Last week, as the nation's soul searching about school violence in Littleton and Conyers continued, I was able to share with my House colleagues an important lesson taught to me by the Principal, teachers, parents and students at Baltimore's Walbrook High School.

On May 25th, former N.C. Superintendent of Public Instruction (and now Congressman) Bob Etheridge and I were leading a discussion on the floor of the House about successful educational programs. When our discussion focused on measures which will restore safety to our schools, I shared the lessons of Baltimore's Walbrook High School.

Students are learning in safety at Walbrook, and America can re-learn something important there as well.

Like the rest of America's youth, Walbrook students are all too familiar with violence. Neither they nor I have forgotten Tyrone Carroll - a talented Walbrook honor student and athlete who, innocently, was gunned down on Baltimore's streets.

Like a growing number of other American schools, Walbrook responded for a time with the metal detectors which have transformed our school buildings into garrisons. When I would address Walbrook's graduating seniors and acknowledge their achievements, I could not forget their classmates who were not present.

The joy of those graduations would be lessened by sorrow for too many young people lost to the very streets which had claimed Tyrone Carroll's life.

I have not forgotten Tyrone Carroll and the other children this country has sacrificed to its fascination with guns. I am determined to limit this threat to our children through my work in the Congress.

Something more is required, however, if we are to restore safety to our schools, and that is where Dr. Andrey Bundley and the young people at Walbrook High School can teach America.

Baltimore's school leadership made a decision to restore Walbrook as a safe community of learning. With the help of Police Commissioner Thomas Frazier, Fire Chief Herman Williams and other community leaders, Walbrook students were given that better opportunity to learn. Smaller career academies oriented toward the students' future work in public safety, fire protection, emergency services, the maritime trades and business were created.

A dynamic young Principal, Dr. Andrey Bundley, accepted the challenge of leading the new Walbrook High School Uniform Services Academy. While other schools in urban and suburban America were installing metal detectors, Dr. Bundley took his down.

"I want all of us to work together to create a safe place of learning," Dr. Bundley told his students. "We are going to be responsible for each other here. We are going to respect and trust each other."

When I walked through Walbrook High School before their Senior Farewell Ceremony last Monday morning, all the young people were at work in their classes or moving peacefully through the halls. Respect for others showed on the faces of the students, teachers, parents and community-leaders assembled for the event.

I gratefully acknowledged Walbrook as the first winner of my "U-TURN" award for the unique techniques they have used to restore non-violence and a community in which all can learn in safety.

Today, Walbrook High School retains many of the effective security measures required by life in a violent world. In Baltimore, and nationally, we must do more to protect our children from guns and violence.

It is mutual respect, however, and the understanding that we all are responsible for each other, which are the crucial lessons Dr. Bundley and his students offer to America.

The value of each human being was at the heart of America's civil rights movement. It is that same principle of universal respect which must be at the heart of every child's right to learn.