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106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 5123

To require the Secretary of Education to provide notification to States and

State educational agencies regarding the availability of certain administrative funds to establish school safety hotlines.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

SEPTEMBER 7, 2000

Mr. TANCREDO introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on Education and the Workforce

A BILL

To require the Secretary of Education to provide notification

to States and State educational agencies regarding the

availability of certain administrative funds to establish

school safety hotlines.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

4 The Congress finds that—

5 (1) an estimated 255,000 violent incidents oc6 curred in 1999 on school property, at an official

7 school function, or while traveling to and from

8 school;
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1 (2) for the complete school year July 1, 1997,

2 through June 30, 1998, there were 58 school-associ3 ated violent deaths that resulted from 46 incidents;

4 46 of these violent deaths were homicides, 11 were

5 suicides, and 1 teenager was killed by a law enforce6 ment officer in the course of duty;

7 (3) although fewer school-associated violent

8 deaths have occurred in recent years, the total num9 ber of multiple victim homicide events has increased;

10 (4) in 1997, 5 percent of all 12th graders re11 ported that they had been purposefully injured, while

12 they were at school, with a weapon such as a knife,

13 gun, or club during the prior 12 months, and 14

14 percent reported that they had been injured on pur15 pose without a weapon;

16 (5) on average, each year from 1993 to 1997,

17 there were 131,400 violent crimes against teachers

18 at schools, as reported by teachers from both public

19 and private schools, which translates into a rate of

20 31 violent crimes for every 1,000 teachers;

21 (6) tools should be created for, and provided to,

22 students, teachers, parents, and administrators

23 across the country so that they have the ability to

24 provide the information necessary to law enforce-
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1 ment authorities to take action before other trage2 dies occur; and

3 (7) school safety hotlines allow students, par4 ents, and school personnel the opportunity to report

5 threats of school violence to law enforcement au6 thorities, thus reducing incidents of youth violence.

7 SEC. 2. NOTIFICATION.

8 Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment

9 of this Act, the Secretary of Education shall provide writ10 ten notification to the States and State educational agen11 cies of the ability of States or State educational agencies,

12 as appropriate, to use State administrative funds provided

13 under title IV and title VI of the Elementary and Sec14 ondary Education Act of 1965 to implement programs re15 lated to the establishment and operation of a toll-free tele16 phone hotline that students, parents, and school personnel

17 use to report suspicious, violent, or threatening behavior

18 related to schools or school functions to law enforcement

19 authorities.

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