Texas Tribune, ProPublica and FRONTLINE share Online Journalism Award and national Edward R. Murrow Award

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The Texas Tribune, ProPublica and FRONTLINE are the recipients of two national awards for our coverage of the aftermath of the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

The three newsrooms shared the Online Journalism Award for explanatory reporting (large newsrooms) for “Unprepared,” a package of stories across 2023 about the flawed law enforcement response to the deadliest school shooting in Texas history, and a national Edward R. Murrow Award for “Inside the Uvalde Response,” a 54-minute FRONTLINE documentary that aired on Dec. 5.

Juanita Ceballos, one of FRONTLINE’s Investigative Journalist Equity Initiative filmmakers, wrote and directed “Inside the Uvalde Response” alongside FRONTLINE producer and editor Michelle Mizner and co-producer and senior editor Lauren Prestileo. The series involved reporting by Lomi Kriel, Lexi Churchill, Perla Trevizo and Jessica Priest from the ProPublica-Tribune investigative unit and Jinitzail Hernández and Zach Despart from the Tribune.

Following our joint investigation, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland unveiled the findings of a federal probe into the response. Garland pointed to missteps that led to delays in confronting the shooter. Then he turned to what he said was the biggest failure, one that required the most urgent action to avoid another colossal breakdown such as the one that cost lives that day: the lack of sufficient active shooter training.

“Our children deserve better than to grow up in a country where an 18-year-old has easy access to a weapon that belongs on the battlefield, not in a classroom,” Garland said. “And communities across the country, and the law enforcement officers who protect them, deserve better than to be forced to respond to one horrific mass shooting after another. But that is the terrible reality that we face. And so it is the reality that every law enforcement agency in every community across the country must be prepared for.”

Garland’s comments and call to immediately prioritize active shooter training across the country were the first public acknowledgment by a government official that some children and teachers would have survived if law enforcement had acted quickly. They also validated our finding about the astounding dearth of such instruction across the country.

The three newsrooms have received several other recognitions for our Uvalde collaboration. Earlier this year, we shared a National Magazine Award, were a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting, and won the Collier Prize for State Government Accountability for this coverage. Our reporting was based on confidential investigative materials we obtained, but in addition, we joined other news organizations in lawsuits to press for the official release of records. Earlier this month, the city of Uvalde released a trove of records — the first government entity to do so — but the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District and the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office continue to resist our continuing demand for records.

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