On Sept.13, we bore witness to a tragedy that shook student communities everywhere. The world watched as young Dawson students were wheeled away on stretchers, carried out by paramedics and leaned on one another for support. Somewhere in the midst of the elaborate media coverage, the story became just that, a story. I wrote my pieces so you would be able to see this as something uncomfortably real and not merely something you once saw on television or heard about on the radio. I felt it was important to give the pages to Cynthia Moramarco and James Santos, two teenagers whose lives were forever changed, so their voices would not be lost. With trembling voices they told me their stories and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel like crying while writing them. My hope is that it awakened some emotion within those of you who read them as well.
If you followed my writing, you may have noticed that the shooter’s name was referred to once, maybe twice. This was done intentionally. I felt a responsibility not to give him the fame he undoubtedly wanted and sadly gained from much of the media. We all knew his name. I didn’t want to add to his notoriety by having it reprinted hundreds of times. I thought the names of those he hurt were far more important.
I feel that our society’s media glorifies killers such as the Dawson shooter. I believe this sensationalism has a direct impact on the frequency of these incidents. In the two weeks after the Dawson shooting made CNN headlines, three similar attacks were carried out in the United States; a high school student killed in Colorado, a principal slain by his own student in Wisonsin and six young girls shot and killed in an Amish community in Pennsylvania. It also generated a string of copycats who, if not for police intervention, may have claimed more victims.
As a journalist and a student myself, I hope my coverage gave you more than just a story.
Maria Barillaro wrote two eye-witness account pieces and one Q & A on the
Dawson events. Read Maria’s past pieces at www.theconcordian.com
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