Education secretary stresses school safety

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, Aug. 26, 1998 | 10:36 a.m.

U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley, in Las Vegas on Tuesday, disclosed what could be a key piece of a school safety plan that President Clinton is scheduled to unveil Thursday.

In an interview with the Las Vegas Sun, Riley discussed a report Clinton will release aimed at helping schools identify violent students before they bring guns to school.

Clinton was expected to interrupt his Martha's Vineyard vacation Thursday to make a "school safety" announcement in Worcester, Mass., aides say.

Riley said the report, "Early Warnings, Timely Response," analyzed recent acts of school violence. The new study, completed by a variety of educators and psychologists, makes suggestions for school officials and parents on how to spot potentially violent children, Riley said.

The study will be sent to every school in the nation, Riley said.

"People need to have a plan in place to deal with behaviors that seem troublesome," Riley said.

Riley spent Tuesday morning meeting with local business leaders and touring Silvestri Middle and Cunningham Elementary schools. He stopped in Las Vegas to promote business-and-school partnerships and to discuss how the federal government could help rapidly growing school districts.

Riley was the only Cabinet member to accompany Clinton back to Martha's Vineyard on Friday, a day after Clinton had flown to Washington, D.C., to handle reaction to U.S. missile strikes on Afghanistan and Sudan.

Riley said his trip with the president was partly coincidence -- he had already planned to take a commercial flight to Martha's Vineyard to meet his wife for a celebration of their 41st wedding anniversary.

"Someone said, 'The president is going back on an afternoon flight; would you like to join him?' " Riley said.

Riley leaped at the chance to spend the 1 1/2-hour flight with Clinton. The two discussed the "Early Warnings, Timely Response," study and other issues that were strictly education-related, he said.

Riley made several other announcements during his Las Vegas trip. Among them:

-- Nevada has received a $513,000 federal grant for schools that are planning significant changes aimed at raising student achievement. The money is part of a $145 million package for schools nationwide.

-- Efforts to secure federal money for school construction are not dead in Congress. Riley is still urging lawmakers to pass legislation in the next five weeks that would secure federal money to pay the interest on school construction bonds of up to $58 million. That interest amounts to between $19 million and $29 million that could be used for school construction.

But both houses of Congress have defeated such legislation during the past year.

"I think the odds of the Gingrich Congress passing this is less than 50-50," Sen. Harry Reid said, vowing to fight for it. "For the educational community, it's so important."

Riley is on a tour of four cities -- Kansas City, Las Vegas, Seattle and Los Angeles -- to tout his "America Goes Back to School" program. The four-year-old initiative is aimed at getting parents, businesses and citizens involved in schools.

Riley chose Las Vegas because he also wanted to examine the nation's fastest growing school district. He toured Silvestri Middle School with Superintendent Brian Cram to walk through one of the district's eight new schools.

Riley, Reid and Cram stopped in a 30-terminal computer lab for a photo opportunity and then addressed a gathering of students in a school auditorium.

"When you walk in here, you can still smell the new paint," said eighth-grader Jesse Colmey, who seemed genuinely impressed that a Cabinet member had come to his school.

Riley later toured Cunningham Elementary School, one of the district's largest elementary schools with roughly 1,200 pupils. He paused to visit a portable classroom and to speak with team teachers Anne Harland and Meagan Haney, who share 42 second-graders.

In the Sun interview, Riley said the federal government had a responsibility to support but not control schools. Riley endorses proposals to pump federal money into school construction and renovation. He also supports using federal money to pay for more teachers.

These proposals have been hard sells in Congress, Riley said. However, Riley added that education has become the most important issue in America for many people -- more important that it has ever been before, according to polls.

"People are going to bring Congress in on these issues," Riley said.