The U.S. Secret Service issued a guide aimed at preventing school violence on Thursday, in response to the Valentine’s Day mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., which left 17 people dead.
“The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting tragedy served as the impetus to go beyond our past work and go in depth regarding the how — how do we solve this epidemic?” said Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles, according to a U.S. Secret Service press release. “The report truly is an operational guide and I am confident that if embraced and followed by our nation’s communities and schools, that we will together reduce the occurrence of violence and the tragic loss of life.”
[Related: Parkland students sue Broward County sheriff, school resource officer in federal court]
The report, from the agency’s National Threat Assessment Center, explained that there is no one profile for an attacker, and that every school or district should have a “multidisciplinary threat assessment team” that meets regularly, has a clear leader, and involves “teachers, guidance counselors, coaches, school resource officers, mental health professionals, and school administrators.”
“Everyone brings a different perspective to how they interpret someone’s behavior,” said Lina Alathari, author of the operational guide, according to ABC News.
The National Threat Assessment Center was established in 1998 to handle targeted violence, as noted in the press release. In 1999, after the shooting at Columbine High School, the Secret Service, along with the Department of Education, established the Safe School Initiative, which was a study of 37 cases at elementary and secondary schools, aiming to understand the “thinking and behavior of students who commit acts of violence.”
