[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 14 (Monday, April 12, 1999)]
[Pages 590-591]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Memorandum on Hate Crimes in Schools and College Campuses

April 6, 1999

Memorandum for the Attorney General, the Secretary of Education

Subject: Annual Reports on Hate Crimes in Schools and College Campuses

    One of the greatest challenges facing our Nation is to ensure that 
all Americans share the same opportunities, regardless of their race, 
color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, or 
disability.
    To meet this challenge, we must ensure that our Nation's laws fully 
protect all its citizens. That is why I have called on the Congress to 
pass legislation to strengthen existing Federal hate crimes laws by 
removing needless barriers to prosecuting violent crimes based on race, 
color, religion, or national origin and expanding the law to cover acts 
of violence committed because of a person's sexual orientation, gender, 
or disability. This legislation will assist us in responding to the kind 
of heinous and cowardly hate crimes we have witnessed in the last year.
    At the same time, we must learn more about the prevalence of hate 
crimes and other acts of intolerance--especially among our young people, 
whose attitudes and experiences will shape the America of the 21st 
century. In order to better understand the problem of hate crimes and 
intolerance among young people, I direct the Attorney General and the 
Secretary of Education to include in their annual report card on school 
safety a section on hate crimes among young people, covering crimes 
committed both during and after school. In addition, I direct the 
Secretary of Education, with appropriate assistance from the Attorney 
General, to collect data on hate crimes and bias on college campuses for 
periodic publication.
    These steps will help us better understand the problems of bigotry 
we face among young people, and to improve the ways we respond

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to these problems, through improved curricula, after-school youth 
programs, and similar measures. At the same time, our proposed 
legislation will help to ensure that when hate crimes do occur, they are 
prosecuted as effectively as possible. I appreciate your commitment to 
improving the enforcement of this Nation's laws and to fighting bigotry 
among young people and others, and I look forward to your continuing 
leadership in these areas.
                                            William J. Clinton