Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 21, 1994                   TAG: 9410050065
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOL GUN LAW RUNS INTO SNAG

Negotiators writing a compromise Elementary and Secondary Education Act are trying to choose between two versions of the anti-gun provision.

The Senate provision, which duplicates a law enacted in March, would continue the required one-year suspension. The House version would let local school boards determine the proper punishment for violators.

``How can we expect anyone to learn if they look over and they see a .45 or a .38 tucked in someone's belt?'' asked Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a sponsor of the Senate plan. ``They can't.''

``We want to send a message ... that this country says no guns in schools, no excuses,'' added Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., another author of the ``zero-tolerance'' measure passed by the Senate.

The Senate measure requires school boards to establish policies opposing guns in schools and mandates minimum one-year suspensions for violators. Those not complying would lose their share of $12 billion in federal education funds.

On the other side are those favoring a less rigid, House-passed version written by Rep. Dan Miller, R-Fla. It also requires school boards to impose policies against guns in schools but lets those boards determine the proper punishment for violators.

``We're all against guns in schools,'' said Miller, author of the House plan. He opposed the stricter Senate version by arguing that ``the federal government is not the local school board.''

An estimated 100,000 guns are brought to the nation's schools each day in a student population of 42 million, said Michael Edwards, the National Education Association's manager of congressional relations. The NEA did not endorse either provision because ``we think they both get to the same point,'' Edwards said.

The Senate-passed ``zero-tolerance'' version has the backing of the Clinton administration and the American Federation of Teachers.

The House bill has support from the National Parent Teacher Association and the Children's Defense Fund.

But Hattie Ruttenberg of the Fund criticized both versions for failing to require an alternative educational setting for those expelled.