Nessel urges Congress to support bipartisan bill to prevent school violence

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, along with a bipartisan group of 40 attorneys general, is urging Congress to pass the EAGLES Act, a national program to prevent targeted school violence.

The legislation is named after the mascot of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where 17 people were killed February 14, 2018. The Act would expand the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) with a greater focus on school violence prevention.

The Act’s safe school initiative contains research and training components, allows dissemination of evidence-based practices, and authorizes the NTAC to work with state and local officials to develop research and training.

“I urge Congress to pass the EAGLES Act to ensure those tasked with protecting and educating our nation’s future leaders are equipped with the best possible training and tools to keep students safe,” Nessel said.

In the letter to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, the attorneys general write, “It is unfortunate we have to turn to the threat assessment expertise of the Secret Service in order to keep educators and students safe at school, but gun violence in schools has become all too commonplace.”

NTAC was created in 1998 to provide information on threat assessment to the Secret Service and those who work in criminal justice and public safety. NTAC started studying targeted violence in schools after the Columbine High School Shooting in 1999 which led to the establishment of school threat assessment programs.

In addition to Nessel’s support, the letter is sponsored by Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and is joined by the attorneys general of Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, N. Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin.