Must Reads: The astonishing number of kids who have experienced a school shooting

Compelling, ambitious reads you can’t afford to miss.

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John Woodrow Cox was working on a story about a teen who'd opened fire on a South Carolina school playground in 2016 when he glanced up at a TV in The Post newsroom last month and saw that another school shooting was unfolding in Parkland, Fla. "There were aerial shots of kids on gurneys," said Cox, who felt nauseated at the sight. "I started taking some deep breaths."

Cox has spent more than a year reporting a series of searing stories on children and gun violence. He knew the damage done at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School would not be limited to those killed and injured. The trauma, he said, extends to "hundreds and hundreds of kids in that school — their lives are forever altered. Some of them will never recover."

After Parkland, Cox and Steven Rich, The Post's database editor for investigations, worked at a breakneck pace to produce a groundbreaking analysis on school shootings since Columbine and what it has done to the astonishing number of kids who have endured them. 

Cox said he knows the work has taken an emotional toll on him, too. At the urging of trauma experts he's interviewed, Cox is considering talking to a therapist about what it's been like to interview a 4-year-old shot in the head during a road rage incident in Cleveland or watch a 17-year-old survivor of the Las Vegas mass shooting break down at her high school homecoming dance. But he won't stop reporting and writing about children and gun violence. "It's the most important thing I've ever covered," he said. 

— Lynda Robinson, Local Enterprise Editor

A correction from last week's newsletter: A story about the aftermath of a restaurant owner's deportation was in Granger, Ind., not Granger, Ill. Apologies for that. 

The extraordinary number of kids who have endured school shootings since Columbine More than 187,000 students have been exposed to gun violence at school since Columbine, The Washington Post found. Many are never the same. By John Woodrow Cox and Steven Rich  •   Read more »

Relic or reformer? A Nigerian emir wants to take his ancient city into the modern era Mohammad Sanusi II’s reign has become a litmus test for the relevance of the country’s traditional leaders. By Kevin Sieff  •   Read more »

A city that makes guns confronts its role in the Parkland mass shooting In Springfield, Mass., home to Smith & Wesson, talk of gun control collides with concerns about jobs. Todd C. Frankel  •   Read more »

Defiant and wounded, Rick Pitino insists he did nothing wrong — and wants back in Coaching legend’s ability to get another job may hinge on whether he can convince schools that he’s right, and FBI investigators are wrong. Will Hobson  •   Read more »

After his family died, he threatened to kill himself. So the police took his guns. A controversial warrant allows police to temporarily confiscate guns from law-abiding — but at-risk — owners. It represents the latest piecemeal attempt to prevent gun violence in the United States. Eli Saslow  •   Read more »