green for the school uniform. And to see this
young attractive African-American student saying, "I don't have to look over my
shoulder anymore when I walk to and from school, I feel safe," that's worth
something.
The other student who spoke was a young -- I think a 13 year old student, who
is a terrifically powerful young woman who said that she felt one of the reasons
that the learning had gone up and discipline and behavior problems had gone down
is that it gave all the children a sense of unity, and that all of them were
being judged based on what was on the inside, rather than on the outside. It's
interesting. And in that sense, she said she thought the children who came from
well-to-do families were helped as much by the policy as children who came from
poor families. And they also had to set up a system so kids who came from
families who couldn't afford it and all that, and they covered all that.
But if you have any interest in this I would urge you to write to Carl
because it's hard to quarrel with the results and what the kids said. Maybe it's
not the thing for every school district and every school, but they had a lot of
problems and to see them drop in a breathtaking fashion I think is a real
tribute to the courage and vision of the people of that school district. And I
thank you for what you did.
[Reverend Jackson said that the program worked in both wealthy schools, where
the students focus on lap tops rather than boom boxes, and not-so-wealthy
schools, where poor students don't have to try to keep up. He suggested that the
program should go one step further and require that the students sew their own
clothes.]
The President. Before you laugh too much about the last comment Reverend
Jackson made, let me remind you that the most famous cloth spinner of the 20th
century was Mohandas Gandhi. That was his main non-work activity.
So I'd like to call on Yvonne Green who is the director of the safe schools
initiative in and around East Capitol and Marshall Heights in Washington, DC.
She has a very challenging job. And she is helping to establish the kind of
school and community partnerships that the rest of us so often talk about. So
I'd like to ask her whether the Safe and Drug-Free School funds out of the crime
bill have helped her and what she's done with it and what she thinks it's making
a difference.
[Ms. Green, director, Safe and Drug-Free Schools, briefly described her program
to make the communities safer and more education-friendly. She said one of the
current initiatives was setting up a community mediation team and described
mediation training in the community. She described funding of the program
through the drug-free schools program and suggested that when there are
school-community partnerships, that somehow the funding be made available to
both groups, making both groups responsible and accountable for the funds and
the outcome.]
The President. Thank you very much. That's a very. good idea.
Now, if you will remember, Izaak said that he was involved in the drug court
system in his hometown of Visalia, California. I'd like to call now on Judge
Jeff Tauber, who is here, who initiated the design implementation of the Oakland
drug court program, which was one of the Nation's first. He's now president of
the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, and he advises Federal,
State, and local agencies about how to establish these drug courts.
So I'd like for him to talk about this. In view of -- you heard the
statistics Reverend Jackson mentioned. We know more than half of the individuals
that come into the criminal justice system in the country have some sort of a
substance abuse problem. And I'd like for him to tell me what he thinks the
results are from the drug courts that have been established enough -- in time
for us to evaluate them and what he believes the future of the drug courts
movement is.
[Judge Tauber briefly described the drug courts program and their community
base, indicating that research shows that the program dramatically reduces
recidivism by 40 to 60 percent. He described how the drug courts have
successfully collaborated with other organizations and other agencies in the
communities. ] The President. I want to open the floor if anybody has questions
of Judge Tauber. But I want to emphasize to all of you -- remember Izaak's
story. Not only are these courts reducing the recidivism rates, these people are
not going to prison in the first place -- they are not going to prison in the
first place. And as far as I -- the only courts that I've any experience with,
the option to go through the regular system or to go into the drug court, since
the drug court imposes certain responsibilities on the defendant going in, is
left with the person who is charged, as it was in Izaak's case.
But I think the question of what the aggregate impact on this country would
be if every community of any size had a court like this -- which requires a
community support system because you've got to show up on a regular basis and
all that -- is quite significant. And the one I watched in Miami for long
periods of time on two separate occasions, the whole atmosphere was different,
the chemistry of the court was different, the way that the defense lawyer and
the prosecutor and the judge related to each other was different, because they
knew what they were trying to do was to save the defendant and in the process
get the law observed and make the community safer.
It's a very exciting thing. I would like to see it done everywhere. And I
think what you're doing is very important.
Would anyone like to ask any questions of Jeff before we go on?
Judge Tauber. I would like to add one thing if I may. I just wanted to thank
you and this administration for its support of drug court and the Attorney
General and the Department of Justice, because I think that we had the
opportunity to grow and to grow in a very, I think, a very thoughtful and
responsible way because of that support.
The President. Thank you.
Judge Tauber. Thank you.
The President. Now, if you remember, our third young person, Margaret, talked
about the Students Against Drunk Driving and what they were trying to do to keep
our young people sober and drug free. I'd like to now call on Kurt Landgraf, who
is the president and CEO of DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company, who is now the
representative of the National Pharmaceutical Council here. And he will discuss
the $ 33 million program I announced in my speech.
I say this because we know that the students need help and support at home.
We also know, whether you believe -- you know, there's this endless debate that
started that basically was the study of people who had an alcohol addiction,
about whether it's all a matter of weak will and bad habits or whether some
people are biologically pre-disposed to it have problems. We know that whether
you believe it's totally determined or not, there are all kind of differences
both in the home situation and in people's makeup that makes it more important
than ever that we get the parents involved early, making good decisions and
understanding what to do.
So I'm excited about this and I'd like to ask Kurt just to talk a little bit
about this program, why the pharmaceutical companies decided to do it and how
they expect it to work.
[Mr. Landgraf described the National Pharmaceutical Council initiative, using
17,000 sales reps from 15 companies in the pharmaceutical industry to provide
information developed by the Office of Drug Control Policy to health care
professionals to identify and help parents to identify persons at risk in terms
of drug abuse. On a more personal note, he indicated that the drug industry was
involved for three reasons: Once you become aware of the problem, it is
essential for business to participate in the solution; the industry has the
resources to effectively implement the program; and finally, if no action was
taken, it would effect the children, including his children, and nothing was
more important than the children.]
The President. Thank you. I want to say a special word of thanks to you, sir,
not only to you, individually, but to the people in your business. You know the
United States has the most successful pharmaceutical industry in the world. And
it depends, in part, for its success on a decent partnership with the Federal
Government, especially through the Food and Drug Administration.
And the statement you have just made is the statement that I think is very
important, that in many respects the collectve influence of American business
practices is far greater on the American people than the influence of the
Government is, and that's as it should be in many respects because we have a
free enterprise system, we believe in a private economy and it has served us
rather well.
But the statement you just made is a very important statement -- that even in
a global economy, when you have to worry about the worldwide competition, the
home base still matters. And in the end business has to be able to do well by
doing good, because America must be strong for the private economy to flourish.
And that's a very important statement, and I thank you for it.
I have intentionally saved for last among our panelists -- and I want to give
the Governor a chance to say a word as we close -- but the sheriff of
Jacksonville, Florida, Nat Glover, because he is one of the most unusual success
stories in our country. He was elected sheriff in a community in which is a
majority white community, and which is also a majority of the other political
party.
[Laughter] And he was elected sheriff because people of all races and both
political parties and all backgrounds trusted him to take the lead in lowering
the crime rate and making the streets safer. It wasn't a political issue, at
all; it was a human issue.
And he was elected by promising, in effect, to have his office on the street.
And I had the extraordinary opportunity to spend a day with him, not just at a
rally of young people giving a talk, which I got to do, but actually walking the
streets and watching him relate to people, the young and old alike, and seeing
how they looked at him as the source of energy for delivering them from their
own fears. And it was an extraordinary thing.
So I wanted him to talk about what he's done in relating to the community and
what the successes have been and to just thank him publicly for being a role
model for law enforcement around the country. But I'd like to ask him to say a
few words and maybe reflect on what he's heard here today and what he's trying
to do in Jacksonville.
Sheriff Glover.
[Mr. Glover thanked the President for the conference and stated that his
community-oriented policing strategy was working. He described the transition of
a low-income community after putting 31 officers in the community.]
The President. Thank you.
Governor.
[Gov. Parris Glendening thanked the President and described how violence
touches individuals in the community. He indicated that he had talked with a
pastor in a Montgomery County church where there had been 68 funerals for the
church, 25 percent from gun violence, and described how his wife's was robbed 5
years earlier. He said that while community efforts were important, personal
responsibility was key.]
The President. Thank you very much. As a we -- yes, Jesse? [Laughter]
[Reverend Jackson said that he believed this could be a turning point in the war
on drugs, and he supported the community policing initiative but he noted that
police corruption must be held in check, allowing police to become the true
leaders at the grassroots. He then sked that students who will be 18 years old
by November and who are registered to vote.]
The President. That's pretty good.
[Reverend Jackson then asked that students who will be 18 years old by November
and who are not registered to stand. He encouraged all those students to
register and vote in November for a better future.]
The President. I would like to thank Eleanor Roosevelt again for hosting us
and thank all of the others who made this possible. I want to thank the
panelists. I hope all of you who came to this conference got something out of
their moving statements, their personal experiences, and perhaps some ideas you
can take home. I want to assure you that the Vice President and General
McCaffrey and I and the other members of our Cabinet will read the reports of
all the various sessions of this conference.
I have only to regrets as I leave here. One is that we couldn't spend all day
hearing from all the young people who are here. And the other is that we
couldn't spend all day listening to all the people who are here from the
conference who could have just as well been on this panel.
I want to thank you for the life you're leading, the work you're doing. Many
of you out there in this audience I've had some personal involvement with, and I
feel personally indebted to you -- you know who you are -- and I thank you for
that.
This is our country's great challenge. And if you look at these fine young
people that were here, the rest of us owe it to them to meet it. And I feel more
optimistic than I did before I came here today that we'll do exactly that.
Thank you, and God bless you all.
NOTE: The President spoke at 12:18 p.m. in the auditorium at Eleanor Roosevelt
High School.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: August 14, 1996