RENO, Nevada
(AP) -- The Bush administration, alarmed by recent attacks at public
schools across the country, is bringing education and law enforcement
experts together for a conference on coming to grips with the problem.
The
goal would be to discuss the nature of the problem and federal action
that can help communities prevent violence and deal with its aftermath,
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said as President Bush made a
campaign tour here Monday.
Three schools have been hit by deadly
attacks in the past week. A gunman killed himself and five girls Monday
at a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania; on Friday a
15-year-old Wisconsin student shot and killed his principal; and last
Wednesday a man took six girls hostage in Colorado, sexually assaulting
them before fatally shooting one girl and killing himself.
"The
president is deeply saddened and troubled by the recent school violence
and shootings that have taken place in different communities across
America," Perino said. "It breaks America's collective heart when
innocent children who are at school to learn are violently taken
hostage and cut down in their own schools."
Perino said the
conference was still in the planning stages, so a specific date,
location and other details were not ready to be announced. It was not
clear whether President Bush would attend.
Education Secretary
Margaret Spellings, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Bush's
domestic policy adviser, Karl Zinsmeister, met Monday at the White
House to discuss the conference. They met while the president was on a
cross-country flight to begin a three-day fundraising trip for
Republican candidates in the midterm election.
Perino said
participants on the education side would include groups like the
National Parent Teacher Association, school principals and teachers'
unions. The Federal Bureau of Investigations would be among those
representing law enforcement, she said.
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