Date: 1999-06-17
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. Mr. Chairman. I rise in opposition to the Norwood amendment. I have come to have a great deal of affection for the gentleman from Georgia because of his rough and tumble style and his straightforwardness. but on this amendment I must disagree with him. I guess I have been here a long time. I was here long enough to write the education for all handicapped childrens act along with other Members of Congress. I wrote the language that said that these children were entitled to a free and appropriate education and they were entitled to an education in a least restrictive environment. Many years later. I also wrote the first Federal gunfree school legislation that was passed several years ago which said if you bring a gun to school. you are out for a year. because I thought we needed very clear and bright lines. Then when we rewrote the education for handicapped children. what is now known as IDEA. the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. we pondered and discussed this problem and had hearings and went around and around in our committee and this bill passed. I think he said. 400 something to 3. or unanimously in both Houses. And we recognized that there were two distinct populations. There were children with disabilities. and there were children who we call normal. if you will. and those children with disabilities. children with Downs Syndrome. retarded children. children who have erebral palsy. with conduct disorders. with multiple sclerosis. with attention deficit disorder. those children were different. and yes. there is a different policy. But if either of those children bring a weapon to school. they can both be immediately suspended from school or expelled from school. If you are a child with disabilities. you can be suspended for 10 days. and then we have to sit down and figure out why did you bring this weapon to school. Was it because of your disability? Is this something you understood or you did not understand? One can be out for 45 days. There is no requirement that one go back to that school. one go back to that classroom. One can be put in an alternative setting. And in that alternative setting. those schools in Florida and Iowa. and those districts. California and others. in Iowa. after adopting a program to deal with children who act out in class. who present a threat. not with guns and knives. but because of their own behavior. because of their disability. these are children who are trapped with a disability. They have cerebral palsy. they act out. they flail around. They have multiple sclerosis. they have Downs Syndrome. they bump into other kids. they threaten and they say things. You do not think they would give up that disability in a minute. in a minute? But they cannot. they cannot. But in Iowa. after adopting model management programs. they took the suspensions of disabled children from 220 a year to zero. to zero. We can work with these children. we can help these children. But what does this amendment do? It says. if you bring a weapon to school. you go out on the streets. and that is why the gentleman from Virginia told us. police chiefs and prosecutors and victims of crime have said do not do this. Work with these children. What do we know about how we can do this? We can do this because we understand the disabilities. and we sit down with the parents and we work out a plan to deal with this violence. This is not some kid who knows what he is doing and cavalierly. recklessly walks in with a gun in school or a knife in school: You are out. That is a law I wrote. We should have zero tolerance. But with a child where that may be as a result of their disability. we ought to know that before we have them pay that kind of price. Because again. as the gentleman from Virginia pointed out. when we throw these children out of school. they do much worse. and as the police chiefs have pointed out to us. they engage in one heck of a lot of activity. Some have suggested when we throw them out. give them back a gun and a mask. because they certainly show up in the crime statistics after they are out of here. But we should not be doing this. We should not be doing this to these young kids. Mr. Chairman. there is two distinct populations. Let me just say. 20 million children went to school day in and day out this school year. and a dozen of those children. for what reasons we have not yet to fathom. engaged in violence against their schoolmates and killed and injured their schoolmates. Not one of those children was an IDEA child. This is the equivalent of hitting the Chinese Embassy. This is the equivalent of bombing the Chinese Embassy. We are trying to deal with those children who are shooting other children. who are engaging in that kind of violence against other children in schools. and now we have chosen to target in some ways the most vulnerable population in those schools. those children with disabilities. those children with disabilities. If we want consistency. let us not take the child that has a disability and have them pay a greater price. although I think we can deal with them in the same way in terms of suspension and expulsion. as long as they have some educational services. Here we have children that are targeted. The kid in Oregon that shot his schoolmates was suspended with no services. no education. no nothing. came back to school later and shot them. We now have kids who are crying for them. and your answer is to throw them out of school with no requirement to engage them in a plan. That does not sound to me very encouraging for parents who are worried about school safety. and it certainly does not deal with these children as we know we must under the laws of this land. We must deal with them with respect to their civil rights and make sure that we are not discriminating against them. Mr. NORWOOD said these children have preferences. I want to meet the child with Downs Syndrome who has a preference or cerebral palsy that has a preference. or a child with serious attention disorder. that has a preference? No. they have a disability. Mr. Chairman. because they have the courage and their parents have the courage and school districts have the courage. they have an opportunity to possibly get a decent education and become productive members of this society. and this Norwood amendment would throw this all out. It should be rejected out of hand.