Capturing the confusion around the notion of a 6-year-old shooting his teacher

Holly Ramer knew the story of a 6-year-old Virginia boy who shot his teacher in class was something very different, even in a country accustomed to school shootings. The Concord, New Hampshire, reporter decided to capture the confusion and hand-wringing around the notion of someone so young being the shooter.

Her piece examined how we perceive such events using the voices of a teacher incredulous that something like this could happen, an expert on memory and how we create personal perceptions of public events, and a retired prosecutor who decided that describing anything done by a 6-year-old as a “deliberate act” was counterintuitive.

The story logged an engagement score of 100 for its first six hours and maintained a score of 95 for more than 24 hours. It was showcased on the home page of The Detroit News and others. It got an eye-catching display on the top of the front page of the print edition of the Las Vegas Sun.