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#SinceParkland: Teen journalists tell stories of 1,200 kids killed by guns

Website devoted to highlighting young lives taken
Posted at 7:16 AM, Feb 14, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-14 10:26:14-05

It's been 12 months since 17 people were gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. It's a massacre that has spurred efforts of many to push for gun control and a deeper look at school safety efforts.

It has been controversial as gun advocates fight to keep their rights and freedoms.

One of the initiatives that followed in the year after the Parkland shooting is a journalism project called #SinceParkland, which involves more than 200 teenage reporters working together to document the children (newborn through age 18) who are killed in shootings in one year in America.

The website sinceparkland.org launched Feb. 12, 2019 with stories collected through the past year. Students producing journalism on the website will continue to do so.

The students have partnered with The Trace, which reports on gun violence, Gun Violence Archive, which maintains the running count of shooting incidents that include child victims, NowThis, Student Square, The Miami Herald and other newspapers in the McClatchy newspaper group.

The journalism website says in the past 12 months, more than 1,200 kids were killed by guns. It lists every one of their names .

More than 300 siblings lost sisters and brothers, #SinceParkland points out.

The story of 16-year-old Amauri Green says the teen and his friend, Devin Johnson, were driving in Detroit, Michigan in August 2018 when they had to stop to fix a flat tire. Green was killed when he and his friend were shot by two men driving by.

Johnson survived.

The reason for the shooting? Police say the friends had been in a confrontation with the suspects while visiting a T-shirt embroidery store just before the shooting. Green's father said he doubted his son was part of any confrontation .

Johnson's father spoke out after the shooting, calling it senseless and something he did not understand.

Visit the #SinceParkland website to read the stories of children whose lives were lost due to gun violence in the year since the mass shooting in Parkland.