“There are still questions to be answered.” “It’s still going on, we’re still working on it,” Anderson said. We worked really hard.”Īnd the Sun-Sentinel continues to work hard. “At a time when we feel so embattled as journalists as a whole, it feels really good to have that confirmation. “We had to use litigation, we had to call on sources to leak us lots of the documents we used,” Wallman said. It’s just an incredible feeling, though, to know that we channeled that into something productive.”Īside from the emotional toll the story took, reporters often faced roadblocks and threats from officials when trying to obtain public records. “The community is still grieving and we’re grieving right along with them. “Most of us can’t talk about the coverage without getting emotional,” said reporter Brittany Wallman, who covers Fort Lauderdale and was one of the Sentinel’s main reporters on Parkland. O’Matz was not alone in her attachment to this story. I just kept thinking of the kids waiting, waiting, waiting for help.” And numerous deputies cowered instead of running in to confront the gunman. Twenty years after Columbine, this school district did not adequately train or prepare its staff to protect children from the very real threat of gun violence. “The children of the school have been on my mind every day. “I’ve written nothing but Parkland stories for more than a year,” reporter Megan O’Matz said. Most of the newsroom stepped in at one time or another over the past year to lend a hand on the continuing coverage, but the core investigative group consisted of a dozen or so reporters. “I don’t think it ever left our minds of why we won and the tragedy that we were covering,” Anderson said. “If we could really uncover all the flaws that led up to this and then the aftermath then we could save some lives in the future.”Īnderson said the reaction in the newsroom when the Sun-Sentinel learned it won the Pulitzer was a mixture of gratification and sadness. “We just felt like the community deserved answers,” Anderson said. “I think it was fitting that we won for public service because that is the attitude that we took when we pursued this story,’’ Sun-Sentinel editor-in-chief Julie Anderson told Poynter in a phone interview Monday afternoon.Īfter the shootings, Anderson said her staff took a step back and asked one question: How did this happen? The Sun-Sentinel’s dogged pursuit of the truth behind the one of the worst school shootings ever uncovered disturbing details from every angle, from the preparedness of the school to reaction of law enforcement and government officials to the continuing conversation about gun control.įor its efforts, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s exhaustive coverage was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service, generally considered the top honor in all of journalism. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel asked those questions and more. Then the usual questions: How did this happen? Why did this happen? What could have prevented it? What will stop it from happening again? What followed is what always follows in the aftermath of such tragedy.
It was one of the most horrific days in U.S. Over the next six minutes, Cruz shot and killed 17 students and staff members and wounded 17 more. That former student, Nikolas Cruz, walked into Stoneman Douglas High School carrying a rifle case and a backpack.
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At 2:19 p.m., an Uber driver dropped a 19-year-old off at a school where he was once expelled, in the affluent south Florida suburb of Parkland.