U.S. President George Bush wants better security for American schoolchildren, following a series of school shootings in the past month.

George Bush speaks about 'No Child Left Behind' education program at Woodbridge Elementary and Middle Campus

President Bush says Americans have seen sad and shocking violence in schools across the country. So, next week, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings with meet with state and local government officials to try to improve school security.

"We are going to bring together teachers and parents and administrators and law enforcement officials and other experts to discuss ways to help our schools protect the children," the president said. "See, it is paramount that the federal government work with the state government and local governments to make it clear that our schools are places of learning, not places where there be violence."

Speaking at an elementary school in the nation's capital, President Bush said the planned conference is part of an important discussion about the future of American education.

It follows a series of recent attacks that has renewed concerns about school safety.

A gunman held 10 girls hostage in a rural, one-room schoolhouse in the eastern state of Pennsylvania Monday, shooting them all and killing five before killing himself.

A teenager in the midwest state of Wisconsin last week brought two guns to school and killed his principal.

Late last month, a gunman in the western state of Colorado held six teenage girls hostage, and sexually assaulted them before killing one. Autopsy reports show that gunman shot himself and was shot by police who stormed the school.

Unlike earlier classroom violence, the Pennsylvania and Colorado shootings involved adults with no apparent connection to the schools.