First Coast

Class of COVID-19: For Survivors Of Trauma At School, Pandemic Is One More Disruption

WJCT News | By Caitie Switalski Muñoz

Published February 12, 2021 at 11:36 AM EST

Nicolle Martin and Eden Samara, both 17, are seniors at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The students' high school careers were upended by the 2018 shooting. Now, they're getting ready to graduate during a global pandemic.

For the senior class at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the fear and isolation of the pandemic were layered on top of an already traumatic few years in school.

The students graduating this year were freshmen when 17 people were killed and 17 others were injured during the 2018 shooting at their school.

We checked in with students and teachers about what it’s like to finish high school during a pandemic while still trying to heal from the violence that upended their time at Stoneman Douglas.

We've pulled together pieces of our conversations with them about the layers of their experiences.

Eden Samara and Nicolle Martin are both seniors, and they work together on the school yearbook. Sarah Lerner is their yearbook advisor. Diane Wolk-Rogers is a history teacher who recently retired.

Find the rest of the story here.

'Class of COVID-19: An Education Crisis For Florida's Vulnerable Students' WJCT News 89.9 Special

WJCT News 89.9 will air the one-hour radio special on "The Class of COVID-19" on Friday, Feb. 19 at 8 p.m. It will also be streamed on WJCT.org and in the WJCT app.

'Class of COVID-19: An Education Crisis For Florida's Vulnerable Students' Jax PBS Special

WJCT-TV 7.1 will air the one-hour TV special on "The Class of COVID-19" on Monday, February 22 at 9 p.m. on antenna TV channel 7.1, Comcast channels 8 and 440. It will also be streamed on Passport and in the WJCT app. The special will encore on Wednesday, Feb. 24 at 5:00 p.m.

WJCT.org will also be running a portion of many of the stories, starting Friday, Feb. 12.

This story is part of the Florida Public Media series, "Class of COVID-19: An Education Crisis For Florida's Vulnerable Students." Find the whole project — and sign up for our limited-run newsletter — at classofcovid.org.

“Class of COVID-19” is being produced through a partnership with the following public media organizations: WLRN (Miami), WGCU (Fort Myers), WFSU (Tallahassee), WUSF (Tampa), WMFE (Orlando) , WUCF (Orlando), WPBT/WXEL (Miami/Boynton Beach), WJCT (Jacksonville), WEDU (Tampa) and WUWF (Pensacola).

The project is supported in part by the Hammer Family Charitable Foundation and the Education Writers Association.