Sentinel staffers net top prizes for reporting

Sun Sentinel staffers took home four first-place honors for non-deadline news reporting, education beat reporting, commentary and special interest publication at the 24th annual Sunshine State Awards of the Florida Professional chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists on Saturday in Miami.

Scott Travis won top honors for his stories on how school districts defend themselves against lawsuits involving sexual abuse by blaming the sexually abused children.

“What pleases me most is that the Broward and Palm school districts pledged to end this outrageous practice after we brought it to the public’s attention,” Travis said.

Stephen Hobbs won first place for non-deadline reporting among the state’s larger papers for his report on how the state is slow to take action against doctors who are accused of endangering patients. Hobbs’ work on the same series also won a second-place award in the data reporting category.

Among magazines, Mark Gauert won first place for commentary and criticism that appeared in the Sun Sentinel’s City & Shore Magazine. Gauert and Anderson Greene also were first-place finishers in the special interest/trade publication category for the City & Shore Magazine’s PRIME edition and second place for City & Shore Magazine’s cover designs.

In the society’s most prestigious award, the James Batten Award for Public Service, Brittany Wallman and John Maines won second place for their stories on Fort Lauderdale’s leaky pipes and fouled neighborhoods.

Other staffers who took second place were Diane Lade, in environment, health and science beat reporting, Michael Mayo for blog writing, and Susan Stocker, for a breaking news photograph.

Staffers who won third place were Susannah Bryan, for community beat reporting; Jeremy Lang, for headline writing, Mayo, for food and travel beat reporting, and Rosemary O’Hara, for editorial writing,