NEW YORK – Sun Journal staff have received an honorable mention citation from the Associated Press Managing Editors for their investigative series School Security in the under-40,000-circulation category.

In late October, a team of 14 Sun Journal reporters tested the security at 37 local schools in our readership area and found it shockingly lacking. Within 10 days of publication of the investigative piece, Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron called on the state’s emergency preparedness task force to tackle school security. Staff followed up at the schools two months later and again last May, reporting on the schools’ progress.

Contest judging was based on how the newspaper made full use of its resources in serving the public good. Work demonstrating evidence of positive change, benefiting the public was given strong consideration.