Inquirer probe of violence in schools honored

The Inquirer has won a prestigious award from Investigative Reporters and Editors for its investigation of violence in Philadelphia schools, "Assault on Learning."

In presenting the IRE Award, the judges praised the Inquirer stories as "local reporting at its highest level."

The seven-part series was reported by John Sullivan, Susan Snyder, Kristen A. Graham, Dylan Purcell, and Jeff Gammage.

The multi-media project included the work of Frank Wiese, multi-media editor, and photographers David Swanson, Ron Tarver, and Sharon Gekoski-Kimmel.

The judges added: "We all know anecdotally that urban schools are tough places to survive, let alone learn, but reporters at The Philadelphia Inquirer went so much further in quantifying the violence and personalizing it in an irrefutable way.

"The Inquirer demonstrated the school system underreported violent incidents and routinely failed to protect teachers and students. An intervention program was unmasked as nothing more than paper-shuffling. Following the project, the district has established a new protocol for reporting serious incidents and crime. For putting five reporters on this project for more than year, for overcoming the obstacles of closed environments and sealed records, and for putting a face on a violent school system and its victims, IRE honors The Inquirer for exemplary investigative work."

In a note to the staff Monday following the announcement, Inquirer editor Stan Wischnowski said the award reminded everyone of "just how important our watchdog role remains in this community we serve."

He praised the staff that produced the series, including reporters, editors, photographers, and multimedia specialists, saying, "This investigative work was highlighted by a series of gripping narratives, augmented by video narratives, and supported by dogged reporting and a sophisticated level of data analysis. The power of the reporting has made safety in the schools one of the top initiatives for a city grappling with serious crime."

The investigative report, which included multimedia components and school-by-school violence data, may be found at http://www.philly.com/assaultonlearning

The series was published beginning on March 27, 2011.

Named as finalists in the same category were: the Washington Post, "Million-Dollar Wasteland," Debbie Cenziper, Jennifer Jenkins, John Mummolo, and Meg Smith; the Los Angeles Times, "Billions to Spend," Michael Finnegan, Gale Holland, Paul Pringle, Doug Smith, and Ben Welsh; McClatchy Newspapers, "Honor Tarnished," Jonathan S. Landay; and the Associated Press, "NYPD Spying," Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan, and Chris Hawley.

The Inquirer's work won the print/online large division in the contest, which awarded honors for 2011 work in 15 categories across media platforms and market sizes.

This year's winners were selected from among more than 430 entries. The award will be presented at the group's annual awards luncheon June 16 in Boston.

The awards, which have been presented since 1979, recognize the nation's best watchdog journalism.

The awards listing can be found at http://www.ire.org

IRE is a nonprofit founded by journalists in 1975 to support and train journalists who do investigative reporting.

In announcing the awards, Lea Thompson, contest committee cochairwoman, praised news organizations for their commitment to investigative reporting, saying, "Despite devastating cutbacks across the news business, investigative reporting is alive and well, and really making a difference in our society."

The Inquirer's work on school violence also recently won the inaugural Weiss Award for Investigative Journalism, sponsored by the Center for Public Interest Journalism at Temple University's School of Communications and Theater.