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Ärende: Press Release (0610108) for Tue, 2006 Oct 10
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President Bush Participates in Panel on School Safety
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 10, 2006

President Bush Participates in Panel on School Safety
National 4-H Conference Center
Chevy Chase, Maryland

President's Remarks view

˙˙˙˙˙ Fact Sheet: Conference on School Safety ˙˙˙˙˙ Conference on School
Safety ˙˙˙˙˙ In Focus: Education

1:24 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. (Applause.) Thank you all for coming.
In many ways, I'm sorry we're having this meeting. In other ways, I know
how important it is that we're having this meeting. The violence that has
been occurring in our schools is incredibly sad and it troubles a lot of
folks. And it troubled me and Laura. And so I asked Margaret and Al to host
a gathering of concerned citizens, the purpose of which is to come up with
best practices and just shared experiences so that others might know how to
react to prevent and react to inexplicable and -- violence that is hard to
imagine.

All of us in this country want our classrooms to be gentle places of
learning, places where people not only learn the basics -- basic skills
necessary to become productive citizens, but learn to relate to one
another. And our parents I know want to be able send their child or
children to schools that are safe places. And the violence we've seen is
upsetting to a lot of people and I know it's upsetting to the professionals
who are with us. But rather than be upset, it's best for all of us who are
responsible for helping the folks not only cope, but to prevent action from
taking place, it's best to be proactive. And that's what this meeting is.

And so I want to thank you all for joining. I got a firsthand report on one
of the panels from Laura, who said that -- I think if I could summarize
your words, it was like really interesting and very important. And so I
thought what I would do is ask Al and Margaret to begin this session and
maybe hear from some of the folks here, and then, if time permitting, hear
from you all out in the audience.

Again, I want to thank Margaret and Al for setting this up, and really
thank you all for coming and taking an interest. I know we got people from
all around the country, and it's -- this is a nationwide effort to help
people who are responsible protect our children.

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Mr. President, thank you for asking Margaret and
I to host this important conference. We've had some good panel discussions,
as you've already heard already. You've met some of the panelists we've
invited back. And just for our audience, again, we've asked Dr. Marleen
Wong, Craig Scott, Fred Ellis, and Sheriff Jeff Dawsy to help us speak with
the President about this important issue.

Mr. President, I'm going to talk a bit about the panel that I moderated
which dealt with the scope of the problem from the law enforcement
perspective.

Margaret is going to talk to you a little bit about the two other panels
that we've heard from today -- one dealing with responding to the tragedy,
prepared for the tragedy at the parent level and the school level. And the
other is how do communities heal, how do they recover from these kinds of
tragedies.

With respect to the first panel, the good news we heard was that,
generally, America's schools are safe places to be. Your kids are much more
likely to be safer in school than they are at the mall. And that's the good
news. We are, however, are seeing some indications in the last two years
that those trends are changing. And so that's something that we want to
watch very carefully, monitor that and see what can be done to reverse it,
if, in fact, that is a trend that we need to be worried on.

We also learned that the U.S. Secret Service and other federal agencies are
doing a lot of good work already in dealing with this issue. The Secret
Service, in particular, has been working on a threat assessment guide that
they make available. And there is someone in the audience that I would like
to have come to the microphone. He is Police Chief Art Kelly from New
Bedford, Massachusetts, and he wants to relay to you an example where he
relied upon the information by the Secret Service in an actual case.

THE PRESIDENT: I like the Secret Service, too, Art. (Laughter and
applause.)

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Let me ask you a question, Al -- not you, Chief, but --
well, I can ask you, too. I presume out of this there will be a series of
best practices that you will share with principals and schools districts
that explain, for example, what people could look for to determine whether
or not there's an early warning sign, and then how to respond.

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Exactly.

THE PRESIDENT: Okay, good. Thanks, Chief.

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Mr. President, we also heard from Tom Kube, of
the Council of Educational Facility Planners, who talked to us about school
design, and that the way we design our schools can be helpful in protecting
our children.

We had an interesting discussion about metal detectors. Some of the panel
members -- they don't believe it's an effective tool preventing violence;
one in five school shootings occur outside the school building, so they
couldn't help in any event. Our students, as we know, are very smart and
resourceful and they figure out a way to avoid metal detectors. Also one
panel member said that it sends the wrong message about what we think of
our kids when we have them come to an environment where they're supposed to
learn and have to pass through metal detectors. So I found that to be very,
very interesting.

THE PRESIDENT: I happen to agree, but what I do know? (Laughter.)

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Yes, sir. We also then spent a lot of time
talking about information sharing. This is very, very important, in terms
of gathering up information and being able to share it with not just
parents, but administrators, events happening at home. And I'd like Sheriff
Dawsy to talk a little bit about this point.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Is there an opportunity to share between sheriffs around the
country how they're dealing with this issue? Does it make sense to have the
National Sheriff's Association contact -- ask for stories, practices, and
then condense them and send them back out so that people can -- who
probably aren't listening to this will be able to --

SHERIFF DAWSY: I think it would be a wonderful initiative. One of the
things I learned today was not more about questions, but more of solutions.
There was many different speakers that came up and told us about different
resources to use.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, that's my point.

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Mr. President, I think that Sheriff Dawsy would
say that this program helps him to do his job, which means that I'm sure
all the sheriffs around the country would like that kind of program, as
well, to help them do their job.

THE PRESIDENT: That's my point. Yes, so who is responsible for talking to
the head of the Sheriff's Association or the police chiefs to make sure
that happens?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm right here, sir, and it will be done.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, sir. Very good.

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Sir, one final point I would just like to
emphasize, and that is, there are many schools that have plans in terms of
how to deal with a threat or an incident that occurs, but the plans are
worthless if people don't know about them, if they're not dusted off, if
people don't practice them. And as the Secretary indicated earlier this
morning, there's a lot of turnover that occurs in the school between the
faculty, the administration, between students and families. And it's very,
very important for schools to understand what the plans are and to practice
those plans. It made a big difference two weeks ago in terms of the
shooting in Bailey, Colorado, where they were able to respond in a very
effective manner to that tragedy. And so that's a very important thing that
needs to be emphasized over and over again.

There were many other points that we discussed, Mr. President, and I think
we made some good progress in this area.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Al.

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Thank you, Mr. President. That's a good place to begin
on panel number two -- we call this in education a teachable moment,
because we have plans, lots of work has been done post-9/11, post-Katrina
and other incidents, but if parents, teachers and faculty are not aware of
what's been done, then they're worthless. And so on panel two we talked a
lot about readiness. We talked about how to create a school culture that
was supportive and nurturing, that when young people have connections with
adults, caring adults, how important that is; how there are signs to watch
for; that a lack of academic success and other things like the Sheriff
talked about are clues, that are ways that we might intervene.

We also talked about the need for constant communication and coordination
between school personnel and law enforcement. We talked about how every
community is unique and individualized, that those are decisions and
discussions that have to happen at the local level. So we also figured out
ways or talked about ways to continue to develop those relationships and
strategies around those sorts of things.

Fred Ellis, who is the head of school safety in Fairfax County, my school
district, and is also a member of my commission that's part of the No Child
Left Behind Act, the Commission on Safe and Drug-Free Schools -- Fred
serves on that. We'll be meeting in the next few weeks and giving them some
new charges that came out of our meeting today. But I'd like Fred to speak
about some of the things that he's experienced.

Fairfax County is considered to be one of the national models, national
leaders in this area. So, Fred, thank you for your work.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Did you say 81 percent of the students were aware of a
violent act?

MR. ELLIS: Some of the data that I had heard today from the Secret Service
and some of their research, that much information was out there.

THE PRESIDENT: It seems like a pretty good opportunity to prevent an attack
if 81 percent of the -- there's an 81 percent awareness of a potential
attack, which then I guess would lead to making sure principals explain to
students, when you hear something, please tell me.

MR. ELLIS: Yes, sir. I think that's part of the point, is that there needs
to be a culture, a climate in a school where students and faculty and staff
and visitors feel comfortable with reporting stuff. Particularly at the
student level, because we know that they do talk about it, but they have to
have -- they have to feel comfortable that, one, they know where to go to
report this information, and that there's going to be a useful and
successful outcome and intervention to prevent some violence.

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: We also heard from a gentleman named Jim Moore, who
founded a program called Project Watch D.O.G.S., which is basically dads
coming into schools and being role models, modeling good behavior and being
a presence. Another way that we can kind of be alert for behavioral
patterns and the like is to make sure that we have as many grown-ups in
schools as we possible can.

So, Jim, thank you for your work. He's from Arkansas -- actually, he's from
La Mesa.

Anyway, in panel three we talked about recovery and healing, and how it
takes time. And we learned from our professionals, like Marleen Wong, who
I've had the opportunity to get to know as she helped us and helped
communities on the Gulf Coast deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
She's been an asset to the Department of Education in our work for a very
long time. And she's from Los Angeles, works at the LA Unified School
District.

We know also that these sorts of incidents can occur in inner-city America
and Amish communities, private schools, public schools -- really every
single community has to be alert. So, Marleen, why don't you talk a little
bit about your work in Los Angeles.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Is it typical of a student that expresses a wish to die,
makes that clear to his or her peers and to -- if people are attuned to
what that means, to pay attention to somebody who exhibits the behavior
that says, I am depressed and I want to die? I mean, is it -- it's a pretty
strong statement.

DR. WONG: It's a wonderful question, because there are -- there are
behaviors and there are expressions of hopelessness that come before that.
And so I think we have to do a lot of education with just folks who say,
you know, they've changed, they don't have joy in life, and that this is an
early warning sign.

THE PRESIDENT: But is it easy to define the behavior that would tip off an
adult in a school, or some -- a coach or an art teacher that this is the
kind of behavior that ought to say to us, we better pay attention to this
person, this child?

DR. WONG: Yes. There's a short list, and actually, the student who sat on
the previous panel did an excellent job of naming all of those things. I
was so proud of her. I thought she ought to come and do some training with
our --

THE PRESIDENT: And how many educators do you think that can name -- good
job, by the way -- how many adults do you think around the schools in
America can name the traits that would say, we better pay attention to this
person?

DR. WONG: Not enough.

THE PRESIDENT: And therefore, what can we do to make sure that people
understand what to look for? It seems like to me that a lot of our focus
ought to be on preventing. And no question, we ought to worry about
recovering, but preventing is -- makes the recovering not necessary.

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Chiarasay, you did such a nice job this morning, why
don't you go to the microphone real quick and tell us the nine signs --
(applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Where are you from Chiarasay?

MS. PERKINS: Mr. President, I'm from Walton County, Florida.

THE PRESIDENT: Good. I know your Governor. (Laughter.)

MS. PERKINS: Some of the traits that are noticeable are changes in everyday
habits. If you know friends -- stuff like playing sports, he won't play
sports; grade averages dropping; they start acting different they start
eating different, dressing different, carrying themselves in a different
manner as you would normally know them -- are just some of the small things
that you as a friend or as a teacher or parent could notice that will bring
upon a change in the case if they are depressed, or feeling as thought they
want to commit suicide, or hurt somebody or themselves.

THE PRESIDENT: That's great. Thank you.

DR. WONG: Thank you. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Let me ask you a question. From your experience, Marleen, if
a teacher were to notice those traits, is it typical that someone would act
on them? In other words, I'm just trying to make sure I understand. If a
student sees -- I mean, a teacher sees a student begin to change clothes
and begin to -- does a principal and a teacher tend to say, well, that's
really not my business, it's the parents' business? In other words,
awareness requires, by the way, some kind of response.

DR. WONG: And I think that varies around the country.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I'm sure it does.

DR. WONG: I think that more and more people are beginning to pay attention
just because we have paid such a dear price for ignoring some of the
warning signs.

THE PRESIDENT: So maybe an outcome for this is to encourage -- for you to
get in touch with the principals organizations or the teachers
organizations and help --

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: And be aware of the warning signs.

THE PRESIDENT: And then -- I guess there's a certain confidence that has to
come with interfering -- not interfering, but interceding in a child's
life. My only question is, is there hesitancy when an adult says, well,
maybe this is just the way it's supposed to be, or maybe it's none of my
business. And the question is if that's the case -- if you can determine
that's the case, how do you get people to respond differently?

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Cathy Paine, from Oregon, told us about -- where they
had an incident there, that there were dozens of signs of this particular
shooter, and that the full picture didn't become clear until after the
incident.

THE PRESIDENT: Can you -- do you mind sharing that? Thanks, Cathy.

MS. PAINE: Thank you, Mr. President. I was a school psychologist in
Springfield, Oregon when the shooting happened there in 1998. And the point
I was making was that for our shooter, yes, there were things that
individuals knew about him; his parents knew some things, teachers saw a
few things, but at no time was there a way for all of those people, in a
sense, to get together and share that entire picture. So 20-20 hindsight
has been very good, and we've been able to say, ah-hah and see how all that
fit together.

But because of -- whether it's lack of resources or lack of knowledge, we
didn't have a mechanism for that to happen. We're trying to do a better job
with that now, in forming what we call care teams in our schools where
teachers regularly do get together and share concerns about students, and
then we try to connect them with our mental health services in the
community.

THE PRESIDENT: The whole purpose of this exercise is to help educate and,
if there needs to be cultural change inside schools, for teachers to become
more aware and more active -- or principals -- is to try to stimulate these
kinds of discussions, obviously, outside of Washington, at the local level
or state levels, in the hopes of preventing these from happening in the
first place.

Thank you for coming to share your experience and appreciate you're sharing
your expertise.

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: One of the people who's been doing that in a very
meaningful way is Craig Scott, who has talked all over the country to
teenagers and teachers and educators and school leaders. And he has a very
powerful story, as you know. His sister, Rachel, was murdered in Columbine.

So, Craig, why don't you share your thoughts.

MR. SCOTT: Well, just to give a little background, I was in the school
library during the shooting. I had 10 classmates that were killed around
me. I lost two friends underneath a table, and then later that same day
learned that my sister, Rachel Joy Scott, was the first one that was
killed. And really I've been just now traveling over the last seven years
just sharing a simple story of compassion. And it's had a huge impact on
the school culture. Kids really have looked to her as a role model. She's
been a hero to a lot of kids.

And last night I just was looking back over the last seven years and I was
in my hotel room and I just journaled, and I wanted to express real quick
over the next couple minutes, just read to you what I wrote in my journal
that expresses my feelings best.

I said: Once upon a time, our goal of education in our country was, first
and foremost, character. Academic achievement is now the main goal. I knew
two students at Columbine that achieved the goal of knowledge. Eric Harris
and Dylan Kleibold were very smart. They planned the shooting for a year
and predicted the events that would unfold afterwards. The problem wasn't
their education at my school, Columbine. Their problem was their character.

I've grown up in a culture today that doesn't teach me anything of
substance, of value, how it bombards me every day with messages of
emptiness and shallowness. And the youth are crying for something to stand
for, something to believe in. If it weren't for my faith or my family, I
possibly could have fallen into the lies that our culture tells us. But now
I've traveled, I've spoken to over a million teens across this country.
I've not always seen -- I've not always liked what I've seen in the
schools. I've seen depression, anger and loneliness, students without
direction or purpose. I've seen students who called themselves cutters,
have cut themselves because that's the way they know to take out the pain
that they're dealing with. I've learned a lot about my generation. And I've
learned a lot since I lost my friends and my sister. And the main thing
I've learned is that kindness and compassion can be the biggest antidotes
to anger and hatred, and I believe the biggest antidotes to violence.

With the program my father started called, Rachel's Challenge, a program my
mom speaks for called, Life Choices, we've seen bullying stopped, suicides
aborted. We have 10 incidents where a student came up with hit lists or
plans to shoot up his or her -- his school, all male -- and told either the
speaker or told the teacher about their plans, but had a change of heart.
As a side-effect, we've seen -- and our statistics have shown and the more
our program -- has been a rise in school attendance and an increase in
academic achievement.

How have we done it? We've done it with a simple story of a young girl who
believed in compassion and was killed for her faith. That was the story of
Rachel Joy Scott. But my sister is not the only one who believes in
kindness, and she's not been the only one in her brave stance against the
injustice willing to stand up for the one who gets put down in school, to
sit by the student that sits all alone at lunch, and to talk to or reach
out to the one who is consistently ignored or made fun of. She literally
has inspired millions of people to continue the chain reaction she started.
A lot of those are students across the country.

I've read Eric Harris and Dylan Kleibold's journals that were recently
released, and basically Eric wrote in one of his journals, "If only you
were nicer to me, maybe this wouldn't have happened."

I don't know who else is tired of band-aid answers, but I know band-aids
aren't going to save kids from dying. I give every student out there a
challenge my sister put down on paper a month before she died when she
wrote for her class -- she said, "I have this theory that if one person can
go out of their way to show compassion, it will start a chain reaction of
the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go."

I challenge every teacher, principal and superintendent and educator here
today to take a look at teaching that doesn't just teach the head, but
teaches the heart. The students today that I've met are looking for truth.
You can help point them to what's right and what's wrong. Truth is not all
relative, despite what our culture or pop culture tells us.

To parents in the room today, please love your kids like my parents love
me, like my parents loved Rachel. To the media and entertainment industry,
I would give the challenge to take responsibility, own up to the product --
(applause) -- own up to the product that you create and the effect that it
has on its audience, that two shooters were very much impacted and
influenced by violence through the media and dwelled on violent video
games, violent movies, music, and things they saw through the Internet, and
is a common theme with a lot of these shooters that they've chosen very
negative influences in their life. I believe there needs to be the positive
influences that are highlighted on our television and through our media.

You're a powerful institution affecting my generation every day. Please
think about, when releasing your next movie, your next song, your next
game, your next headline story. I myself am a film maker, and I want to
create movies that inspire, build people up with stories of ennobling
characters.

To the lawmakers and politicians who want to slap those band-aids on deep,
gaping wounds, I'm simply going to repeat a poem that my dad read to the
House Judiciary of Congress several months after the Columbine shooting
where he said:

"Your laws ignore our deepest needs

Your words are empty air.

You've stripped away our heritage

You've outlawed simple prayer.

Now gunshots fill our classrooms

and precious children die.

You seek for answers everywhere

and ask the question why.

You regulate restrictive law

through legislative creed,

and yet you failed to understand

that God is what we need."

I'm not promoting that religion be brought back to schools. I don't believe
that's the answer. But I do believe in education that touches and teaches
the heart and helps form the character. And I believe if that can be
implemented in the education on a daily basis, we'll see a change. I'm not
out to change the world, just to change one person, one teen at a time. And
I've finished with, just please take my words to heart today. They were
bought at a high price. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Good job. (Applause.) Whew. (Applause.) Which one of us up
here can now talk after that? Thank you. Yes, that's great. You are
changing our society. You may not realize it, but thank you -- powerful
statement.

I'd be glad to hear from people in the audience. (Laughter.) Yes, I
probably won't be able to hear from all of you in the audience.

That was great, Craig. Thank you. Could I have that?

MR. SCOTT: Oh, absolutely.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Yes, sir.

Q Mr. President, I haven't had this feeling since I was 17 and that's the
last time that I asked you a question in Herbert, Texas. I've spoken to
hundreds of thousands of people since. Last time I was nervous was when I
was 17 in Herbert, Texas, and you were campaigning in Herbert, Texas.

THE PRESIDENT: Don't tell them I came in second place in a two-man race.
(Laughter.)

Q My name is Pete Vargas. I'm the national director for Rachel's Challenge,
the program --

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, fantastic, Pete.

Q -- that Craig just talked about. And I want to echo something that's very
dear to my heart and Darrel, his father who is sitting right here.

THE PRESIDENT: Your dad is there? Where is your dad? Excuse me. Okay, thank
you. Raised a good man here.

Q I talk to thousands of educators every month, our team does, thousands.
And one of the things that disturbs me is there's hundreds that say, Pete,
you all have change the culture of our school, but then there's thousands
that say, it's so hard for us to fit our -- we want your program so bad,
but we have testing and testing and testing and this and that, and it made
me think about something, President. It made me think about growing up -- I
was going the wrong direction completely. I was stealing, I was doing
everything possibly wrong -- vandalism, beating up kids. And in 7th grade
there was a teacher, Mrs. Muldanado, who touched my heart. In 10th grade
there was a lady that you know from Herbert, Texas, that touched my heart.
And in ninth grade my tennis coach touched my heart, and those three people
changed my life. And as we -- why I believe in what I'm doing so much is
Darrel's motto is that if we touch the heart of the kid, the head will
follow. If we touch their heart, the head will follow, and the hands will
make the difference.

My question to you today is, I don't want us to look at the warning signs;
I want us to eliminate the warning signs.

THE PRESIDENT: Right, right.

Q What can we do -- what can we do, and this is echoing Darrel and what
Craig just said -- what can we do from the government's standpoint to go
back to touching the heart of the kid, to teaching character education?
Because we hear that all the time about the testing.

THE PRESIDENT: I agree. Pete, let me say -- first on the tests. Thanks for
coming. It's good to see you again. I was probably more nervous than you
were when you asked the question. (Laughter.)

Q You look the same. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: I like selected memory. (Laughter.)

First, in terms of testing, I don't think it's zero sum. I think you can
make sure a child learns and I think you can instill character at the same
time. I don't think you have to choose. As a matter of fact, I know we
can't say that one doesn't beget the other. I happen to believe that
self-esteem comes when a child realizes he or she can read early at grade
level. And I think one of the real problems -- I think one of the real
problems we have, Pete, is a school system across the country that
basically gives up on children because we don't measure to determine
whether or not they have the skills necessary to read, for example.

And so I'm concerned about a system that socially promotes children,
because I think that at some point in time, that begins to affect a child's
vision of the future, and a grim vision of the future may be that which
triggers a response that is negative.

Character education is -- I know we funded quite a bit of it when I was the
governor of Texas. Let me put the funding issue right on the table. The
federal government is a limited funder of education. And I happen to
believe that's the way it should be. I don't think it's possible for the
people to have expectations that the government should fund public schools.
This is a local responsibility. It's been that way throughout our history.
I think it makes sense to do so, because it tends to make control of our
schools more localized, which I happen to think is the best way to achieve
excellence.

And so, therefore, not to try to pass responsibilities, although we do have
character education grants out of Washington, and we've got school safety
grants out of Washington, but the best place to facilitate that kind of
initiative, to make sure that character is taught in schools, is at the
state level.

Secondly, it's really important, Pete, that people not think government is
a loving entity. Government is law and justice. Love comes from the hearts
of people that are able to impart love. And therefore, what Craig is doing
is -- he doesn't realize it -- he's a social entrepreneur. He is inspiring
others to continue to reach out to say to somebody who is lonely, I love
you. And I'm afraid this requires a higher power than the federal
government to cause somebody to love somebody. And therefore, it's a --
(applause) -- and therefore, one of the things we can do, though, is to
call upon people -- we've got the USA Freedom Corps Initiative, for
example, that calls on volunteers to take active participation in their
communities.

You know, Craig said something interesting. I believe societies change one
heart at a time. I don't mean to mimic what you said, but I was actually
praising what you said, because that's how it works. And the truth of the
matter is, if we really think about it, the primary responsibility, the
primary teacher of character is the parent. That is the front line of
enabling our society to be a compassionate, decent place. You wouldn't be
sitting here if your mother and father hadn't instilled in you a --
something inside your soul that caused you to sit here in front of the
President of the United States and give an unbelievably eloquent testimony
about compassion.

And the second line of defense in schools is, obviously, teachers. And the
hope is, is that out of this violence and terror comes this notion that
teachers have got to be -- and by the way, the teachers have got an
unbelievably hard job to not only teach, but to show concern and
compassion. They've got their own lives to live, they've got their own
families to raise many times, and now they've got to deal with yet another
family situation, Pete. But yet, nevertheless, that is where the compassion
-- you notice, you didn't say, I went to a program. You named three
individuals that were heroic in your lives. And that's the way it works.

Now, teaching character matters, no question about it, and there's some
great curriculum to do it. But the truth of the matter is, all this need to
say, I love you, comes from your soul. And so, hopefully, out of these
tragedies will come the sense of communal obligation all throughout our
country, for people to take an extra effort to comfort the lonely. That
could be a student or a teacher -- Pete, in your case, a tennis coach.
Still got a backhand? Anyway, thank you, buddy. It's good to see you again.

Yes, ma'am. Oh, yes, sir.

Q Up until yesterday, I was a Walt Disney imagineer for 16 years, but I
have quit that activity to commit myself for the rest of my life to a
character education program that my sister and her husband and I created 15
years ago, on a little island in the Pacific Northwest, called The Virtues
Project. And it is exactly what I think many people are looking for,
because it reaches the heart, it is a multi-faith, multi-cultural effort to
simply teach five strategies that help people practice virtues in everyday
life.

What we've learned in 85 countries where this is applied is that values are
culture specific; virtues are universal to every sacred tradition. So
simply practicing virtues in the home, in the school, in the workplace
makes a shift in the culture.

And I am offering my love and my admiration for so many goodwilled people
in this room for bringing this group of people together. It's so exciting.
And we're simply here to support whatever is going on.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, thanks for doing what you're doing. See, this is a --
our country is blessed by the fact that we have people who stand up and
say, I want to contribute, like you. Just retired yesterday? You don't look
a day over 60. Anyway. (Laughter.)

But, see, Craig, what you're doing and what this gentleman is doing will
stimulate a lot of -- as you said, you've talked to a million kids, or a
million people -- same with you, sir. I believe that there is no single
answer, no single program. It's a mosaic of programs all stimulated because
people have decided to do something about the problem. And it's really the
uniqueness of the country.

I like to remind our fellow citizens that de Tocqueville recognized this in
1832, the fact that voluntary organizations came together to help solve
local problems. And it is -- in my judgment, it is this capacity of
citizens to take action to solve problems that defines the true greatness
of America.

And, Pete, to answer your question about government, government's role, in
many ways, is to stimulate and to encourage and to thank people who have
taken it upon themselves to either start character education, or go into
classrooms and to change society one person at a time.

Yes, sir.

Q Mr. President, my name is Marvin Nash. I represent the Bullying Hurts
Program, and the NASH Foundation, which stands for "No Adolescent Should
Hurt," from Cheyenne, Wyoming. I want to let you know that I will be
traveling back to Nashville, Tennessee, where Storme Warren, with Great
American Country, and Charlie Daniels will be helping me make PSAs to
address this issue. Instead of talking about my program, I want to give my
time up to this lady right here. She spent seven -- she spent her time with
17 students locked in a closet at Columbine, and she has a question for
you. So we're not going to talk about me, we're going to talk about her.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, buddy. Nice-looking hat.

Q Mr. President, Madam Secretary of Education, Marleen, Craig, and
everybody else, my name is Judy -- I'm just a regular person. I don't have
a radio talk show. (Laughter.) And I don't -- I'm not in charge of a big
major organization. I am a flight attendant for Frontier Airlines, and I'm
shaking right now because I didn't think I was going to get up here. And
I'm also a proud, retired teacher from Columbine High School.

And I think everything I was going to say just kind of flew out of my mind.
I'm also a professional volunteer. And I am not here to ask for money for
any program. When I said, professional volunteer I don't mean I make money
volunteering, but there are a whole group of just regular people like me
out there. Even though I retired from Columbine, I have a daughter at
Columbine right now who is a junior. I volunteer in the post-grad center
there. I volunteer with the cheer squad, the football team, and it doesn't
always take a lot of money to get things done. It's little people like me.
I don't mean in size. I mean, it's little people like me who get there,
little people like us. Like Grand Daddy Wong used to say, okay, one stick,
you break it one at a time, but if we stick together, we can get it done.

I'm just saying unless us volunteers -- I always have time to volunteer,
and I know other people do, too, and it's what Craig was saying, it comes
from the heart. President Bush, it's what you were saying. It's what our
parents taught us, and it's what we need to teach our kids. It's that -- I
hope I don't pronounce it wrong -- generativity, where we help to make the
next generation better. So I'm sorry I forgot what my question was.
(Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: What matters is your testimony, not your question. Thank
you. (Applause.)

Last question, and I've got to go. He's also reminding me, actually I'm on
a schedule here. I apologize. I'd like to sit here all day, listening, and
I am inspired that so many came to talk about this subject.

Yes, ma'am.

Q Good afternoon, Mr. President, Madam Secretary. I'm a youth programs
director in New York City for a nonprofit called Art of Living Foundation.
And like a lot of these wonderful people here, we teach a program in human
values and stress management for teenagers and how to handle their negative
emotions, which they just don't learn I'm finding nowadays. And what I have
students constantly asking me is, can't this be a class in our school? Can
we learn human values and universal ethics that are found in every culture,
but they're not being taught -- a lot of times not at home, they're not
being taught. And they're definitely not always being taught in schools.
There's some amazing public school teachers, but there's also some very
stressed-out public school teachers.

THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely.

Q Can this be -- is there a way to have a class in public school where
students learn stress management and the ability to deal with their own
anger, frustration and violent tendencies, and also to learn human values
and actually practice them? Can they receive credit for a class like this?
This is what students are asking, and I have superintendents coming to me
saying what can you do -- we'll give credit to students for doing this. Is
there a way we can do that?

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Well, those are state curriculum issues, and lots of
states have included character education or programs like that as part of
their required curriculum, and give credit for it. But I would commend all
those superintendents to their state board of education and put them to
work. We had some of that in Texas and gave a lot of credit for peer
mentoring and those sorts of things that are so supportive of kids.

THE PRESIDENT: I am sorry for those of you standing in line. I know, I
apologize.

Q Time for one more?

THE PRESIDENT: Okay, one final guy -- go ahead. (Laughter.)

Q I wanted to explain why I had on a bright red jacket.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, that's why. (Laughter.)

Q I appreciate it.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you for coming.

Q My name is Michael H. Smith, and I'm the president for Family, Career and
Community Leaders of America. We are an in-school, high school, and middle
school organization focusing on the family. Our main mission is to promote
family as the basic unit of society.

And I'm happy I got to follow up after your question because we are --
family consumer sciences -- its curriculum in high schools and middle
schools is teaching character education, that is teaching youth violence
prevention. We're teaching career exploration. Because of our title, Family
and Consumer Sciences and Family, Career and Community Leaders of America,
we address every one of the issues that's been presented in the discussions
and in this room. And we are willing and wanting to partner with every
single person in here to help students get this message out to students.
We're about peer-to-peer message sharing. We want each and every student in
our organization, which reaches about a quarter of a million students, to
be a lot broader than that. We want to touch every student in America
through our programs and through our mission to promote family as the basic
unit of society, and the values thereof.

So I thank you, Mr. President, Mrs. Bush --

Q Why the red coat? (Laughter.) Just so you got called on? I mean, is there
a -- (laughter.)

Q I just wanted that. No, our colors in the organization are red and white.

THE PRESIDENT: Fabulous.

Q So all of the officers wear our red jackets.

THE PRESIDENT: I, once again, apologize. I've got to get on an airplane.
But I do want to thank you all for coming. I hope you have found this
interesting. I am a results-oriented person, and I expect from Margaret and
Al to make sure that out of all this effort comes some concrete action to
help people understand what is possible, what is doable, the programs that
are working. And the head of the Sheriff's Department readily sprung to his
feet to say, you can count on me.

The purpose has got to be more than just hoping somebody is listening to
TV. The purpose has got to be, out of this that we share information so
that we can save lives, encourage parents, and help people respond.

And I want to thank you all very much for coming. I'm proud you're here.
God bless you all. (Applause.)

END 2:21 P.M. EDT

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