Bob Barr: “the previous opponent of this amendment, the learned gentleman from Virginia, has illustrated graphically the sorry…”

“the previous opponent of this amendment, the learned gentleman from Virginia, has illustrated graphically the sorry state in which our schools are finding themselves. According to the gentleman from Virginia, we ought to feel guilty, schools ought to feel guilty, teachers ought to feel guilty, if they try and protect the students in their schools. The gentleman says schools should not turn these students out because they commit acts of violence. After all, then it is the school's fault for those kids being on the street. That sort of reverse thinking is what this amendment and piece of legislation tries to correct. It tries to bring back some rationality to the process of educating and protecting our children. No longer, if this amendment is adopted and signed into law by the President, would our schools be held hostage by claiming that an act of intimidation, an act of assault cannot be punished, that students cannot be removed from the school, that the taxpayers should not continue to support them simply because that act of violence, that act of drug dealing, that act of assault might be a manifestation of a disability.”