Statement of Senator Carl Levin Back to School

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Friday, September 8, 2000 106th Congress, 2nd Session

Mr. President, all over America, young people are back in schools. A record 53 million students are in our classrooms and teachers across the country are gearing up to prepare them for the new millennium. In many ways, teachers are doing what they always have at the start of a new school year – they are learning names, starting curriculums, passing out text books and coaching athletic teams. There is nothing highly unusual about recent new school years except that teachers are more concerned for their safety than they were in the past.

Over the last few years, the number of high profile school shootings – in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Littleton, Colorado, and Mt. Morris Township, Michigan – have changed Americans' perception of safety in school. On the last day of school in Lake Worth, Florida, a 13 year old boy allegedly shot and killed his language arts teacher with a .25-caliber handgun he brought to school.

Teachers in this country fear what may happen to them in the classroom and for good reason. Listen to this middle school teacher in Michigan, who participated in a study conducted by Dr. Ron Astor, an assistant professor of social work and education at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The teacher said:

"A lot of us are afraid. You come in the morning and you're just afraid to even go to work. You're just so stressed out, because you're all tensed up, you can't feel happy and teach like you want to because you've got to spend all of your time trying to discipline. You're scared somebody's going to walk in. We keep our doors locked. We have to keep our doors locked." Middle school teacher. (Meyer, Astor and Behre, 2000). Teachers, students and staff are fearful of the presence of firearms in school and those of us who feel strongly about education and school safety feel we must do something to ease their fears. During the last few years, we have continually tried to close the loopholes in our laws that give young people access to firearms. In May of 1999, the Senate passed the juvenile justice bill with common sense amendments that would have strengthened our gun laws. After the House passed its version of the bill, the legislation went to a conference committee where Senators and Representatives were supposed to work out the differences between their two versions of the bill. Unfortunately, that conference committee has met only once and that was more than a year ago.

In the United States, another ten young people are killed by firearms each day. Congress must pass sensible gun laws and help keep our schools safe.