    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [February 24, 1996]
    [Pages 324-325]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    February 24, 1996

        Good morning. This morning I want to talk with you about what we can
    do to break the hold of gangs and violence in our schools and what we
    can do to create an atmosphere in our schools that promotes discipline
    and order and learning.
        Today I'm visiting Long Beach, California, a community that has
    helped to restore order to its schools by requiring elementary and
    middle school students to wear uniforms. I believe that if parents and
    school officials decide to take this step, the rest of us should support
    them. Let me tell you why.
        As I said in my State of the Union Address, our Nation is in a
    moment of great possibility, a time when more of our people will be able
    to live out their dreams than ever before, a time of fabulous
    opportunity. But we all know it's also a time of uncertainty, a time
    when we face economic challenges, educational challenges, challenges to
    our family, to our environment, to the safety of our streets.
        We will master this moment only if we meet those challenges
    together. When we are divided, we defeat ourselves; but when Americans
    are together, we are never defeated. That's how we have to meet all the
    major challenges facing our Nation: strengthening our families; building
    economic security for every working family; fighting crime and drugs and
    gangs; protecting our environment; maintaining our leadership for peace
    and freedom in the world; continuing to reform and reinvent our
    Government so that it is smaller and less bureaucratic but still strong
    enough to serve the American people better.
        And none of these goals can be achieved unless we meet our seventh
    challenge, to give our children--all our children--a good, world-class
    education. And we know that our children cannot learn in schools where
    weapons, gang violence, and drugs threaten their safety or where plain
    unruliness and disorder and lack of discipline make learning impossible.
    Most of our schools are safe, but no parent who walks a child to the bus
    stop and waves goodbye in the morning should ever have to wonder if that
    child will return home safely when the last bell rings.
        Our administration has worked hard to make our schools safer,
    getting parents more involved in schools, keeping guns out, teaching
    that drugs are wrong, supporting random drug testing of student-
    athletes, letting communities know that schools need not be religion-
    free zones. I have challenged our schools to teach values and
    citizenship through character education. And if a juvenile kills or
    maims as an adult, he should be prosecuted as an adult.
        But we must do more, and local communities must lead the way. I
    believe we should give strong support to school districts that decide to
    require young students to wear school uniforms. We've all seen the
    tragic headlines screaming of the death of a teenager who was

    [[Page 325]]

    killed for a pair of sneakers or jewelry or a designer jacket. In
    Detroit, a 15-year-old boy was shot for his $86 basketball shoes. In
    Fort Lauderdale, a 15-year-old student was robbed of his jewelry. Just
    this past December in Oxon Hill, Maryland, a 17-year-old honor student
    was killed at a bus stop, caught in the crossfire during the robbery of
    another student's designer jacket.
        School uniforms are one step that may be able to help break this
    cycle of violence, truancy, and disorder by helping young students to
    understand that what really counts is what kind of people they are,
    what's on the inside, to remember that what they're doing at school is
    working, not showing off their own clothes or envying another student's
    clothes.
        Two years ago Long Beach, California, was the first school district
    in our Nation to require elementary and middle school students to wear
    uniforms to class. So far, the results have been encouraging. In the
    first year of school uniforms, both fights between students and students
    bringing guns to school were cut in half. Overall crime in the schools
    was cut by more than a third. Just as encouraging was the way Long Beach
    pulled together: the board of education voting, starting a uniform
    program; parents actively supporting it; businesses and churches and
    civic organizations helping to buy uniforms for the students who can't
    afford them; and students using their new freedom from fear and freedom
    from insecurity and freedom from envy to learn.
        Aziza Walker, a fourth-grader from Long Beach, wrote me this letter.
    ``It is easier to pick out what I want to wear. It's more convenient for
    my mom, so she won't have to wash so many colors. It also helps me when
    I walk home with my cousin or by myself. So I won't get shot, beaten, or
    robbed by a gang or just by some maniac on the street.''
        We have a basic, old-fashioned bottom line. We must get violence out
    of our schools, and we must put discipline and learning back in our
    schools. If it means teenagers will stop killing each other over
    designer jackets, then our public schools should be able to require
    their students to wear school uniforms. If it means that the schoolrooms
    will be more orderly, more disciplined, and that our young people will
    learn to evaluate themselves by what they are on the inside instead of
    what they're wearing on the outside, then our public schools should be
    able to require their students to wear school uniforms.
        Let me be clear: Washington will not tell our schools what to do. We
    know the best teacher for a child is a loving parent, and the decision
    whether to require uniforms should be made by parents, by teachers, by
    local schools. But if they want to do it, we want to help them
    understand how it can be done. That's why today I signed a directive
    instructing the Secretary of Education to distribute a new manual on
    school uniforms to every school district in the Nation. Rather than
    telling schools what to do, we are providing a roadmap for setting up
    the school uniform policy for schools who choose to start one.
        Every one of us has an obligation to work together, to give our
    children freedom from fear and the freedom to learn. If we act together,
    we can give them the chance to make the most of their young lives and to
    build better futures.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 8:15 p.m. on February 23 at the
    Sheraton Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, CA, for broadcast at 10:06 a.m.
    on February 24.