[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 17491-17492]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                             BACK TO SCHOOL

 Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, all over America, young people are 
back in schools. A record 53 million students

[[Page 17492]]

are in our classrooms and teachers across the country are gearing up to 
prepare them for the new millennium. In many ways, teachers are doing 
what they always have at the start of a new school year--they are 
learning names, starting curriculums, passing out text books and 
coaching athletic teams. There is nothing highly unusual about recent 
new school years except that teachers are more concerned for their 
safety than they were in the past.
  Over the last few years, the number of high profile school 
shootings--in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Littleton, Colorado, and Mt. Morris 
Township, Michigan--have changed Americans' perception of safety in 
school. On the last day of school in Lake Worth, Florida, a 13 year old 
boy allegedly shot and killed his language arts teacher with a .25-
caliber handgun he brought to school.
  Teachers in this country fear what may happen to them in the 
classroom and for good reason. Listen to this middle school teacher in 
Michigan, who participated in a study conducted by Dr. Ron Astor, an 
assistant professor of social work and education at the University of 
Michigan in Ann Arbor. The teacher said:
  ``A lot of us are afraid. You come in the morning and you're just 
afraid to even go to work. You're just so stressed out, because you're 
all tensed up, you can't feel happy and teach like you want to because 
you've got to spend all of your time trying to discipline. You're 
scared somebody's going to walk in. We keep our doors locked. We have 
to keep our doors locked.'' Middle school teacher. (Meyer, Astor & 
Behre, 2000).
  Teachers, students, and staff are fearful of the presence of firearms 
in school and those of us who feel strongly about education and school 
safety feel we must do something to ease their fears. During the last 
few years, we have continually tried to close the loopholes in our laws 
that give young people access to firearms. In May of 1999, the Senate 
passed the juvenile justice bill with common sense amendments that 
would have strengthened our gun laws. After the House passed its 
version of the bill, the legislation went to a conference committee 
where Senators and Representatives were supposed to work out the 
differences between their two versions of the bill. Unfortunately, that 
conference committee has met only once and that was more than a year 
ago.
  In the United States, another ten young people are killed by firearms 
each day. Congress must pass sensible gun laws and help keep our 
schools safe.

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