Bush vows to improve safety for American children

U.S. President George W. Bush said on Tuesday that his administration will strive to improve safety for American children a day after five girls were shot to death in a Pennsylvania school.

Addressing an elementary school in Stockton, California, Bush expressed concern over a spate of school shootings across the country.

"Being at this school reminds us we have a special responsibility to protect our children," Bush said.

"One of the most important jobs of those involved with schools and government is to make sure that our children are safe," he noted.

Bush said he was "saddened and deeply concerned, like a lot of other citizens around the country, about the school shootings that took place in Pennsylvania and Colorado and Wisconsin."

In a bloody case that shocked the nation, on Monday a milk truck driver barricaded himself in a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania and shot 11 girls "execution-style", killing five of them. The man then killed himself.

The massacre took place five days after a man took over a classroom in Colorado and killed a 16-year-old girl and himself. On Friday in Wisconsin, a student killed the principal of a high school.

Bush said he had instructed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Education Secretary Margaret Spellings to hold a meeting Tuesday with experts to determine how the federal government can help state and local authorities improve school safety.

"Our schoolchildren should never fear (for) their safety when they enter into a classroom," the president said.

Source: Xinhua