ShareThisBy RICHARD POWELSON
Thursday, April 26, 2007
President George W. Bush is sending three of his top aides to meetings across the country for 30 days to collect lessons learned from the Virginia Tech tragedy, which killed 32 students and faculty members, and from school assaults elsewhere.
Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt begins by meeting with governors and others in Salt Lake City and in Denver on Friday and in Nashville on Saturday.
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is attending a campus security discussion in Albuquerque on Friday. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales also is expected to join in making later trips before the group compiles their joint findings in a report to President Bush.
Leavitt spokeswoman Brynn Barnett said the trips will encourage a national dialogue toward avoiding more school shootings.
"It's a national review of the mental health issues," she said, "and the safety issues having to do with law enforcement and, obviously, the education component, involving mental health professionals, education professionals and law enforcement professionals from the states."
Before the Virginia Tech record-high death count, much national attention on school safety had focused last year on five girls being shot to death at an Amish school in Pennsylvania, and with two students in Littleton, Colo., killing 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in 1999.
Tennessee also was in national news in November 2005 when Kenneth Bartley, 14, shot and killed Assistant Principal Ken Bruce in his Campbell County high school office, and wounded Assistant Principal Jim Pierce and Principal Gary Seale. He pleaded guilty this month to his offenses and was sentenced to a total prison term of 45 years _ with eligibility for parole in about 25 years.
Bush's aides are exploring any federal role possible in helping states and communities to avoid more school tragedies, Leavitt said.
Spellings said in a written statement that she wants to look at ways to enhance emergency planning at schools.
Gonzales said his focus would be discussions on sharing relevant information between law enforcement, school administrators and others with the goal of protecting students while also respecting privacy regarding medical and health information.
