[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 30 (Thursday, March 17, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 17, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                            GUN-FREE SCHOOLS

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, today there is a conference going on 
between the House and the Senate on a bill called Goals 2000.
  I rise today, on behalf of myself and Senator Feinstein from 
California, to once again encourage in the strongest possible terms 
that the conference continue to keep in the conference report a 
provision that we passed here in the Senate that deals with gun-free 
schools.
  Let me, if I might, offer the Senate a few clippings from the local 
newspaper. This is, of course, only from one city, Washington, DC.
  The Washington Post, January 27, 1994: ``School Shootings Break Out 
in D.C.'' I would go through the story but the headline says it: 
Shootings break out in our schools in the District of Columbia.
  February 2, headline: ``For Third Time in a Week in D.C., Shots Ring 
Out In or Near a School.'' The third time in a week in the District of 
Columbia, ``shots ring out in or near a school.''
  Last week, March 10: ``Student Shot in Eastern High School; 2 
Students' Argument Started With a Bump in the Hallway, Police Say.'' 
This is not in the streets. This is in our schools.
  Senator Feinstein, myself and some others, offered a provision in 
Goals 2000 that is very simple and very direct. It says we want every 
school district in this country to have a policy and the policy should 
be simple: If you bring a gun to school, you are expelled for a year. 
Guns and schools do not mix. Guns have no place in schools.
  When we send our children to school, we send them there to learn and 
we expect the school to be safe. Too often all across this country 
these days we are seeing gunfire in the hallways of our schools. 
Children cannot learn if they are not safe, and parents should not want 
to send their kids to school unless they have some measure of 
understanding that their kids are going to be safe.
  Our legislation says every school district in America shall have a 
policy: If a kid brings a gun to school, he or she is expelled for a 
year. There is an escape clause. It allows the head of the school 
district to make an exception on a case-by-case basis. Let us say 
somebody for one reason or another a student brings a starter pistol to 
school in a backpack with no notion that this is a dangerous weapon and 
it was an accident that it was in the backpack in the first place. 
Should there be an exception? Yes. That is fine.
  But, generally speaking, we ought to send a message all across this 
country in Goals 2000, the legislation that is now being dealt with in 
conference, that everyone in this country should understand if a kid 
brings a gun to school, that kid is going to be expelled for a year. We 
should not be reading headlines in the newspapers that talk about 
killings in our schools from gunfights in the hallways.
  I went to Eastern High School about 2 months ago and spent some time 
with the principal. That is a wonderful school. I walked through the 
metal detector at the front door when I went in. They have metal 
detectors, security devices, security officers, and a terrific 
principal. Yet when kids get through that front door with guns and 
disagreements occur, in today's culture, unfortunately, it all too 
often ends in tragedy.
  One thing, the least we can do, in my judgment, is to send a message 
all across this country we will not permit kids to bring guns to our 
schools and, as a matter of public policy, there will be immediate and 
certain sanctions that are tough, no-nonsense sanctions, for those kids 
that do. I want kids to understand that and I want parents to 
understand that.
  I just finished talking with Senator Kennedy a few minutes ago about 
this provision. I must compliment him because he is the lead conferee 
on the Senate side and at this point they have kept this provision in 
at conference. I understand there are some on the other side who would 
like to weaken it or take it out, and I would very much like to see 
this provision remain in Goals 2000 when the conference report comes 
back to us so it becomes the law of the land.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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