Home

Gun News Daily
 

The Clinton Plan to End School Violence Doesn't

By William Lolli

May 22, 1999

The May 20, 1999 issue of USA Today reported the President's emoting visit to Littleton, Colorado, where he announced his $15 billion dollar plan to stop violence in schools.

This legislation is called the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and has nothing to do with neither education nor stopping violence. 

The proposal federally mandates:

• Most schools to send an annual "report card" to parents detailing the incidents involving guns, violence, or drugs in the school. 
• Federal support for increased "character education" and expand drug education programs to include issues involving guns. 
• Schools to assess whether students who have been expelled for carrying guns to school "pose a threat to themselves or others" before they can return to the classroom. If a threat is determined, the school must provide "counseling" first before the student is allowed to return.

In all of my life I have never seen such sophistry.

If you are a parent and year-after-year you get a report card illustrating every incident of school of violence, gun possession, or drugs at the school where your child goes; would you continue to send your child to that school? Of course not. This is totally absurd. The only "grade" on such a report card should be a big fat zero, indicating zero incidents of the presence of guns, violence, or drugs at your child's school. But the President wants parents to accept a C-minus, or maybe a D rating, if only say 13 kids were killed this year. You see, that would be an improvement over perhaps last year's F grade where 20 children were killed. See? Things are getting better.

Remember, you soccer moms, you have "the right to choose"-- but not the right to choose the school for your child.

The second proposed feature, "character education" will no doubt have curriculum modeled after the morality and character of the President, his cabinet, and the Justice Department. They are supremely qualified to teach character. We may never again see such a blessed group of honest, truthful, and virtuous persons assembled together in one branch of government to lead our children by example in the ways of "character". I am joking, of course, but it is a sad joke and is one that is painful to express.

Lastly in the final proposal, I thought that if a student was "expelled" he/she could not return to school-- ever. Not anymore, I guess. Now the federal government will decide whether Johnny and his pipe-bomb are a threat, then allow him to return after warning Johnny through a counselor that pipe-bombs are bad and killing people isn't a nice thing to do.

Has America gone completely mad? Are we insane? Sadly, that answer is yes. Right and wrong are now so convoluted and the political leadership so self-deceived that all that remains is a fog of confusion. 

I encourage you as a frequent reader of this site to continue pouring-on the heat and light of reason and truth to burn away this fog. Only through truth can we yet be saved.

Politician Locator

Home