Surviving to graduation, Part 3
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 November 2023
⏱️ 37 minutes
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Summary
In Part 3 of our series on schools and gun violence, audio producer Sabby Robinson chronicles the tragic outcome of Huguenot High School’s graduation – which was supposed to mark a moment of cathartic celebration for the school but ended in gunfire.
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Graduation was supposed to be a sweet moment of celebration after a difficult year. Instead, gunfire broke out just after the ceremony, killing a graduate and his stepfather and wounding five others. A former Richmond public school student was charged in the death of the graduate, Shawn Jackson.
The shooting forced the school, its staff and its students, to heal and adapt yet again. Some educators reassessed how they try to keep kids safe. For others, it was too much: They had to walk away. Today on “Post Reports,” audio producer Sabby Robinson examines what happened at graduation and how it left a mark on everyone involved.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Alahay. Today we're bringing you the final episode in our series, |
| 0:07.7 | Surviving to graduation. This is in-depth reporting about how one school is grappling with community violence, |
| 0:14.8 | and it's an intimate look at the toll this kind of violence takes on a school. |
| 0:19.7 | We aired the first two episodes in our show earlier this week, so if you haven't heard them yet, |
| 0:24.7 | please go back and listen. |
| 0:26.7 | And just a warning, this episode contains descriptions of violence and explicit language. |
| 0:32.0 | Okay, here's the show. |
| 0:35.0 | The morning of graduation, Huguenot senior Tristan Bailey was feeling nervous. |
| 0:40.0 | It was a day that wouldn't unfold the way anybody imagined, but this milestone was still a celebration. |
| 0:47.0 | The butterflies were the good kind. |
| 0:49.0 | I'm excited though. |
| 0:51.0 | I'm only nervous because you have to walk across the |
| 0:53.8 | stage from a lot of people. Other than that I'm excited. You were you going to |
| 0:59.2 | trip or something? I probably will. I hope not. |
| 1:03.0 | Don't say that. |
| 1:05.0 | I hope not. |
| 1:08.0 | During his senior year, two of his peers had passed away, |
| 1:11.0 | including his childhood friend Jayden Carter, but he was |
| 1:15.1 | determined to graduate on a high note. I see it as a normal day, but I also see it |
| 1:20.3 | as like a day that's just about me to keep it humble. |
| 1:27.0 | The ceremony was at the Altria Theater in Richmond, one of the few venues in the city |
| 1:32.1 | big enough to fit the hundreds of people expected that day. |
... |
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