[Inside the Newsroom] The least we can do covering school shootings

The least we can do as a newsroom is to cover responsibly, to the best of our judgment and abilities, and not add to the grief, especially of families who are experiencing the loss and of the affected communities

AT A GLANCE

• The newsletter addresses the grief and trauma experienced by Filipino families due to a rise in school violence, highlighting recent shootings involving students.
• The reporting emphasizes responsible coverage of sensitive incidents, avoiding the identification of minors involved and prioritizing the privacy and wishes of victims' families.
• The newsroom acknowledges its challenges in navigating coverage while striving to support affected communities and calls for systemic reforms to prevent future violence.

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I write this newsletter sharing the mix of grief, terror, and trauma that every Filipino family and community must be going through right now. We see a surge of school violence across the country this year alone. 

Freshest in our consciousness are the shootings at the Ateneo de Zamboanga and the San Jose National High School in Tacloban City. (But there are more: LIST: Cases of school violence in the Philippines in 2026)

All victims were students — young lives with so much promise. All the injured were students, once having a bright picture of the world but will now be carrying emotional wounds for a long time, maybe (hopefully not) even for the rest of their lives. All perpetrators were students — fellow learners with whom other students thought they’d be safe around. 

The incidents happened in public and private schools, in cities separated by at least six provinces — walang pinipili (no place is safer than the other, so to speak). 

The least we can do as a newsroom is to cover responsibly, to the best of our judgment and abilities, and not add to the grief, especially of families who are experiencing the loss and of the affected communities. We strive to do our part, through our reporting and engagement, in what psychological, social, and policy experts say is a whole range of systemic reforms we need to put in place before a child gets their hands on a gun and before the gun reaches the school gates.

READ:

• [OPINION] If our answer starts at the school gate, we are too late
• [OPINION] When a child can reach a gun

You must be wondering how we’re navigating the coverage of sensitive incidents like these. And I will be honest with you, dear reader, that each situation presents us with a new nuance or complication that challenges what we thought we had figured how to handle in the last coverage. 

The basics are there — thanks to various media watchdogs here and abroad that have crafted guidelines for covering incidents of school shootings, minors who are either victims or perpetrators of crime, and people harming themselves. 

When the violence involves minors as attackers and victims, we do not name them, and do not cite personal details beyond what’s necessary and will not make them identifiable. 

In the case of Zamboanga, we only cited the age and class levels of the students. We only carried the government position, not the name, of the shooter’s father to establish how he got hold of licensed guns. (It will be another judgement call if and when the father is called to a Senate hearing.) We set aside the intention to honor the victim, a bright and bemedalled student, with a profile to respect the family’s wishes for privacy, and for their security. 

In the case of Tacloban, we stuck to just mentioning the ages of the shooters, and did not name them despite the identity of their aunt who owned the guns was revealed by the authorities and she was called to a Senate hearing. We were able to run short profiles of the victims because their families agreed to what we believe was their own way of processing their grief and honoring their children. 

READ:

• Tacloban shooting victim Joyancee, the dreamer
• Tacloban school shooting: Chris, 15, kind until the end
• Ayessa Nicole Dazo and her last package

We refused to post the heartbreaking photos that could add to the families and the communities’ grief and could either traumatize or desensitize the broader audience. It was a hard no to the video of the attack being carried out. We’ve opened our opinion section to specialists who are looking at the issue from a lens that’s broader than just beefing up security in schools and the education department hiring more counselors (which are not bad, definitely). 

Still, we sometimes trip, whether it be in a headline or video caption that miss contexts or nuances — and for that Rappler deeply apologizes. 

As with our policy, we correct and apologize for them as soon as we realize the mistakes or our supportive audience calls our attention to them. We acknowledge the hurt and rage that offended communities express, even as we beat ourselves up for not having done better. 

Please trust us, though, that in our core, we Rapplers and like-minded journalists are one with every community in doing the best we can to hopefully put an end to violence threatening our children, our schools, our environments. 

If there is one area where I would admit we may have failed, then it’s in how, communicators that we are, we don’t have the perfect words to express how we grieve with you. 

It is a time of dread, doubt, and distress. Please allow us to continue holding hands with you through all these. – Rappler.com

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