From the March 2000 Idaho Observer:

Congress to create anonymous student hotline

Feds to use millions of children as informants in national intelligence-gathering system

by The Idaho Observer

Under the umbrella of its Orwellian "Safe and Drug Free School Zones" program (under which school violence and government-prescribed psychotropic drug use and abuse has increased exponentially) the federal government has proposed the School Safety and Enhancement Act of 1999 and the School Safety Hotline Act of 1999. The bills intend to provide public school students K-12 a 24-hour per day, seven days per week access to a network of anonymous, national toll-free student hotlines.

Ostensibly to give distraught children and young adults a shoulder to cry on like a good big brother, the federal government will have the ability to reach the entire nation's 46,000,000 public school children and, through a “confidential” hotline counselor/federal employee, be in a position to amass untold volumes of personal information about private citizens.

Modern computer technology allows the government to cross reference information about people from multiple public and private databases. There is little doubt that the information trained psychologists will be able to coax out of children who are angry at parents, teachers, friends, family and others will be recorded, stored and cross referenced with information about a person that is already being stored in in any number of private (employer, creditor), state and federal databases.

“Programs related to the establishment and maintenance of a school violence hotline [are] based on a public-private partnership that students and parents can use to report suspicious, violent, or threatening behavior to school and law enforcement authorities,” the text reads.

School children were not the only group of Americans that were earmarked by legislation to become the eyes and ears of the federal government in 1999. Congress attempted to pass “Know Your Customer” legislation that would have reduced bank employees to the status of federal informants by compelling them to report any unusual banking activity on the part of their customers.

The proposed hotline network will be broken up into regions with the director of each region reporting to the U.S. attorney general -- not the U.S. Department of Education. The bills have been excerpted, but the entire text is available on the web through the federal government's site at: http://thomas.loc.gov/

Note how one of the provisions is to “expand students' access to mental health services.”

School Safety Enhancement Act of 1999 (Introduced in the House)

HR 1898 IH

A BILL

To provide for school safety, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the 'School Safety Enhancement Act of 1999'.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress makes the following findings:

(7) A report issued by the Department of Education in August, 1998, entitled'Early Warning, Early Response' concluded that the reduction and prevention of school violence is best achieved through safety plans which involve the entire community, policies which emphasize both prevention and intervention, training school personnel, parents, students, and community members to recognize the early warning signs of potential violent behavior and to share their concerns or observations with trained personnel, establishing procedures which allow rapid response and intervention when early warning signs of violent behavior are iidentified, and providing adequate support and access to services for troubled students.

SEC. 3. NATIONAL CENTER FOR SCHOOL AND YOUTH SAFETY.

(a) ESTABLISHMENT- The Secretary of Education and the Attorney General shall jointly establish a National Center for School and Youth Safety (in this section referred to as the 'Center'). The Secretary of Education and the Attorney General may establish the Center at an existing facility, if the facility has a history of performing two or more of the duties described in subsection (b). The Secretary of Education and the Attorney General shall jointly appoint a Director of the Center to oversee the operation of the Center.

(b) DUTIES- The Center shall carry out emergency response, anonymous student hotline,consultation, and information and outreach activities with respect to elementary and secondary school safety, including the following:

(1) EMERGENCY RESPONSE- The staff of the Center, and such temporary contract employees as the Director of the Center shall determine necessary, shall offer emergency assistance to local communities to respond to school safety crises. Such assistance shall include counseling for victims and the community, assistance to law enforcement to address short-term security concerns, and advice on how to enhance school safety, prevent future incidents, and respond to future incidents.

(2) ANONYMOUS STUDENT HOTLINE- The Center shall establish a toll-free telephone number for students to report criminal activity, threats of criminal activity, and other high-risk behaviors such as substance abuse, gang or cult affiliation, depression, or other warning signs of potentially violent behavior. The Center shall relay the reports, without attribution, to local law enforcement or appropriate school hotlines. The Director of the Center shall work with the Attorney General to establish guidelines for Center staff to work with law enforcement around the Nation to relay information reported through the hotline.

(A nearly identical bill was before the Senate in the form of S 973 IS School Safety Enhancement Act of 1999).

School Safety Hotline Act of 1999 (Introduced in the House)

H. R. 1937

To amend the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, and the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act of 1994, to allow grants received under such Act to be used to establish and maintain school violence hotlines.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

May 25, 1999

A BILL

SEC. 3. SCHOOL INVOLVEMENT.

(E) establishing and maintaining a school violence hotline, based on a public-private partnership, that behavior to school and law enforcement authorities; (School Safety Enhancement Act of 1999 (Introduced in the House)

HR 1898 IH

(7) A report issued by the Department of Education in August, 1998, entitled 'Early Warning, Early Response' concluded that the reduction and prevention of school violence is best achieved through safety plans which involve the entire community, policies which emphasize both prevention and intervention, training school personnel, parents, students, and community members to recognize the early warning signs of potential violent behavior and to share their concerns or observations with trained personnel, establishing procedures which allow rapid response and intervention when early warning signs of violent behavior are identified, and providing adequate support and access to services for troubled students.

School Safety Enhancement Act of 1999 (Introduced in the Senate)

SEC. 3. NATIONAL CENTER FOR SCHOOL AND YOUTH SAFETY.

(2) ANONYMOUS STUDENT HOTLINE- The Center shall establish a toll-free telephone number for students to report criminal activity, threats of criminal activity, and other high-risk behaviors such as substance abuse, gang or cult affiliation, depression, or other warning signs of potentially violent behavior. The Center shall relay the reports, without attribution, to local law enforcement or appropriate school hotlines. The Director of the Center shall work with the Attorney General to establish guidelines for Center staff to work with law enforcement around the Nation to relay information reported through the hotline.

(b) AUTHORIZED ACTIVITIES- Funds provided to carry out this Act may be used for activities that may include efforts to --

(1) increase early intervention strategies;

(2) expand parental involvement;

(3) increase students' awareness of warning signs of violent behavior;

(4) promote students' responsibility to report the warning signs to appropriate persons;

(5) promote conflict resolution and peer mediation programs;

(6) increase the number of after-school programs;

(7) expand the use of safety-related equipment and technology; and

(8) expand students' access to mental health services.