[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 37 (Monday, September 20, 1999)]
[Pages 1725-1726]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

September 11, 1999

    Good morning. All across America the new school year is now underway 
with over 53 million children, the largest and most diverse group ever 
enrolled. It's a time of hope and excitement for students, parents, and 
teachers alike. But in many communities, it's also a time of concern--
concern that when our children walk through the schoolhouse door they 
won't be safe from the threat of violence.
    We know the vast majority of our schools are safe, but we can't 
forget the communities in cities, suburbs, and rural areas that do have 
a serious problem with school violence. And we can't forget that even 
one incident of school violence is one too many.
    The tragic shootings of the past 2 years were a wakeup call, an 
urgent reminder that to protect our children from violence, we need 
nothing less than a national campaign that draws on all our resources 
and demands all our commitment, with all of us taking responsibility.
    For more than 6 years now, our administration has worked hard to do 
our part. We've strengthened and expanded our safe and drug-free schools 
program, which helps school districts provide counseling, after-school 
activities, and violence mediation among other things. We enacted a 
national zero tolerance policy for guns in schools, helping to expel 
4,000 students for carrying guns to school last year alone. We announced 
a grassroots national campaign against youth violence, and we fought 
hard to keep guns out of the hands of children and criminals. At the 
first-ever White House School Safety Conference, and after the tragedy 
in Littleton at a White House strategy session on youth violence, we 
launched new actions--2,000 more school resource officers in our 
schools, an antiviolence media campaign you may have already seen on 
television, and a new plan to help schools respond to deadly violence. 
These steps have made our schools safer, more disciplined, better 
learning environments. But when it comes to protecting our children, we 
must do more.

[[Page 1726]]

    We know the best solutions to the problem of youth violence come 
when everyone at the local level works together--students, parents, 
teachers, police officers, local judges, counselors, religious and 
community leaders. That's why I asked the Departments of Education, 
Justice, and Health and Human Services to develop the Safe Schools/
Healthy Schools initiative to help communities coordinate their efforts 
to identify troubled young people, prevent them from acting violently, 
and respond when violence does occur.
    As part of this new program, we launched a national competition to 
find and fund the best ideas to reduce youth violence. Hundreds of 
communities applied. Today I'm pleased to announce that 54 communities 
with the best plans will receive more than $100 million in safe schools 
grants. These communities will use the funds in a variety of ways proven 
to reduce youth violence--from hiring more school resource officers to 
improving mental health services, to modernizing school security 
systems, to expanding after-school and mentoring programs. Best of all, 
they engage the entire community to meet the challenge of building safer 
schools.
    I'm particularly glad that two of these grants are going to 
communities that have suffered much--one to Jonesboro, Arkansas, in my 
home State, whose plan includes in-home counseling for at-risk families; 
and one to Springfield, Oregon, whose plan will build on the strong 
partnership the schools developed with law enforcement after the tragic 
shooting there last year.
    In the face of terrible loss, the good people of these towns have 
pulled together to protect their children, and they're an inspiration 
for all of us. All over America, people are doing their part to fight 
youth violence. But there are some things only Congress can do. I have 
called repeatedly on Congress to pass a commonsense juvenile crime bill 
to prevent youth violence and keep guns out of the wrong hands, with 
measures that include provisions to require child safety locks on guns, 
to ban the import of large-ammunition clips, and to really close the gun 
show loophole.
    For months now, the American people have waited for Congress to act. 
Meanwhile, our children have returned to school in ever greater numbers. 
So I say again, it shouldn't take another tragedy to make this a 
priority. It's time for Congress to put politics aside and send me a 
bill that puts our children's safety first. Let's make this school year 
the safest yet.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 7:28 p.m. on September 9 in the Oval 
Office at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on September 11. 
The transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary 
on September 10 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast.