Steve Hartman, a correspondent for CBS News, has covered school shootings across the U.S. since 1997, beginning with an incident at Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi, two years prior to what was then the deadliest school shooting at Columbine High School.
To commemorate these victims, Hartman initiated a documentation project that became part of a CBS News multimedia feature released on November 17, 2024, and is also showcased in All the Empty Rooms, a short documentary set to debut on Netflix on December 1.
For approximately seven years, eight families who tragically lost children in five separate school shooting incidents allowed Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp access to their homes, resulting in over 10,000 photographs. The documentary short captures Bopp meticulously photographing beneath beds and inside drawers, ensuring comprehensive coverage of each room.
This account delves into the creation of the 30-minute documentary, which chronicles Hartman and Bopp’s efforts to photograph three bedrooms that once belonged to victims of school shootings.
Personal Spaces Remembered
The documentary features the themed bedroom of 14-year-old Dominic Blackwell, one of two teenagers who died in the 2019 Saugus High School shooting in Santa Clarita, California. The room serves as a memorial to both the character he admired and to Blackwell himself, as he was a collector of character memorabilia.
A laundry basket in the room holds clothes that have remained unwashed for over five years since his death, with the exception of socks and underwear. His mother, Nancy, explains, “We wished to preserve his unique scent in his room, as it is so distinctively him.”
Other parents featured in the film similarly endeavored to keep their deceased children’s rooms largely untouched to retain their scent. Chad Scruggs, father of Hallie Scruggs, a 9-year-old who died in the 2023 Covenant School shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, yearns for her smell, including her sweaty hair, and finds solace closest to it on her bed. His wife, Jada, periodically visits the room to smell the blanket Hallie used nightly. Her cat-patterned hoodie sweatshirt remains in pristine condition.
The family of nine-year-old Jackie Cazares, one of the 19 children and two teachers tragically lost in the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, has maintained her bedroom so perfectly that the lights have not been extinguished since her passing. A single new item in the room is a chair beside her bed, where her father Javier sits daily. Two stuffed animals within the room are programmed to play her voice when squeezed.
Cindy Muehlberger, whose 15-year-old daughter Gracie was also a victim of the 2019 Saugus High School shooting, visits her daughter’s room daily to bid “good morning” and “good night.” Gracie would likely have cherished having her bedroom featured in the documentary, given her fondness for staging performances in her room, which included somersaults off her bed. She would distribute invitations to family members and arrange seating. In her room, a dress intended for a school dance remains on a hanger, alongside a box containing notes she penned to her future self, advising her to “obviously wear something cute” for the first day of high school and to “not be nervous. You’ll encounter both lifelong friends and some adversaries. Avoid dwelling on negativity.”
The Underlying Message
Across almost three decades of reporting on school shootings for CBS News, Hartman—renowned for his human interest narratives—was typically assigned to produce segments designed to maintain viewer optimism. In the film, he states, “I’ve been pigeonholed as the purveyor of uplifting, positive news. I’m the one brought in at the conclusion to renew people’s belief in humanity.”
However, generating such segments grew increasingly challenging as the frequency of school shootings escalated.
“My approach has effectively been to gloss over the gravity of these events,” he reflects. “Consider this: attempting to uncover positive news amidst school shootings and numerous mass casualty incidents. That was my mandate. By week’s end, I was to reassure everyone that life remains valuable. I can no longer approach a school shooting with the aim of finding a positive perspective.”
He also perceived a growing disengagement from these segments among viewers: “It seemed America was moving past each school shooting with increasing speed. I recognized the need to try a different approach. What alternatives did I have?”
Hartman believes media outlets often overemphasize the perpetrators, viewing his project as an attempt to shift focus back to the victims: “The entire purpose of this is to minimize verbal commentary. My desire is simply for people to view the images and allow them to convey their own message.”
The documentary concludes with Hartman’s contemplation: “My hope is that every American could be virtually transported into one of those bedrooms, even for a brief moment. Such an experience would profoundly change our nation.”
