WASHINGTON, April 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- At the direction of
President Bush, federal officials at the Departments of Education, Justice,
and Health and Human Services are providing assistance to the Virginia Tech
community and participating in a review of the broader questions raised by
the tragedy.
Officials will begin traveling across the country this week to meet
with state and local leaders, educators, mental health experts and law
enforcement officials to find out what can be learned from this tragedy.
Once this process has been completed, Secretary Leavitt will work with
Secretary Spellings and Attorney General Gonzales to summarize the issues
raised and report to the President within 30 days.
"The pain of this tragedy is felt throughout this nation and our hearts
and prayers go out to the victims' families, friends and the entire
Virginia Tech community," HHS Secretary Leavitt said. "While our review
will not answer all the questions or solve all the problems, we hope to
frame up a series of issues as part of a thoughtful, national dialogue and
determine where the federal government can play a role in helping states
and communities avoid such tragedies in the future."
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings stated, "I'm looking forward to
a candid and constructive dialogue with university officials, educators,
parents, students and others aimed at exploring ways to enhance emergency
preparedness plans and appropriate information sharing while protecting
personal privacy. As opposed to K-12, higher education has unique
challenges, stemming from diversity of mission, size, location and student
body. They also have unique resources they can bring to bear."
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said, "As Virginia Tech and the
nation recover from this tragedy, we have an obligation to take a look at
the important issues it has raised. Among other things, we encourage a
public discussion on how to ensure that law enforcement, school
administrators and others receive the information they need to protect
students while at the same time respecting the privacy of medical and
health information."
Secretaries Leavitt and Spellings and Attorney General Gonzales will
convene meetings in states starting Thursday, April 26. Over the next few
weeks, Administration officials plan to travel to states such as Minnesota,
Colorado, Utah, Iowa, Tennessee, Texas and California. In many of these
states, similar tragedies have occurred and the lessons learned from those
events will provide valuable input for this review. Administration
officials will also meet with members of Virginia Governor Kaine's
commission, which is conducting an in-depth investigation of this tragedy
from the state's perspective.
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SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice
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Related links:
http://www.usdoj.gov
CONTACT:
HHS Press Office, +1-202-690-6343; or DOJ
Office of Public Affairs, +1-202-616-2777; or DOE Press Office,
+1-202-401-1576
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