[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 35 (Monday, August 31, 1998)]
[Pages 1655-1660]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Announcing Safe Schools and Police Corps Initiatives in 
Worcester, Massachusetts

August 27, 1998

    Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, first let me thank you for your 
remarkable and warm welcome. I'm glad to be here in Worcester, the 
heartbeat of Massachusetts for 150 years now, and in this grand hall 
where so many great Americans have spoken, from Frederick Douglas to 
Susan B. Anthony to Henry David Thoreau. I'm honored to share this stage 
with Kathleen Bisson, and I thank her for her commitment to teaching our 
children and for keeping them safe, and with Officer Michael Jones, who 
moved us all with how he responded to his personal tragedy.
    Mr. Mayor, I thought you gave a great talk. When he was up here kind 
of moving around, doing his shtick, I said--I was amazed. Kathleen said, 
``You know, he ought to be in Hollywood. You should see the rap act he 
does for the school kids.'' [Laughter] So I thank you.
    Chief Gardella, I cannot thank you enough for what you said, and I 
appreciate more than you will ever know the impact that we have had the 
opportunity to have through the community policing and the other law 
enforcement programs.
    I thank Scott Harshbarger, who has been a friend of mine for a long 
time, and who has, I can tell you from my personal experience not only 
as President but even before when I was Governor, always been on the 
forefront of law enforcement reforms that would give our children a 
safer future.
    I thank Congressman McGovern who has worked in both--the areas we 
celebrate

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today and in so many other ways. It's interesting to see a man who 
both--knows what he's doing down to the tiniest detail about how 
Congress works and how the committees work and how the procedures work. 
And I think Congressman Moakley's tutelage had something to do with that 
before he showed up. But it's interesting to see someone who has that 
feel for the mechanics and also is plainly so connected at an emotional, 
human level to the people in his district and so passionately cares 
about it and was able to convey that to all of us today through the 
wonderful metaphor of his wife and young child--and if you want to cry, 
go right ahead. [Laughter]
    Let me also thank Congressman Markey, who is here, and Congressman 
Neal for coming out to the airport to meet me. I thank Senator Kerry, 
who has long been one of the leaders in law enforcement issues in the 
Congress, for his involvement in both these issues. And I thank Senator 
Kennedy for making sure that even though this is the end of a long 
program, none of us could possibly go to sleep. [Laughter] I always 
marvel at his continuing energy and commitment and dedication. And some 
days when I get tired and weary, I think, he's been doing this longer 
than I have, and he never gets tired or weary. And that's a good thing.
    Let me say--I have a few brief things to add to what has been said 
about the two issues we came here to discuss today. But because this is 
my only opportunity to speak with you and, through you, to the American 
people, I want to say a couple of things about Hurricane Bonnie and the 
havoc it's wreaked in North Carolina over the last day, and the flooding 
caused in Texas by Tropical Storm Charley.
    I know that all of our hearts go out to the families affected by 
these storms. Yesterday I declared a disaster in Texas because of the 
flooding, and today there's a disaster declaration that has just been 
issued for North Carolina. That makes Federal funds available 
immediately to people who have been harmed in both places.
    Thankfully, the winds are dying down in North Carolina. Hopefully, 
the floods soon will recede in Texas. In both cases, FEMA, our Federal 
Emergency Management Agency, is working with State and local agencies to 
assess the damage and to stay there for as long as it takes to help the 
people rebuild.
    While we're here today, Vice President and Mrs. Gore and Secretary 
of Education Dick Riley are in California talking about the same things, 
our common commitment to make our streets and our schools safe for 
families and children.
    This is, as Senator Kennedy noted, a time of great prosperity for 
our people. We have the lowest unemployment in 28 years, the smallest 
percentage of people on welfare in 29 years, about to realize the first 
balanced budget and surplus in 29 years, and we learned not very long 
ago that homeownership is at its highest rate in American history. And 
this has occurred at a time when we have reduced the Government to the 
smallest size it has had since John Kennedy was the President of the 
United States.
    I come here, as I have gone across this country, to say to my fellow 
Americans, this is not a time to celebrate but to be grateful. It is not 
a time to rest on our laurels but to use the confidence, the resources, 
and the understanding we have acquired for the last 6 years to face the 
long-term challenges of this country, for the world is changing very 
quickly, full of new challenges.
    Senator Kennedy mentioned one of them, the problem of terrorism, 
which has become a bigger problem for us as we become more open and as 
information and money and technology can move around the world so 
quickly, as people themselves can move across borders so quickly. These 
multinational problems like terrorism or even the global spread of 
disease or shared environmental problems are things that visionaries 
must think about and take steps now to prepare for.
    The world will never be free of problems. And we know that the world 
is changing fast, which means that if we wish to maintain our present 
level of success, we must keep up. We cannot afford to relax. We must 
become more rigorous. And we must--I say again-- use the newfound 
confidence of America to think more boldly, not less boldly, and to act 
more boldly, not less boldly, for our children's future.

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    There is critical business ahead of us, business that we will take 
up as soon as Congress comes back to work. One of the Members who spoke 
before me mentioned it, but we want to make sure--I think Congressman 
McGovern did--we want to make sure that we have saved the Social 
Security system for the 21st century before a penny of that surplus is 
touched. We think it is important.
    We want to help the teachers like Kate Bisson, not only with school 
violence but with the tools necessary to move our children forward. I 
have an education agenda before the Congress that would provide funds in 
the balanced budget for school construction, to help repair and rebuild 
and build new buildings so that children aren't in substandard 
conditions. We have children going to school in some cities in America 
today in buildings that are 65, 70, 80 years old, where the windows are 
broken, where they go in--where whole floors are closed down. What kind 
of signal does that send to children about their importance?
    In other parts of our country we have children going to school in 
house trailers because the school districts are growing so fast and 
there's no way the people can afford to keep up with it. I was in a 
small school district in Florida recently where there were 17 trailers 
outside the main school building. This is important.
    We have a program to help our school districts hire 100,000 teachers 
in the early grades so we can get down to an average class size of 18. 
It is the single most significant thing that the research shows, over 
more than a decade now, that will guarantee that children will get off 
to a good start in school.
    We're trying to hook up all our classrooms to the Internet. We're 
trying to support the establishment of voluntary national standards. We 
are trying, in short, to make sure we can say to our children: No matter 
where you grow up or what your racial or ethnic or income background is, 
you have access to the finest system of elementary and secondary 
education in the world. That's a big part of our agenda.
    We have a huge health care agenda, and it begins with the Patients' 
Bill of Rights. With 160 million people in managed care operations, 
people ought to have a right, whatever their health care plan, to see a 
specialist if their doctor recommends it, to have emergency room care 
where it's needed if they have an accident, to have their medical 
records kept private, to be able to appeal adverse decisions. These 
things are important.
    And so I say to you, we need your help. There's going to be a big 
debate on campaign finance reform when we get back in--the Shays-Meehan 
amends bill, that is cosponsored by Congressman Meehan from 
Massachusetts, is going to be in a version before the United States 
Senate. And our people are going to work hard to pass it. There will be 
major environmental debates when we get back. And these things are 
important.
    So I say to you, the energy that brought you here today, the concern 
you have for these issues, you need to bring it back to every single 
major challenge this country faces. If I had told you 6 years ago that 
in 6 years we would have 16 million new jobs and all these other things, 
you would have said, ``There's another politician running for office.'' 
It happened not by accident but because of the hard work and the vision 
and the citizen spirit of the American people and the disciplined 
efforts that we have all made. And we must not forget that now that 
times are good.
    We also can't forget that unless we make our communities, our 
schools, and our children safe, prosperity doesn't mean very much. That 
is why this is at the core of what we have tried to do.
    I told this story many times, but I want you to let me share it one 
more time. Right before the New Hampshire primary in 1992, a period when 
I was dropping like a rock in the polls--I have some experience with 
that--I was going through a kitchen in New York City. And I was walking 
to one of these banquets, one of these fundraising banquets. I didn't 
have any idea whether it would be three people or 300 or 700 when I got 
out the door. I was just walking through the kitchen to get there.
    And a waiter came up to me, in this nice hotel in New York. And I 
wasn't very well-known then. I was the Governor of Arkansas. I just 
started running in New Hampshire. And this man came up to me and stopped 
me, and he said, ``Mr. Governor, I want to

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talk to you.'' He said, ``My 10-year-old boy here in New York,'' he 
said, ``he studies these elections, and he reads up on the candidates, 
and he says I should vote for you.'' He said, ``Now, if I vote for you, 
I want you to do something for me.'' I said, ``Well, what is it?'' I 
couldn't imagine what this man who was a waiter in a hotel in New York 
wanted me to do for him. He said, ``Well, the place where we came from 
in the old country, we were much poorer, but at least we were free.'' He 
said, ``Here I make more money, but we're not free. When my boy goes 
across our apartment house, across the street to play in the city park, 
I have to go with him because I'm afraid for his safety. Our school is 
only a couple of blocks from our apartment, but I have to walk him 
because I'm afraid for his safety. So if I do what my boy wants and I 
vote for you, would you make my boy free?'' I will never forget that as 
long as I live.
    The comprehensive approach we followed on crime is basically what, 
as Senator Kerry said and he certainly supported it very strongly, is 
just what the local law enforcement people and the local community 
leaders taught us to do: Be smart about prevention; be smart about 
giving kids something to say yes to; be smart about law enforcement 
patterns; be smart about punishment. Crime rates are now at a 25-year 
low, juvenile crime is finally coming down. People do think, I think, 
that they are more free.
    We have worked hard especially in the schools with the Safe and 
Drug-Free Schools program. We've supported communities in schools that 
offer antitruancy, curfew, school uniforms, and dress code policies. We 
have strictly enforced zero tolerance for guns. Last year alone, over 
6,000 students with guns were disarmed and sent home. This year, 
recently, a new report showed that the overwhelming majority of our 
schools are, in fact, safe. But it's not enough, as we know from the 
recent rash of killings in our schools all over the country.
    When children in inner-city schools have to walk through metal 
detectors, when high schools in small towns like Jonesboro, Arkansas, in 
my home State, or Springfield, Oregon, are torn apart by disturbed 
children with deadly weapons, when gang violence still ravages 
communities large and small, we have to do more.
    This fall, we are going to hold the first-ever White House 
Conference on School Safety, and today we're taking two steps that I 
think will make our schools safer and our communities stronger. First, 
offering a guide to help prevent school violence before it starts and, 
second, expanding the remarkable Police Corps program to Massachusetts 
and elsewhere.
    Let me show you what this early warning guide is all about. Earlier 
this year, in the aftermath of the tragedy of Springfield, Oregon, I 
actually went there to Springfield, and I spent an extended period of 
time in the school library, going from table to table to table, meeting 
with the families of the victims, children who had been killed and a 
much larger number of children who had been wounded. I talked to the 
school officials. I asked them what they knew about the young man who 
was apparently involved in this incident. I asked them how they dealt 
with kids who were in trouble; how did they know when children were in 
trouble. And we began to ask other people, and we concluded that not 
everybody knew everything they needed to know in clear, practical terms 
about how to spot the danger signals early and then what to do about 
them.
    So I asked Secretary Riley and Attorney General Reno to develop the 
safe school guides for educators, for parents, for fellow students, to 
help them recognize and then respond to early warning signs. This is the 
guide. It says, ``Early Warning Timely Response: A Guide to Safe 
Schools.'' Now, over the next few weeks, every single school in America 
will get a copy of this in time for the start of the new school year. It 
will help schools to recognize a troubled or potentially violent young 
person. It outlines steps to intervene early before it's too late.
    As Secretary Riley and General Reno say in their introduction, the 
guide should never be used to stigmatize or label young people in 
distress. Instead, it should be used as a vital part of overall school 
violence prevention efforts that have to include, as others have said 
before and as your mayor said

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about Worcester, every teacher, every parent, and every young person. 
This guide can make a difference in the lives of our children.
    The Police Corps can also make a difference. It embodies the same 
commitment to every person and the commitment to public service that was 
embodied in the life service of John and Robert Kennedy.
    I first heard about the Police Corps from Adam Wolinsky, who has 
previously been eulogized by Senators Kerry and Kennedy, when I was the 
Governor of Arkansas. I was so impressed by this program and by Adam's 
commitment to it, that I became a charter member of the National 
Committee for the Police Corps on the spot. Adam and his wife, Jane, are 
here and I know they've already been introduced, but I want you to know 
that we would not be here talking about this today were it not for this 
one American citizen and his harboring a dream for years and years and 
years until it became real in the lives of people. And I thank him for 
it.
    When I was Governor, I signed a bill to create a Police Corps 
scholarship program in our home State. And when I became President, 
thanks to the efforts of Senator Kennedy, Senator Kerry, and others, 
especially of Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend of Maryland 
and Adam, we put the Police Corps in the 1994 crime bill.
    We've already heard that, much in the way that ROTC functions, this 
remarkable program gives talented young people college scholarships in 
return for their commitment to serve as police officers in their 
communities. I should mention, as was pointed out to me here today 
before I came here, that a preference is given to one group only, the 
children of police officers killed in the line of duty. And I understand 
that the State police here has already identified several young people 
who are the children of police officers who have died in the line of 
service in Massachusetts who, themselves, want to go into law 
enforcement and would be eligible to get these scholarships.
    In 17 States around the country, that's what the Police Corps is 
already doing, creating a new generation of police officers trained to 
stand on the front lines and listen on the front porches, to work in 
distressed communities and be role models for young people.
    Now, the young members of the Police Corps who are here with us 
today--and I think there are some, aren't there? Are there any Police 
Corps members here today? What? Stand up. [Applause] Thank you. We have 
invested in their honor, their courage, their commitment to community 
and country. We need more like them. That is why the announcement we 
make today expanding the Police Corps to 6 more States, including 
Massachusetts, awarding scholarships to more than 300 dedicated young 
people, is a good thing for the United States.
    This Police Corps is an incredible example of what we can do when we 
put progress ahead of partisanship, people ahead of politics, the future 
of our children ahead of all else. As the mayor said in referring to the 
First Lady, it does take a village. But both of us note, as we travel 
around the country--and Hillary mentioned to me just about a week ago 
when she came back from another stop--it is astonishing--it is 
astonishing how many places we go will there be somebody in the 
receiving line who will thank us for the community police officers in 
their community, large and small.
    Robert Kennedy once said, ``The fight against crime is, in the last 
analysis, a fight to preserve that quality of community which is at the 
root of our greatness, a fight to preserve confidence in ourselves and 
in our fellow citizens, a battle for the quality of our lives.'' With 
these actions, we move a step closer to winning that battle for all our 
people and to building that bridge toward a strong America in the 21st 
century.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.
      

Note: The President spoke at 12 p.m. at Mechanics Hall. In his remarks, 
he referred to Kathleen Bisson, teacher, Burncoat Middle School, who 
introduced the President; Officer Michael D. Jones, Baltimore City, MD, 
police department; Mayor Raymond V. Mariano of Worcester; Worcester 
Chief of Police Edward P. Gardella; Massachusetts Attorney General Scott 
Harshbarger; and Adam Wolinsky, founder, Police Corps.

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