[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 75 (Thursday, June 11, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1108-E1110]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          RECONNECTING WITH OUR CHILDREN AND KEEPING THEM SAFE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CAROLYN McCARTHY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 11, 1998

  Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I want to share with my 
colleagues the very thoughtful and powerful speech that Education 
Secretary Richard Riley delivered on June 9th to the Safe and Drug Free 
Schools Conference in Washington.
  Secretary Riley spoke eloquently about what we can do in Congress and 
across the nation to protect young people from violence. After the 
recent incidents in Springfield, Jonesboro, West Paducah and Pearl, the 
Secretary's message is more important than ever. Next week, I will 
introduce the Children's Gun Violence Prevention Act. Many of the 
provisions of my bill will address the issues that Secretary Riley 
raised, including making sure that children cannot get access to guns 
and helping schools prevent violence. As Secretary

[[Page E1109]]

Riley says, we need to send the message to our children that ``violence 
is not the solution to any problems that you may have.''

          Reconnecting With our Children and Keeping Them Safe

       I want to thank all of you for coming to this important 
     conference and for your personal commitment to the children 
     of America. I know that each and every one of you is making a 
     sacrifice to do the jobs you do. That, to my way of thinking, 
     is the very essence of patriotism and what it means to be a 
     good American.
       Yesterday, I went to New York at the request of the 
     President and joined Attorney General Reno, General McCaffrey 
     and several other cabinet members as the President gave a 
     very important anti-drug speech at the United Nations. The 
     essence of his message was very simple--the United States 
     will remain unrelenting in its efforts to stem the use and 
     abuse of drugs. It is a message that needs to be heard again 
     and again.
       There is another message that our young people need to hear 
     again and again and that is this--please, young Americans, 
     please listen to me--violence is not the solution to any 
     problem that you may have.
       The recent wave of terrible killings in Springfield, 
     Oregon; Edinboro, Pennsylvania; Jonesboro, Arkansas; West 
     Paducah, Kentucky; Pearl, Mississippi, and other places have 
     struck a nerve and sent a shudder of doubt throughout our 
     great country.
       Yet, I know that America's schools are among the safest 
     places to be on a day-to-day basis because of your good work. 
     Ninety percent of our schools are free of serious violent 
     crime. We have millions of young people who are healthy and 
     happy and want to learn.
       I've met them and so have you. There are so many good kids 
     all over America who really are the hope of the future. They 
     are energetic, smart, creative, and they truly seek a moral 
     dimension to their lives.
       But as long as this society continues to glorify violence, 
     continues to make it easy for young people to get guns--and 
     as long as we continue to hide our heads in the sand or fail 
     to reach out when a young person is truly troubled--we will 
     have to confront tragedies like Springfield and Jonesboro.
       So we need to stop and think hard about what we can do to 
     help our children grow up safely and learn to reject 
     violence.
       I am troubled by the fact--and this is something that I 
     have said again and again--that so many young people in 
     America are growing up disconnected. They are growing up 
     almost alone. And then we wonder why some adults fear our own 
     children. Last year a Public Agenda report stated that over 
     60 percent of American adults view young people in the 
     negative.
       This is a rather extraordinary finding but there it is--
     another sign that there is a disconnection here that we need 
     to address. So where do we start? At the turn of the century, 
     the American philosopher, Henry Adams in writing his 
     autobiography, defined what he called the ``Law of 
     acceleration.'' He wondered whether people would have the 
     capacity to keep up with what he called the ``velocity of 
     change'' in the 20th century.
       Here at the end of the century, I have my own concern. I 
     wonder if, in our haste to keep up with the velocity of 
     change, we are forgetting those things that are most 
     essential to our children: giving them that deep, abiding 
     sense of trust, guidance and security that tells them that 
     they are truly loved, cared about and respected.
       In countless conversations, Americans are wondering what is 
     going on with our children. My answer to them is that our 
     children reflect who we are as a people. We seem to have a 
     love affair with violence and it will take a sea change in 
     our culture to move away from this thinking.
       When 6,000 young people are killed every year with a gun, 
     when 5,000 young people commit suicide every year, when over 
     a million young people run away from home every year, when 
     almost a half million young people drop out of school every 
     year, and when hundreds of thousands of young people get into 
     drugs and alcohol and tobacco and just mess up their lives, 
     can we truly say we are a child-centered society, that we are 
     giving all due attention and concern to their upbringing?
       When we see children killing children, can we say that we 
     have listened to them with all due care? Violence is a 
     language, a sound that always captures our attention but 
     always too late. This is why ``connectedness'' is so 
     important.


                     Reconnecting With Our Children

       Last year, the Journal of the American Medical Association 
     published the results of a survey of 90,000 young people 
     concerning high risk behavior that included face-to-face 
     interviews with more than 12,000 teenagers in their homes. 
     This survey was one of the most comprehensive that has ever 
     been done and it went to great lengths to reach young people 
     on sensitive subjects such as drug use, sexuality, violence 
     and suicide, even allowing the young people to key their 
     answers into a laptop computer to protect their 
     confidentiality. The results were remarkable in their 
     simplicity and depth.
       The survey indicated that young people who felt connected 
     to their parents and schools were less likely to engage in 
     high risk behavior. As Doctor Robert Blum, the survey 
     director, stated, ``kids who feel connected to school are 
     more likely to feel connected at home, and kids who perform 
     better in school are the same ones who are told at home that 
     school is important.''
       This is why every school in the nation has to actively 
     engage and encourage parents and do everything possible to 
     mitigate the time crunch of daily life so parents stay 
     connected to their children. We need to urge parents to slow 
     down their lives and as educators we must slow down our lives 
     as well.
       We must commit ourselves to one very basic idea: that every 
     child in America in a school has a positive and caring 
     relationship with at least one adult. This simply has to be 
     the new standard we set for our nation's schools and 
     communities. This is something that Paul Schwarz, our 
     principal-in-residence, talked to you about yesterday.
       Yes, there are innumerable obstacles to reaching this goal. 
     And, yes, many seasoned educators will immediately say that 
     there is no time, that teachers and administrators are 
     already stretched too thin. But the goal of having every 
     child in a school be connected to some caring adult is not 
     unrealistic.
       I have visited mega-schools that have become schools-
     within-schools. I have visited charter schools, career 
     academies, and schools that have created family units within 
     larger schools. I have visited schools that actively involve 
     parents and senior citizens. And I have visited schools in 
     drug-infested neighborhoods where the entire community makes 
     sure that children come and go to school safely.
       The secret of success at all of these schools is the 
     willingness of teachers, parents and the entire community to 
     go to great lengths to make sure that every child and every 
     family feels connected and valued.


                           Congress Must Act

       This is why the many programs that President Clinton has 
     sent to the Congress--from reducing class size to school 
     construction to expanding after-school programs--need to be 
     seen as a direct help to those of you on the front line. 
     Congress needs to stop worrying about politics and start 
     passing legislation that will make a difference in the lives 
     of our children.
       Our prisons are full of high school dropouts who cannot 
     read and that is one reason why funding the America Reads 
     Challenge is so important. Yet, Congress continues to dilly 
     dally and dawdle. And just think about how many young people 
     we might help and get on the right track if they were 
     connected to a young college student mentor as part of our 
     High Hopes program that would link middle schools to 
     colleges. I urge the Congress to act on all of these 
     important pieces of legislation.
       I single out for special attention the President's proposal 
     to fund 1,300 drug and violence prevention coordinators to 
     serve 6,500 of our nation's middle schools. When Congress 
     goes home in October, this piece of legislation--indeed all 
     the pieces of legislation that I have just mentioned--needs 
     to be on the President's desk for his signature.
       And I will tell you why. I visit 60 to 70 schools a year. I 
     see the best schools and the most run down schools and all 
     kinds of schools in between. I see them all. I talk to 
     teachers and principals, the counselors and the parents. I 
     try to be a good listener. I know that when I come for a 
     visit, the school staff wants to tell me two things: what 
     they are accomplishing and what truly worries them.
       As I make my visits, I detect a growing sense of urgency. 
     The message I hear again and again is that schools are being 
     asked to ``detox'' young people from the glorification of 
     violence and an easy acceptance of drugs, and to sensitize 
     children about the value of life itself. Schools are being 
     asked to pick up the pieces.
       Schools are being asked to teach young people basic coping 
     and social skills from anger management to cooperation, and 
     sometimes educators are finding themselves at their wits' 
     end.
       A few days ago, I read a small news item about how a 
     teacher had been attacked by four girls at a school who 
     demanded that the teacher turn on the tasteless ``Jerry 
     Springer Show'' in lieu of a documentary. Have we come to 
     that?
       My friends, we need to recognize that ending the violence 
     and drug abuse is not simply a family nor a school problem. 
     As PTA president Lois Jean White said last week, ``it is 
     America's problem.'' And, I would add, it is every 
     community's problem as well. This is why we cannot let this 
     summer slip by without planning ahead for the next school 
     year. Now is the time to build community support for our 
     nation's schools.
       This is why this speech will be the first in a series of 
     events that I will participate in to suggest some practical 
     and urgent steps we can take to help in your work. To that 
     end, I am announcing a series of action steps that the 
     Administration will begin to take this summer to encourage a 
     public dialogue and to help you make our schools even safer 
     places to learn.


                         Listen to Our Children

       First, the Attorney General and I will meet this summer and 
     during the next school year with young people to talk 
     directly with them regarding violence and drugs. We can't 
     begin to end the violence unless we reach out to our young 
     people, truly listen to their voices, and tune in to what 
     they are really trying to say. And we must make them part of 
     the solution.
       Again and again in the aftermath of the tragedies like 
     Springfield and Jonesboro we are told that other children 
     thought trouble

[[Page E1110]]

     was coming. So we need to stop and listen to our young people 
     and build those levels of trust that allow them to talk to us 
     when they are worried and fearful.


                           Effective programs

       We can't begin to talk about improving the safety of our 
     nation's schools unless we tighten up our own programs to 
     make sure that they are research-based and have met the 
     highest standards. This is why we are putting into place 
     Principles of Effectiveness to re-direct our own Safe and 
     Drug Free School Program.
       We have to do a much better job of making sure that what we 
     are doing is effective. There is a science of prevention and 
     we need to use it. This is why Congress should act with 
     dispatch and approve the President's request to target $125 
     million to communities with strong prevention initiatives.
       We also need to recognize that teaching young people coping 
     and social skills that allow them to turn away from violence 
     and drugs can take many forms. Many of you are familiar with 
     the wonderful work of Dr. James Comer at Yale University, 
     whose program connects schools and communities. Dr. Gil 
     Botvin of Cornell University Medical College has a Life 
     Skills Program that has proved effective. I also know that 
     many schools are using character education, peer mediation, 
     conflict resolution, and the establishment of student run 
     religious clubs as ways to help and encourage young people 
     through turbulent times.


                 Shifting More Resources to Prevention

       Third, we need to rethink and redirect how and where we 
     spend our resources. When it comes to preventing violence, we 
     need to shift some of our resources from the back end to the 
     front end.
       About a month ago, I met with school security chiefs from 
     the 30 major cities. Some of these school chiefs looked liked 
     former football linebackers. Yet their message was anything 
     but punishing. To a person, they spoke about the need to stop 
     school overcrowding, to shift more resources to elementary 
     school, and to hire more counselors.
       They urged me as I urge you today to develop prevention 
     strategies at the elementary school level. As one security 
     chief told me, ``every third grade teacher can tell you which 
     child is already in trouble and headed down the wrong road.'' 
     This is clearly true if they are teaching only 15 to 18 
     children in a class and can give some individual attention to 
     each child.
       This is why I join Attorney General Reno in saying that it 
     is a ``serious mistake'' for both the House and the Senate to 
     be developing juvenile justice legislation that sets aside no 
     real funding for delinquency prevention, for truancy 
     prevention, for after-school programs and for mentoring 
     programs. These are the very programs that you and I know can 
     be so effective in stopping violence from occurring in the 
     first place.


                             Early Warning

       Fourth, the Department of Education and the Department of 
     Justice, working with the National Association of School 
     Psychologists and other experts, will develop a framework to 
     help teachers and principals understand early on when a child 
     is truly troubled and the steps they can take to get help. 
     The early warning guide, which will include important ways to 
     prevent violence and deal with aggressive behavior, will be 
     ready in the early fall.
       Now, we need to be very cautious about the idea of sorting 
     out our children and labeling them. In my opinion, too many 
     young people are already being sorted out in our schools and 
     too often this approach to education has been been harmful to 
     minority youth.
       At the same time, however, we need to recognize that 
     research does exist that can help teachers, principals, and 
     parents understand those early warning signs that define 
     those few young people who are truly troubled. It takes great 
     courage for a teacher or a parent or a preacher or a coach to 
     confront a troubled child. But this is something that we must 
     do in a responsible manner.
       This is why my Department will work with the Surgeon 
     General to explore ways to develop a stronger link between 
     schools and community mental health facilities as well as to 
     increase the number of school counselors and other staff who 
     can reach out to children and families. Many states, 
     including California, are moving in this direction.
       The principal at Thurston High School, in Springfield, 
     Oregon, acknowledged in the aftermath of that tragedy that he 
     had only four counselors for 1,700 students. We simply aren't 
     going to connect with our young people as individuals when 
     the average counselor in an American school is responsible 
     for over 500 children.
       We want to make sure that important support staff in our 
     nation's schools--the social workers, counselors and school 
     psychologists--are not solely focused on testing and 
     evaluation but also are directing their expertise to 
     preventing violence. The 1997 revisions of IDEA will give 
     school psychologists a greater opportunity to actively work 
     with you, the safe and drug-free school coordinators.
       We also need to look outside of the schoolhouse to find new 
     resources and bring them into the school environment. 
     Teachers cannot be policemen, social workers or 
     psychiatrists. Teachers may be the first to know a child well 
     enough to see that the child is troubled, but then they need 
     to know that there is a support team available to them. I 
     want to point out that 5 percent of the Elementary and 
     Secondary Education Act is available for these types of 
     collaborative and coordinate services.


                           Crisis Management

       We also have to realize that the type of tragic incidents 
     such as those in Springfield and Jonesboro can happen any 
     time and at any school. This is why the Department of 
     Education and the Department of Justice will develop a model 
     for ``crisis management'' that can be used by schools to 
     develop their own plans. This may be particularly helpful for 
     smaller school districts.


                          Alternative Schools

       As we reach out to our young people, we must send them a 
     strong and consistent message that they must be held 
     accountable for their actions. They need to understand that 
     there are very real consequences to breaking the rules. This 
     is why we must continue to be tough minded about expelling 
     young people who bring guns and other weapons to school.
       But we simply cannot expel young people into the streets. A 
     child who brings a weapon to school needs to be properly 
     evaluated and a plan of action has to be developed to turn 
     this young person's life around. I remain very concerned by 
     the finding that only 56 percent of the students expelled 
     under the Gun Free Schools Act were placed in alternative 
     settings. This is why the Department of Education will 
     undertake a major new study of alternative schools and 
     examine other ways that will enable us to make sure that 
     these young people in trouble get their lives turned around.


                           Guns and Children

       Finally, a last important point: Unsupervised gun use and 
     children do not mix. I will say that again. Unsupervised gun 
     use and children do not mix. If Charlton Heston and the NRA 
     want to come into the ``mainstream of American political 
     debate'' then they need to stop defining themselves as 
     ``victims of media manipulation'' and help keep our children 
     from becoming the victims of gun violence in our schools, in 
     our homes and in our streets. I challenge the NRA to direct 
     its attention to getting guns out of the hands of 
     unsupervised children. The link between guns in a house and 
     children being injured or killed in an accidental shooting or 
     committing suicide is well established and alarming.
       Last year, at the request of the President and the Attorney 
     General, eight major gun manufacturers agreed to put trigger 
     locks on all new guns now being manufactured. But there are 
     still over 200 million guns in America that need to be locked 
     up as well.
       This is why I ask every adult to get serious about gun 
     safety in America. If you have guns in your house, please 
     take the responsibility for making sure that every gun has a 
     child safety lock on it. It's not enough to say it was a 
     mistake because a gun got left in an unlocked drawer or on 
     the nightstand by the bed and a child got killed. 
     Unsupervised gun use and children--do not mix.
       The action steps that I have just outlined are 
     comprehensive because this is the only way we are going to 
     help our young people. America's young people are resilient. 
     They will have a bright future if we help them turn away from 
     the culture of violence and drugs that this society tolerates 
     all to easily.
       There is another way for America. That is to have a total 
     commitment to reconnecting with America's young people and to 
     help each school become a place of hope, learning and 
     opportunity. When communities come together--parents, senior 
     citizens, faith communities, business leaders and just plain 
     folk--when we rally around our schools and when we reconnect 
     with our children, good things happen.
       I want to end now by telling you about my visit to 
     Jonesboro, Arkansas. The President was in Africa, so he asked 
     the Attorney General and me to represent him at the memorial 
     service. We had the opportunity to visit with the families of 
     the victims and to listen to a community come together in the 
     aftermath of a terrible act of violence.
       One of the most powerful speakers that night--a real 
     heroine to the community--was Karen Curtner, the very fine 
     principal of Westside Middle School. I shall never forget her 
     words.
       She said that our hearts have four physical parts and four 
     emotional parts--sorrow, compassion, forgiveness and hope. 
     She urged us--and these are her words--to start a chain of 
     love that would change the world, one helping hand at a time, 
     whether it's checking on a neighbor, reading an extra bedtime 
     story to a child, or simply saying thank you more often. Her 
     message is my message--a message of reconnection and hope.
       Thank you.

       

                          ____________________