Journalism is often described as the first rough draft of history, a draft that grows and evolves over time as details surface.When a teenager carried out a shooting at Evergreen High School last fall, the public had a long list of questions questions students at the school could answer. Watch: Denver7's Colette Bordelon talks with students who revived the student-led newspaper at Evergreen High School in the wake of the shooting 'We matter': Evergreen High School Students revive school paper after shootingHowever, those same students who were left dealing with the fallout of the crime also had to deal with media attention.There were just so many people wanting to get an opinion out of us," said Hailey Clarkson, a sophomore student at Evergreen High School. People just wanted to to have something to write about. It's not like they actually cared what happened.Instead of an aversion to journalism, the experience inspired one student to take matters into her own hands."Our first headline was: Evergreen Strong," Echo Robbins, a junior at the school, said about the first edition of a student-led newspaper she revived in the wake of the shooting.On Sept. 10, 2025, an Evergreen High School student shot two of his classmates before turning the gun on himself. The motive for the shooting remains unknown, but the FBI was investigating the social media accounts connected to the 16-year-old boy two months before the attack. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office (JCSO) said, a day after the shooting, the teen had been "radicalized."18-year-old Matthew Silverstone was one of the students injured in the shooting. The other student who was injured, a 14-year-old boy, was never identified.Denver7 named the shooter when he was first identified, but limits the use of their name in our subsequent reporting in order to focus our coverage on the community impacted by the crime.The day of the shooting was the day Robbins realized she had to write about what was happening within her community."There's been a lot of teachers that have been like, 'Oh, you write for the Claw. I remember that,'" Robbins said with a laugh. "It's been that long that you have to return to it like a memory, and not like, 'That's something we do.'"According to Robbins, the last instance of the Cougar Claw newspaper was in 2008. Since the shooting, she and her classmates have brought back the student-led newspaper, which functions as an after-school club with a publication once a month."We kind of take anyone who really wants to write and anyone who is passionate about it, and these two have definitely been very key people," Robbins said, gesturing at Clarkson and Alex Ostrovskiy, who both write for the paper.Denver7 sat down with the three teenagers the day after JCSO released a massive batch of documents connected to the investigation at Evergreen High School."I think it was definitely something that I should have read at one point in my life. I definitely should have not read it yesterday," Clarkson said about the newly released documents. "It felt like I was like reliving something, and to be honest, I was in a room where I was locked down, and a lot of other people ran. Reading interviews with students on the documents, like, I kind of felt more guilty for not having to run like a lot of other people.The students considered reporting on the documents, but at the moment, believe there are other stories that ought to be covered within their community."If we want this [the paper] to continue, especially after she and I and half the contributors graduate next year, then we kind of need to focus off of this is related to the shooting and go to more," Ostrovskiy said.While the student paper is a conduit for the messages of their interviewees, the teenagers behind the publication believe it sends a message in and of itself.I think it says we matter," Robbins said. We are equally as important as a school and to our own community as our community is to the rest of the world.To keep up with the work being done by the student journalists at Evergreen High School, visit CougarClawNews.com. ...read more read less