During the Pulitzer Prize ceremonies, the student journalists of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School got special recognition for coverage that should have never been needed: Their coverage of the mass shooting that had just taken place at their school.
“I want to break with tradition and offer my sincere admiration for an entry that did not win, but that should give us all hope for the future of journalism in this great democracy,” [Pulitzer administrator Dana Canedy] said. Then she cited The Eagle Eye’s submission, which described how Parkland’s 44 student reporters and editors had to “put aside our grief and recognize our role as both survivors, journalists and loved ones of the deceased.”
The student paper’s coverage included a memorial issue with obituaries for each of the 17 killed.
A Pulitzer Prize was awarded for coverage of the Parkland shooting. The local Sun Sentinel's reporting on the shooting and its aftermath won an award for public service reporting; it was one of three Pulitzers given for coverage of 2018’s (multiple) worst mass shootings. Though the Eagle Eye students did not win, the “break with tradition” to recognize what Canedy told the New York Times was “a very competitive entry” was itself an important recognition of the student journalists’ insistence on documenting the aftermath of the murders, ensuring each of their fallen classmates and teachers is remembered and honored.