Virginia Learns from Columbine

As the one year anniversary of the Virgina Tech massacre approaches, Donna Alvis-Banks of the Roanoke Times seeks guidance from the survivors of the Columbine school shooting. Alvis-Banks, a 2007 Dart Center Ochberg Fellow reports that, "the key to moving on, the survivors of Columbine say, is a mix of individual trial and error and recognizing that the community as a whole needs mental health outreach." Their advice and moving stories bring a hopeful message of recovery to communities recovering from shocking communal trauma, from Blacksburg, Virginia to Dekalb, Illinois.

You can read the Roanoke Times' complete coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings here, and find more articles and resources related to reporting on school shootings here under "Covering the NIU Shootings."

Assault Victims Seek Military Justice

Judy Holland of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer carefully documents sexual assault within the military. Statistics and victims’ stories provide context for proposed legislation that would require an investigation into the handling of these cases and provide support for female veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

James Risen of the New York Times reports on a related story: sexual assault by military contractors. As Risen reports, in contrast to military personnel, contractors cannot even be prosecuted under the military justice system. This leaves women like Mary Beth Kineston, fired by military contractor KBR after complaining of multiple cases of sexual assault, in “legal limbo.” “I still have nightmares,” Ms. Kineston says in the article. “They changed my life forever, and they got away with it.” Although the number of private contractors now significantly outnumbers military personnel, totaling approximately 180,000, the total number of cases of sexual assault by contractors have not been forthcoming.