The Parkland shooting has gained more publicity than any other school shooting in recent memory. This is no coincidence. As the gun control debate rages on, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School’s school newspaper, The Eagle Eye, has gained national attention for its coverage of the shooting that occurred on February 14.
The efforts of these high school students and young journalists have put the experiences and thoughts of survivors into the public spotlight more now than ever before.
Students that were a part of the newspaper program held strong during the shooting itself, realizing the opportunity they were presented with during the tragedy. As many students sat shocked, these students were interviewing others that were hiding in closets, capturing video, and taking photos of students that were packed into classrooms. Eagle Eye staffer Nikhita Nookala stated: “We were very consciously aware that even if it was a false alarm, even if it was a drill, this was a story.
My thought was to get the pictures now. The story you can get from other news sources later. My only thought was for people to get as much footage as possible.”
The newspaper’s faculty advisor, Melissa Falkowski, said that she texted her students: “nobody could tell this story the way that we could tell it,” she says. “The kids really embraced that.” Falkowski couldn’t have been more right, the widely successful “March for our Lives” that helped on March 24 was the start of Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ involvement.
The march was announced and planned by students within the high school following the shooting. The students have been vocal about gun control and are both taking interviews and reporting on the shooting. You can see their coverage following the shooting and interviews with the heroes of the shooting here.
The young journalists of Marjory Stoneman Douglas will be facing stiff opposition from the likes of the National Rifle Association. The NRA recently raised their largest sum in 15 years, over $2.4 million, in just the month of March. It can be difficult to see a country split so staunchly into opposite sides of the argument, but the government’s turn is coming up to make a decision to change gun violence.
However, with the Federal Government appearing largely ineffective, it seems that the states are taking matters into their own hands. The trend appears to be moving towards different degrees of background checks and age restrictions, a measure most of America agrees with. If Canada is any indicator, this should be the right call by local governments.
