Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Thursday that his department will launch a collaborative effort with other agencies to address mental health issues, focusing particularly on students.
“Today we met with, this morning, our office of legal policy to work with our partners at Health and Human Services, the Department of Education and across this administration to study the intersection of mental health with criminality and violence, and to identify how we can stop people before these heinous crimes occur,” Mr. Sessions said at the Major County Sheriffs of America conference in Washington.
He was reacting to the situation in Florida on Wednesday where a former student opened fire on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Seventeen people have been confirmed dead in that shooting so far, with another 15 still in the hospital. The shooting suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.
The tragedy has sparked another round of calls for a national conversation on both mental health and gun violence. The attorney general said that, as a country, we must “do better” to handle these situations and try to prevent them.
“We owe it to every one of those kids crying in front of their school yesterday, and all those who never made it out of that school,” Mr. Sessions said.
Contact the author
Please read our comment policy before commenting.