Five University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications alumni are part of the South Florida Sun Sentinel team whose series of stories and editorials on the aftermath of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shootings in Parkland, Florida, won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

Brittany Wallman, B.S. Journalism 1991, and Susannah Bryan, B.S. Journalism 1987, reported for the series, and photographer Michael Stocker, B.S. Telecommunication 1986, provided visuals.  Dana Banker, B.S. Journalism 1986, is the Sun Sentinel’s managing editor, and Rosemary Goudreau O’Hara, B.S. Journalism 1976 and 2017 Hall of Fame inductee, is the organization’s editorial page editor.

The newspaper won “for exposing failings by school and law enforcement officials before and after the deadly shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.”

According to the Sun Sentinel, “The prize, the most respected in journalism, recognized the newspaper’s 10-month effort to reveal how 17 people could be murdered in a school considered one of the safest in Florida. In dozens of stories, the Sun Sentinel exposed failures by the school district, law enforcement and social services that enabled the teenage gunman to enter the school on Valentine’s Day 2018 and slaughter staff and students with a semiautomatic rifle. The Sun Sentinel’s coverage sparked significant changes in law enforcement and school safety and led to legislation to hold schools more accountable for crimes that occur on their campuses.”

The Sun Sentinel staff was a finalist in the Pulitzer’s Breaking News category for its Parkland shooting coverage. The coverage also won the Scripps Howard Foundation’s top prize for breaking news coverage and was a finalist in two other categories – Innovation and Multimedia – for two interactive projects, “Voices of Change” and “Unprepared and Overwhelmed.”

This is the second time a CJC alumnus has won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of a school shooting. In 2000, Essdras Suarez, B.S. Journalism/PhotoJournalism 1993, then with the Rocky Mountain News, won for Breaking News Photography as part of the photo staff covering the Columbine High School shooting.

A complete list of CJC alumni who have won a Pulitzer Prize is available here:  https://www.jou.ufl.edu/alumni-support-2/cjc-pulitzer-winners/.

Posted: April 26, 2019
Category: Alumni News, College News
Tagged as: Pulitzer Prize