[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 25964]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         VOICES AGAINST VIOLENCE ADDRESS ISSUES INVOLVING YOUTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Etheridge) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, like my colleague who preceded me to the 
podium here this evening, I had the opportunity this morning to speak 
to 180 of the chaperons who were here with the over 400 students who 
are here today and tomorrow meeting on and talking about and using 
their voice, Voices Against Violence, so that those of us who serve in 
these halls might hear them.
  Today and tomorrow, these youngsters from all across this country are 
participating in this conference and they are going to address the 
issues involved in youth violence.

                              {time}  1945

  As most of my colleagues know, before I came to this body, I was 
privileged to serve for 8 years as State superintendent in North 
Carolina. I certainly have some understanding of what a difference 
these young people and their adult chaperones can make.
  Parents involved and adults involved with children make all the 
difference in the world because they really are on the frontline of the 
common-sense solutions that we are searching here and across the 
country.
  Our children's safety ought not to be about partisan politics. It 
ought not to even be about differences. It really ought to be what we 
can do jointly together in Congress at the State and local level, in 
the private sector, and in our communities to make our schools the 
safest place that our children attend.
  We need to support early intervention and prevention. There is no 
question about that. We need to put resources there. We have to 
recognize and acknowledge and work toward parents as the first 
teachers. There is no question about that. But a lot of parents do not 
know how to be good teachers, and we need to help them. We need to do 
better jobs of that.
  Certainly, we need to fund Head Start and Smart Start, make sure that 
children have the kind of care and services that they need to grow up 
to be productive and good citizens. It will save a lot of money later 
on and make a big difference when these young people get to be 
teenagers and adults.
  We heard today about character education. It is the moral lens, in my 
opinion, that we look at right and wrong. In North Carolina, we call it 
North Carolina values, because we instituted character education a 
number of years ago. I will talk about that a little more in a minute.
  Certainly where we need them, we need resource officers in our 
schools for the protection to make sure they are safe; and that means 
we ought to have zero tolerance for violence, and it must be enforced.
  But I want to commend the young people in my district who are 
participating in these conferences these 2 days. Anna Tomaskovic-Devey 
of Garner is a student at Enloe High School in Raleigh, North Carolina. 
She is doing an excellent job. I had a chance to talk with her. She is 
participating in the conference. Sunay Shah, a Southeast Raleigh High 
School junior is making a contribution, and he will take this back to 
his community, as will George Moore, Jr. of Coats, a Triton High School 
senior in Dunn.
  I want to thank, this evening, the chaperone, Pam Callahan. She also 
serves as SDA advisor to the school and has been in involved in the 
school life for many years.
  Finally, let me just read a couple of the recommendations that these 
chaperones have made from across the country. Florence Wethe from 
Walnut Creek, California, she said, ``We need to teach core values. It 
must be taught to our young people in schools. They need to know the 
difference between right and wrong. Many times, they do not have that, 
and right and wrong, such as respect, responsibility, decision making, 
diversity, sharing, and appreciating the differences that we share.'' I 
think she is absolutely right.
  Here is another one from Annabelle Blackstone from St. Louis, 
Missouri. She says, ``Invest your money in our children. Their schools, 
their teachers, their communities. They are angry. They are miserable 
because they believe adults do not really care anymore.''
  What Annabelle is saying is, where we put our resources is what we 
value. If we really value our children, we need to put our resources 
there.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, I will read one last card Kim Minor of 
Pennsylvania. ``Class sizes matter in all grades. Teenagers need to 
know and be heard by teachers as much as first graders.'' Kim, you are 
absolutely right.

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