[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.