    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [March 28, 1998]
    [Page 458]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 458]]

    The President's Radio Address
    March 28, 1998

        Good morning. In the storefronts and shop windows of Jonesboro,
    Arkansas, there are signs that read, ``Our hearts are with Westside
    Middle School.'' Even though Hillary and I are far away from our home
    State, our hearts, too, are with Westside and with the grieving families
    whose loved ones were killed or injured in that tragic incident just 4
    days ago.
        This is the third time in recent months that a quiet town, and our
    Nation, have been shaken by the awful specter of students being killed
    by other young people at schools. We join the families of Jonesboro and
    all America in mourning this terrible loss of young life, life so full
    of promise and hope so cruelly cut short.
        We mourn the loss of Natalie Brooks, of
    Paige Ann Herring, of Stephanie
    Johnson, of Britthney Varner, and of a heroic teacher, Shannon Wright,
    who sacrificed her own life to save a child.
    These five names will be etched in our memories forever and linked
    forever with the names of Nicole Hadley, Jessica James, and Kayce Steger
    of Paducah, Kentucky, and Lydia Kay Dew and Christina Mennefee of Pearl,
    Mississippi. Our thoughts and our prayers are with all their families
    today.
        We do not understand what drives children, whether in small towns or
    big cities, to pick up guns and take the lives of others. We may never
    make sense of the senseless, but we have to try. We have seen a
    community come together in grief and compassion for one another and in
    the determination that terrible acts like these must no longer threaten
    our Nation's children.
        Parents across America should welcome the news reported just this
    month by Attorney General Reno and Education
    Secretary Riley that the vast majority of
    our schools are safe and free of violent crime. We've worked hard to
    make our schools places of learning, not fear, places where children can
    worry about math and science, not guns, drugs, and gangs. But when a
    terrible tragedy like this occurs, it reminds us there is work yet to be
    done.
        I have directed Attorney General Reno to
    bring together experts on school violence to analyze these incidents to
    determine what they have in common and whether there are further steps
    we can take to reduce the likelihood of something so terrible recurring.
        Already we've seen the remarkable difference community policing has
    made in our Nation's streets. Now we have to apply that same energy and
    resolve to our schools to make them safer places for children to learn,
    play, and grow. At school there must be full compliance with our policy
    of zero tolerance toward guns, and at home there should be no easy
    access to weapons that kill.
        Protecting our children from school violence is more than a matter
    of law or policy; at heart, it is a matter of basic values, of
    conscience and community. We must teach our children to respect others.
    We must instill in them a deep, abiding sense of right and wrong. And to
    children who are troubled, angry, or alone, we must extend a hand before
    they destroy the lives of others and destroy their own in the process.
        We have to understand that young children may not fully appreciate
    the consequences of actions that are destructive but may be able to be
    romanticized at a twisted moment. And we have to make sure that they
    don't fall into that trap.
        Three towns: Jonesboro, Pearl, Paducah--too many precious lives
    lost. The white ribbons that flutter today in my home State of Arkansas
    are a poignant and powerful challenge to all of us, a challenge to come
    together for the sake of our children and for the future of our Nation.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at approximately 5:10 p.m. on March 27 in
    the library at the Cape Grace Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa, for
    broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on March 28.