The single most important thing we can do to improve education for everybody in this country is to make schools safe. Violence against young people is a terrible national problem.
Every other day, enough young people to fill a classroom are killed with guns. In California alone, two children are killed with guns every single day. We have got to put an end to this madness. And the first thing we need to do is to get those guns out of the hands of young people where they don't belong.
The crime law makes it a Federal crime for a minor to carry a handgun except when supervised by an adult. Goals 2000 set a national standard for school safety and requires school districts to take the measures necessary to reach that standard.
The elementary and secondary education act (ESEA) takes it a step further by making it clear that we simply cannot tolerate guns in our schools, and anyone who brings a gun to school just doesn't belong there.
ESEA requires that States adopt a simple law: If somebody brings a gun to school, they'll be expelled for one year.
This is common sense: There should be zero tolerance for guns in school. That's why I am directing the Secretary of Education to withhold funding to States that do not comply with this law.
It's really very simple: Young students should not have to live in fear of young criminals who carry guns instead of books.
NOTE: The memorandum on implementation of safe schools legislation was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on October 25.
William J. Clinton, Statement on Safe Schools Legislation Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/217761