Deep Reads: Children joked about school shootings. Then the sheriff sent them to jail.

Post Reports

The Washington Post

Daily News, Politics, News

4.4 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

An analysis of news reports by The Washington Post found that at least 477 people — 90 percent of them students — were arrested in the two weeks after the Apalachee High massacre in Georgia. That’s nearly 100 more than in the aftermath of the three previous mass school shootings combined.

In Volusia County, Florida, the elected sheriff, Mike Chitwood, a registered Independent and brash Philadelphia native, decided he’d had enough. In September 2024, he deployed dozens of deputies and spent an extra $21,000 in taxpayer money. On a single night, his office received 54 tips.

Reporters Hannah Natanson and John Woodrow Cox document the real-life effects of Volusia’s aggressive response on children, parents, teachers, administrators and police officers.

This story is part of our Deep Reads series, which showcases narrative journalism at The Washington Post. It was read by John Woodrow Cox. Audio production and original music by Bishop Sand.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, Hannah.
0:07.6	Hi, John.
0:08.9	Why don't we introduce ourselves?
0:10.8	Sure.
0:11.5	I'm Hannah Natanson, and I cover education for the Washington Post.
0:15.7	And pretty much since I've started, I've had to write about school shootings.
0:19.6	From a seven-year-old who shot his teacher in Virginia to this past fall when a 14-year-old shot two classmates and two teachers in Georgia.
0:28.8	Yeah. My name is John Woodrow Cox. I'm an enterprise reporter at the Washington Post. I have a focus on narrative reporting. I have reported on school shootings and gun violence
0:40.1	how it affects children for the past eight years.
0:42.7	I wrote a book about this subject,
0:45.7	wrote about a school shooting in South Carolina,
0:48.9	wrote about the Newtown school shooting,
0:50.7	Yvaldi, Parkland.
0:52.7	I wrote about the mass shooting in Las Vegas.
0:57.0	So, you know, this has been a big part of my life and the work that Hannah and I have done together for a long time.
1:02.8	I don't normally ask John to tell me all his work because I have been an avid follower of John's work since college.
1:10.0	I would read John's pieces and it made me want to go into journalism and especially want to come work at the Washington Post for the kind of narrative work that he always did, and still does.
1:21.7	Well, that's very kind, although Hannah is already better than I am.
1:25.7	That's not, that's fake news.
1:28.0	Which is why we work together now.
1:30.9	I don't have to try as hard.
1:34.7	So we wrote this story that you will hear in a moment,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Washington Post, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Washington Post and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.