Remarks by President Trump in Cabinet Meeting | Eastern North Carolina Now

    In March, I established the Federal Commission on School Safety to address the tragedy of violence in our classrooms. Since that time, the commission has held nearly a dozen public meetings and listening sessions with educators, administrators, law enforcement, state and local leaders, survivors, and families generally.

    We've signed two critical forms and - reforms into law. One is STOP School Violence Act. It's a very important thing. People said we probably wouldn't be able to get it through. We got it through. It provides grants to schools to improve safety. And the Fix NICS Act, which strengthens background checks for firearms purchases. It very much strengthens. A lot of people didn't want to report on that because probably it was too good to report about it. It's very important thing. It strengthens that background checks for firearm purchases.

    Today, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and others, and various commission leaders, will provide an update on their work. We're going to have a lot of people in this room involved, even people that aren't involved that much with education. But they're very smart people sitting around this wonderful desk, or table.

    Secretary Azar, Nielsen, and Sessions - a lot of other people are being - joining. A lot of people have asked me if they could join. Ben - Ben Carson is one. A lot of people have asked me if they could join. They consider the schools to be so important in education, and now so important in safety.

    We want to harden our schools against attack -improving communications between law enforcement, school officials, mental health professionals, and counselors; training school personnel so they better protect our students, including allowing qualified personnel to be armed.

    As you know, in Florida, they went in with a bill that didn't have that, and they came out with a bill where the legislature wanted it. So that's up to the community, not up to the federal government. That's up to the community.

    Improving our early warning system to make sure schools, families, and law enforcement can identify red flags and respond quickly. We want a very rapid response. Some of the response has been incredible, and some of the response has not been good, obviously. You saw that very well. And, frankly, you reported it very well.

    We want to strengthen our mental health laws and procedures. So important. I think it's probably the most underrated element of what we're doing, but it might be - it might be the most important. Mental health - the laws and procedures.

    Keeping guns - we want to keep them out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves and to, more importantly, frankly, others. And we want to foster a culture that celebrates life, and forms real and meaningful human connection so that we can see not only in terms of education, but we can see if something is going wrong with somebody, we can do something about it.

    In Florida, there were a lot of red flags. I guess they said there were 28 to 38 red flags, where everybody knew this was a sick person. And nobody did anything about it. And that's what you end up with.

    So I look forward to today's discussion. And we will make our schools not only very safe - I think they're already safe - but we're going to have the finest school system anywhere. So I want to thank you. Thank you all for being here.

    Betsy, maybe we could start with you. And we'll go over your little section, and then we'll hear from Secretary Azar, Attorney General Sessions, and a couple of others.

    If you'd like, you could stay. Or if you'd like, you can also leave. (Laughter.) Don't forget: freedom of the press. (Laughter.)

    Go ahead.

    SECRETARY DEVOS: Well, thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, after the tragedy in Parkland, Florida, you took swift action. No parent should fear for their child's life when they go to school. And no student, no teacher should ever have to worry about their safety at school.

    You convened students, families, and educators to have an honest dialogue. You pressed Congress to pass Fix NICS and the STOP School Violence Acts. You called governors, state and local leaders to action. You asked me to travel to Parkland to visit with students and teachers. And, Mr. President, you traveled to Texas in May to meet with parents, families, and survivors of the shooting at the Santa Fe high school.

    We've suffered too many heartbreaking reminders that our nation must come together to address the underlying issues that foster a culture of violence. And you rightly insisted, from day one, that we wouldn't keep our children safe by looking only at any one particular piece of this much larger problem.

    When you asked me to chair the Federal Commission on School Safety, you directed us to explore a range of issues, including mental health treatment, social-emotional learning, the difference that armed school resource officers make on a daily basis, the impact of violent entertainment on the development of young children, the gaps or failures among local officials when they're aware of a troubled minor and fail to act, along with a number of other issues.

    So we set out to gain input from students, parents, teachers, school safety personnel, administrators, law enforcement officials, state and local leaders, mental health professionals, school counselors, anyone and everyone who's focused on identifying and elevating solutions.

    I invite my colleagues to look at the slides included in your books, which are a small insight into the commission's information-gathering process.

    I've been very pleased to work with my fellow commission members - Attorney General Sessions, Secretary Azar, and Secretary Nielsen to do exactly that: to learn from those closest to students. Our aim isn't to impose a one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, everywhere. The primary responsibility for the physical security of schools and the safety of their students naturally rests with states and local communities.

    And it's clear from all of our work thus far that many schools and communities take this responsibility very seriously. Many have employed solutions that uniquely meet their needs and requirements.

    It's also clear that keeping kids safe at school is not a one-time, check-the-box exercise - a safety plan you implement once and call it good. It requires a posture of perpetual preparedness. And what's necessary and right for a school with 50 students in Cheyenne is very different than what's necessary and right for a school in Chicago.

    Let me briefly tell you about the meetings the Department of Education has specifically led. In May, I met with survivors and family members affected by past shootings - individuals from Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, and also from Parkland. In addition, we heard from authors of the reports written in the aftermath of those shootings.

    Later in May, we visited Hebron-Harman Elementary School in Maryland. Hebron-Harman's district uses a flexible framework of positive behavior interventions and support, modeling one way schools can help create a strong school climate. This approach brings to mind the First Lady's strong leadership on wellbeing and social-emotional learning through her BE BEST initiative.

    And then here at the White House, in June, we met to hear some practical strategies that schools could use to combat negative effects of violent entertainment, media, and cyberbullying. A key takeaway: Culture and climate really matter in schools.

    I was struck and impressed by the obvious passion of Paul Gausman, a superintendent from Iowa. It takes strong leadership to create a positive culture, and that flows from empowered educators who know their students well.

    Each of my fellow commissioners have led other field and commission meetings during the course of our work. So now I'd like to ask Secretary Azar to talk about the work of HHS in the context of the commission.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Betsy.

    SECRETARY AZAR: Well, Mr. President, thank you for the opportunity to be on the School Safety Commission. And I'd like to thank Secretary DeVos for her tremendous and tireless leadership of the commission, and fellow commissioners - the Attorney General and Secretary Nielsen.

    We at HHS have focused on the really critical role you pointed out of mental health. Mental health is so central to these issues of school violence and safety. And so that's been our area of focus.

    I think it's very important to remember, though, that we not stigmatize those with mental illness. Most crimes of violence are not committed by those with serious mental illness. Those with serious mental illness are actually more likely than others to be victims of crimes of violence. And those who are receiving treatment for serious mental illness are no greater threat than any other individual for committing a crime of violence. That's just important that we remember as we talk about these important issues.

    There are really three key mental health issues that we've identified through our work on the commission: access, privacy, and civil commitment.

    Access: How do expand access to mental health services overall for children and others? Second, how do we integrate that mental health service into our schools, delivering that service where the kids feel most comfortable and where they can get it best, and where the stigma can be the least? How do we look at the appropriate use of different psychotropic medicines - appropriate and inappropriate use? We studied that carefully.

    Our privacy rules in the federal government: Where do our privacy rules get in the way of kids getting care? Where do they get in the way of teachers and administrators reporting children who need help? Where do they get in the way of family members getting the care that their other family members need?

    And then, finally, understanding how civil commitment may help address serious mental illness. We studied these issues in our meetings that we hosted here in Washington, as well as an excellent field visit that we took to a middle school in Wisconsin.

    On access, we learned how integrating services in the schools is ideal; it can really decrease stigma and meet the kids where they are. We learned that one in five youth suffer from some form of mental disorder, but half of them are not getting treatment for it. We learned that school-based care leads to improved grades, better attendance, health, and mental health care and outcomes. We learned that medications are over-utilized and under-utilized, depending on the circumstance. And we learned that we need much more research on these medications and their use in a youth population.

    On privacy, we learned how misunderstood the rules are, and how often over-counseled and over-interpreted those rules are. We learned the barriers of families getting care for their kids and family members treatment that they need. And we also see how - we saw, very importantly, how this issue comes up in the issue of opioids and substance-use disorder - how it's preventing family members from getting their other family members treatment.

    So we're looking at any needed changes that we can take - and that will be in the report - better training, as well as changes to our rules, to help schools, families, and healthcare providers.

    We got to see great work in local communities. The school - this middle school we went to in Adams County, in Wisconsin, was just tremendous. Integrated mental health services in the schools. They train their teachers to recognize mental health issues. And they just built a supportive, happy environment that any one of us would be delighted to send our children into - in an area that, frankly, suffers from tremendous poverty, and yet they still were able to deliver that.

    This was done through funding by HHS, the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Agency, in close partnership with the governor in the state of Wisconsin. It shows that it can be done. This can be solved. Seventy-five percent of serious mental illness starts by the age of 25, so we've got to get these kids in middle school, in senior high, and in college.

    We look forward to highlighting areas that we can improve our delivery, through the work of the commission and our report. And we're just grateful to the President for his leadership to help our children have a safe, healthy, happy school environment.

    Thank you, sir.

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much, and I appreciate it. But I do want you to bring up something that you and I have been working on very hard, and that's prescription drug prices.

    So, as everybody knows, Pfizer, last week, raised substantially the price of their drugs, and I wasn't happy about it - Novartis, also, and others. And we made some phone calls, and they brought it back down to what the price was. And I think you're going to see a reduction in drug price. And that's the first time that's ever happened, I believe, ever. But I was not happy about it, and it wasn't great. And we're working on very much getting rid of the middleman.

    Now, could you talk about how we're reducing drug prices, and how it's starting to really take effect? And maybe talk about the fact that we appreciate very much what Pfizer and Novartis and the others did. We really do; we really appreciate it.

    SECRETARY AZAR: That is correct. So just for the media and others, I have said that I have never once had a discussion with President Trump where we have not discussed drug pricing, and we continue batting a thousand here today. He is adamant about bringing drug prices down, and it has come through the hundred days of work that we have gone through since the President released his blueprint on reducing drug prices and putting American patients first.

    As the President said, there have been some really significant moves, because the drug companies and others in the system see the writing on the wall. The system is going to change, prices will come down, and they are skating from where the puck is going to be.

    We've had 15 companies make significant announcements around drug pricing. Pfizer reversed its price increases. Merck announced that it's going to be decreasing prices. We've had several other companies who had told state regulators that they were going to increase prices, and they have now walked back and said they will not follow through on those increases. And we've seen over a dozen companies say that they will have no further price increases for the rest of the year.