Bush 'troubled' by school shooting
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-10-03 11:16 US President George W. Bush was "deeply saddened
and troubled" by a shooting at a Pennsylvania schoolhouse that left at least
three girls dead, the White House said.
Bush ordered cabinet officials to find ways for the government to help in the
aftermath of recent school shootings, said Dana Perino, a White House
spokeswoman.
Bush is "deeply saddened and troubled by the recent school violence," Perino
told reporters on a presidential trip to Reno, Nevada.
"It breaks America's collective heart when innocent children who are at
school to learn are violently taken hostage and gunned down," Perino said.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and US Education Secretary Margaret
Spellings will convene a conference next week with education and law enforcement
groups to discuss school violence, she said.
Gonzales and Spellings met Monday with Bush's domestic policy adviser,
Zinsmeister, to discuss the issue, Perino said.
A truck driver burst into an Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania Monday
and killed at least three girls "execution style" after lining them up in a
classroom, police said.
It was the third fatal killing in a US school in the past week.
Last week a 16-year-old schoolgirl was killed when a gunman took six hostages
at a Colorado school before opening fire and turning the gun on himself as
police stormed a classroom.
On Friday, the principal of a Wisconsin high school was killed after being
shot by a student.
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