GEORGE BUSH pledged last night to help to improve school safety and announced that he was convening a meeting with experts to discuss the latest tide of violence sweeping across America.

In his first public comments since the Amish massacre, Mr Bush said that he was saddened and concerned by the killings. “Our schoolchildren should never fear [for] their safety when they enter into a classroom,” the President said.

The President said that he had instructed Alberto Gonzales, the Attorney-General, and Margaret Spellings, the Education Secretary, to discuss with experts how the federal government can help state and local authorities to improve school safety.

Four schools have been hit by fatal attacks in the past fortnight. As well as the five girls killed in Pennsylvania, a 15-year-old Wisconsin student shot and killed his principal on Friday, and a man took six girls hostage in Colorado on Wednesday, sexually assaulting them before fatally shooting one girl and killing himself.

Earlier this month in Vermont, a gunman burst into an elementary school looking for his ex-girlfriend and shot a teacher. But even this spate of incidents does not reveal the full picture. In Wisconsin last week three boys were charged with plotting a bomb attack on their high school, while there have been 17 “non-fatal” shootings in US schools since August.

Mr Bush’s meeting is unlikely to touch on the issue of gun ownership in America, where organisations such as the National Rifle Association fiercely protect the right of citizens to bear arms. Instead the focus is expected to be on improving school safety further. There have been 219 violent deaths in schools since Columbine, including 99 by shooting, 30 by stabbing, 12 by fighting, 35 suicides, 28 murder-suicides and 15 listed only as “other”.

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