DENVER-
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt will be in Denver Friday to meet with Gov. Bill Ritter and others about school violence in the wake of the massacre at Virginia Tech.
“Colorado has unfortunately learned painful lessons from the tragedy at Columbine High School,” Ritter said in a written release.
“We will do everything we can to share those lessons and experiences, especially at a time like this when the nation’s attention is focused so intently on what happened at Virginia Tech.”
About two dozen Colorado educators, mental-health experts, law enforcement officers and others will meet with Leavitt and a team of other federal officials.
The meeting will be closed to the public but Leavitt and Ritter will meet with reporters afterward.
President Bush asked Leavitt, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to meet with officials in Colorado and six other states to discuss previous events there. The other states are California, Florida, Minnesota, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.
Two teen gunmen killed 12 students and a teacher before taking their own lives at Columbine High School in Littleton in April 1999.
On April 16, a gunman killed 32 people before committing suicide at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va.
