David Y. Ige

HONOLULU– Hawaii Attorney General Clare E. Connors joined a bipartisan coalition of 40 attorneys general in 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^th, 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.

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.”

“We must do what we can to protect our children from gun violence, including by ensuring that our schools are safe places for them to learn and grow,” said Attorney General Connors. “The EAGLES Act allows federal resources and expertise from the National Threat Assessment Center to be used in collaboration with state and local governments and communities to create environments safe from targeted violence.”

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.

Joining Attorney General Connors are the letter’s sponsors Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Attorneys General of: Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, 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.

A copy of the letter is available here.

 

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