[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 58 (Wednesday, May 7, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H2259-H2260]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      DUNN AMENDMENT TO H.R. 3, JUVENILE CRIME CONTROL ACT OF 1997

  (Ms. DUNN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)

[[Page H2260]]

  Mr. Speaker, we have an opportunity this week to do something about 
the safety of our children's schools. Every day children go to school 
in fear, not because they have a math test, but because the child next 
to them may harm them.
  Tomorrow, I will offer an amendment to H.R. 3, the Juvenile Crime 
Control Act of 1997, to make our schools safer.
  My amendment would take Megan's Law one step further. It would 
require States to submit a plan to the Attorney General, describing a 
process by which parents would be notified of a juvenile sex offender's 
enrollment in the elementary school or secondary school their child 
attends. This amendment strengthens Megan's Law by forewarning parents 
about juvenile sex offenders who may have fallen through the cracks 
even with community notification.
  For example, some children attend schools outside their communities. 
Parents in this situation may be unaware that their son or daughter is 
attending school with a juvenile sex offender. My amendment would 
forewarn these parents as well as those whose children attend schools 
within their communities.
  We cannot let what happened to Megan Kanka happen again. Not in any 
community, especially not on a playground during recess.

                          ____________________