[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 58 (Wednesday, May 7, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H2257-H2258]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SUPPORT H.R. 3, JUVENILE CRIME CONTROL ACT
(Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, the junior high school that I went to in
Athens, GA, had strict discipline. Students were taught to respect each
other, to respect teachers, and to respect the institution.
The high school, however, that I went to had a different view of
discipline, that is to say, a very spotty record, if any, on it. When I
was in 10th grade, a student pulled a gun on another one in a
basketball game I was playing in, and then another time a student was
shot on the campus. When I was in high school, I had a group of
students jump on me and beat me up. Without discipline, students
somewhat behaved in a bad fashion.
Currently today teenagers account for the largest portion of all
violent crime in America. Offenders under the age of 18 commit more
than one-fifth of
[[Page H2258]]
all violent crime. If this trend continues, we will have a 31 percent
increase in juvenile offenders by the year 2010.
H.R. 3 addresses this. It tries to make our school yards and our
streets safer from juvenile offenders. I hope that my colleagues will
support me in supporting it.
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