Cord Byrd: “As we consider this resolution before the Senate to remember those who lost their lives just one short week ago in…”

“As we consider this resolution before the Senate to remember those who lost their lives just one short week ago in Littleton, Colorado, we are once again reminded of an event which is heart-wrenchingly tragic and one that bears out the need for educators, parents, and government officials to work together to ensure that the classroom is a safe place for all students. The tragic events last Tuesday at Columbine High School serve as yet another warning that something has gone terribly wrong in our nation. Schools are not the idyllic places that they once were. They are less and less safe havens, conducive to study, but, rather, increasingly, are proving to be unstable communities, teetering on the brink of violent outbursts. It makes me long for the old high school which I attended and from which I graduated 65 years ago. It makes me long for the little two-room schoolhouse in which I began my studies along about 1923. Sometimes I think schools are too large these days. They don't allow for the personal attention that teachers could otherwise show students. They are conducive, I think, by their very largeness to the creation of gangs, hate groups, and so on.”