The messages stream down the page in black and red: “Are you safe? Where are you? Are you alone?” For its front page on Wednesday, August 30, two days after a fatal shooting on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus, the student newspaper’s front page shared a wall of text messages that students sent and received while on lockdown.
The powerful image went viral after the Daily Tar Heel’s print managing editor, Caitlyn Yaede, posted it on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Tuesday night.
X content
“I shed many tears while typing up these heart-wrenching text messages sent and received by UNC students yesterday,” she wrote.
The Tar Heel’s journalists have provided blanket coverage of the lockdown and aftermath of the shooting this week. As the newspaper reported, a UNC graduate student fatally shot his faculty adviser at the school’s Caudill Laboratories on Monday. He's been charged with murder and having a gun on educational property.
The attack sent shockwaves through the campus, frightening students and faculty who were starting the second week of a new school year, according to the Associated Press. The AP reported that the school canceled classes on Tuesday and Wednesday.
There have been at least 85 incidents of gunfire on school grounds so far in 2023, according to Everytown for Gun Safety. The organization found that those incidents have results in 26 deaths and 57 injuries.
As Teen Vogue has reported, covering traumatic events can take a toll on the mental health and sense of physical safety of student journalists. Students reporting on school shootings, suicide, or episodes of bigotry on their own campuses may know their sources and feel personally impacted by the news they’re sharing with their communities.
In an op-ed for Teen Vogue, Aaditi Lele, who reported on the Covenant School shooting in Tennessee for The Vanderbilt Hustler, wrote about the challenge of covering school shootings: “We are kids reporting on the deaths of kids.”
Stay up-to-date with the politics team. Sign up for the Teen Vogue Take
