The Black & White Vol. 59 Issue 4

the

B&W radio

the

B&W

!"#$%&'(#%)"*#$*+,#-.&& !"##$%&'(')*''

!"#$%&/0$01#$1&'(#%)" &+**$%,-"#.

!"#$%&/0$01#$1&'(#%)" /#0*$%1+2-+2

!"#$%&!")(23%#)$&4-0(& !"#"234"%1'502'

1%B*&'"&,')#'<F+F?!(F'=VKT?

theblackandwhite.net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

The Black & White is an open forum for student views from Walt Whitman High School, 7100 Whittier Blvd., Bethesda, MD, 20817. The Black & White’s website is www. theblackandwhite.net.

The B&W magazine is published six times a year. Signed opinion pieces reflect the positions of individual staff members and not necessarily the opinion of Walt Whitman High School or Montgomery County Public Schools. Unsigned editorial pieces reflect the opinion of the newspaper.

All content in the paper is reviewed to ensure that it meets the highest level of legal and ethical standards with respect to the material as libelous, obscene or invasive of

2

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

privacy. All corrections are posted on the website.

Recent awards include the 2019 CSPA Gold Crown, 2018 and 2017 CSPA Hybrid Silver Crowns, 2013 CSPA Gold Medalist and 2012 NSPA Online Pacemaker.

The Black & White encourages readers to submit opinions on relevant topics in the form of letters to the editor, which must be signed to be printed. Anonymity can be granted on request. The Black & White reserves the right to edit letters for content and space. Letters to the editor may be emailed to theblackandwhiteonline@gmail.com.

Annual mail subscriptions cost $35 ($120 for four-year subscription) and can be purchased through the online school store.

LET TER FROM THE EDITORS If we’ve learned anything from this past year, it’s that once given the opportunity to be heard, young people’s voices can spark sustainable and tangible change. We’ve seen the voic-

long-overdue attention.

The student body has always been powerful — we’ve advocated for better mental health resources, protested against police brutality and fought for climate justice — but what we have to say matters now more than ever before.

The changes the country has undergone for the last few years tie in so many ways to us. So as time in over a year, it’s essential that leadership within the school, county, state and country hear both our concerns and our enthusiasm.

As a staff, we feel a responsibility to advocate for the well-being and support of students at Whitman. In our staff editorial this cycle, we chose to direct our voice toward the Whitman administration, outlining actionable options for better mental health support for students transi-

tioning back to in-person school.

With the usual stress of academics and the new anxiety of returning to an in-person learning environment weighing on most students’ minds, our writers shared their own perspecdure the pandemic. One found personal growth through video games, and for another, writing poems became an outlet for activism. Packing power and calls for action into just a few short causes she cares about most.

But at The Black & White, we also know the importance of recognizing what all Whitman students have to say, not just our publication’s staff. To that end, our writers surveyed students on their favorite memories about in-person school. From passing friends in the hallways and hanging out in the media center to eating lunch in their favorite teacher’s room and events like Battle of the Classes, students shared the moments that stuck with them most, even after a year of being apart.

Beyond quotes and anecdotes, though, we feel a responsibility to ensure that every student feels represented. That’s why in this magazine, we featured guest columnists from outside The Black & White’s staff to cover some of the most pressing issues facing students: racism and sexual harassment. The Black & White should be an outlet for what matters most to our school and community, a feat that we can’t achieve on our own.

We’d like to thank our zealous adviser Ryan Derenberger, our driven editors, our diligent writers and our visionary production team for their tireless work in producing this magazine. Amplifying a generation will take time and teamwork, and we at The Black & White want, above all else, to help.

Students: We want to hear your voice! If you would like to submit an opinion or a blog to the Black & White, send your idea to theblackandwhiteonline@gmail.com. Stories must be 300 words minimum.

photo by CHARLIE SAGNER

Emily London

Managing Editor

Sammy Heberlee Editor-in-Chief

Holly Adams

Managing Editor

3

6

Student concerts amplify feelings of connection

1 8 10

Music helps students, teachers cope during quarantine

Hall of Famer Roger Staubach discusses his success, both on and off the field

12 14

A 4

miss the most about in-person school

Groypers spread alt-right beliefs across the Internet, in the Whitman community

16 17

In students’ own voices: What they

A writer’s experience with making friends through video games, realizing his own biases

Parents sue MCPS for its gender identity guidelines, students fear lawsuit’s consequences

student of color at Whitman

21 22

its power to fight for social justice

STAFF EDITORIAL: Administration should focus on mental health during the return to school

COVID-19 vaccine reaches community, teacher group helps navigate appointment sign-ups

28 30

in-school sexual harassment guidelines

A writer’s perspective on poetry and

24 25

Guest columnist calls for improvement of

Issue 4, April 2021

20

Guest columnist discusses being a

Sprinting to first period: Teachers compete in sports outside of school

Crossword: Back 2 School 5

Virtual concerts serve as high notes for community members during the pandemic

by Aleydis Barnes

A

s the “Prelude” to Bach’s Cello Suite No.1 nears its end, junior Uma Plenz artfully manipulates the bow balancing between her

sic. As the last note hangs in the air, she glances up to the Zoom call where she’s streaming her performance to nursing home residents. A beat of silence passes, as her 15-person audience moves to unmute.

And then it arrives: thunderous, crackling applause from a screen peppered with blurry faces and black boxes.

For Plenz, the heartwarming response of Music for the Soul, her monthly virtuconnection that music offers.

“It made me so happy to see that music was helping,” Plenz said, “and that they can get that human contact, albeit virtually, even though they literally couldn’t see their friends, they couldn’t see their family and all the staff was covered in personal protective equipment.”

Plenz started Music for the Soul as a way to help combat, through the power of music, the isolation that many community members felt as a result of the pandemic. unteers to perform live instrumental music for residents and health care workers in

6

retirement and nursing homes across the country.

Plenz’s idea for a virtual music program for community members sprouted after she read a New York Times article in May detailing how, during the pandemic, classical music has comforted health care workers and patients at New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital in Manhattan. She understood how reassuring being connected to the outside world could be for hospital patients, so Plenz sought to implement her own program in the Bethesda community.

Junior Avantika Thyagarajan, who works on the program’s outreach efforts and email communications, joined Music for the Soul when it started in June. Various studies and articles detailing music’s effects on relieving stress also inspired the program’s creation, she said.

“We found that music is physically good for people, especially elderly people,” Thyagarajan said. “It really calms people down, and people notice the physical difference in themselves when they listen to music. It’s really good, especially during COVID when everything is so stressful, that it’s calming and gives you a breath of fresh air from everything that’s going on.”

Beyond the soothing effects that audience members might feel from the vir-

tual concerts, Plenz said that musicians to play live while quarantining. Whitman orchestra rehearsals have shifted online, with Plenz and the other musicians having to mute themselves on Zoom and play their instruments separately. With Music for the Soul, Plenz hopes to bring back the sense of togetherness that normally comes from playing, she said.

“With our project, you get to perform live, which makes a big difference,” Plenz said. “You get to perform for other people, and you get to see their reactions; you get to play things that you love.”

For families that have been separated due to COVID-19 restrictions, the concerts also offer the chance to connect with loved ones through music. Sophomore Ben Waterman was able to virtually perform piano pieces for his grandparents, who live in an assisted living center in Michigan.

“They sent me an email after [the concert], just to say ‘thank you,’ that they enjoyed watching all of the performers, and that it was a nice thing to do — a break from their normal routine,” Waterman people enjoyed the performances and that it brought a little joy to the monotony of pandemic life.”

Music for the Soul also returned a sense of normalcy to local residents this past winter through a special holiday concert with more than 50 community members in attendance, Thyagarajan said.

“We asked people from the neighborhood, we sent out a Listserv and asked people from the general community to tune

in to the Zoom to listen to music,” Thyagarajan said. “We weren’t expecting much to happen, but a bunch of people showed up.

It was really nice and was like the holiday season.”

Students interested in performing can sign up at Music for the Soul’s website for their monthly concerts. In a typical 45-minute Zoom concert, each performer has around 15 to 20 minutes to play the pieces they’ve chosen. Performing student musicians can also earn Student Service Learning hours, a community service requirement for graduating.

Mary Anne Thomas, a health care worker at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, attended Music for the Soul’s February concert. Thomas said the patients for whom she cares have regularly shared their own stories of feeling isolated due to COVID-19 restrictions. Attending the concert made her feel connected to her community and provided much-needed human interaction for all audience members, she said.

“Performing live kind of brings you together with everyone else who’s watching,” Thomas said. “It sounds cheesy, but it was really cool to clap for each performer and then see the chat where everybody else was doing that too. After the concert, I was feeling hopeful for the future.”

Links for the monthly Zoom concerts can be found on the 20817 Bethesda Listserv, accessible by emailing 20817bb+subscribe@groups.io, and interested performers can sign up on Music for the Soul’s website, www.music4soul.net.

graphics by ALESSIA PEDRAZZINI

7

Striking a different chord

Students and teachers turn to music during the pandemic

by Caitlin Cowan

8 Album art adapted from Arctic Monkeys’ Favorite Worst Nightmare, © 2007 Domino Recording Company

graphic by SAMANTHA RUBIN

S

enior Gideon Helf plants himself

a notebook and a guitar. He sits there for hours, playing with different hooks that have been stuck in his head and hoping to tap into some creativity. He starts with a chord progression, For all of high school, the Whitman music program and swim team had been like second homes to Helf, and without them this year, he felt lost, he said. Stranded by the pandemic, Helf challenged himself to use his free time to write a song a day.

“At the beginning of the pandemic, everyone was down in the dumps,” Helf said. “But when I was listening to a song or playing the guitar, I had an outlet to spew out that pent-up emotion.”

He was inspired to make the daily commitment by his friend Davis Gestiehr (‘19), a fellow songwriter, who did the same, he said. A year in, Helf is now refriends in their band Freddy Gang.

“I think music really is amazing because it has the power to just entrance people and send them to another dimension — to just get lost,” he said. “I can block out everything else that’s happening and just listen to the music and absorb the art, which is really healing.”

While the pandemic has placed a temporary halt on normalcy, music has for many in the Whitman community.

An informal Black & White survey of a sampling of students from all grade levels found that 78% listen to more music now than they did at the start of the pandemic, and 74% said that music has served as a coping mechanism.

Junior Jeremy Kaufman’s life revolves around listening to his carefully-crafted Spotify playlists. He often spends up to three hours each day on the app, he said.

“I just listen to it all the time, whenever I’m doing anything,” Kaufman said.

“Whether that be homework or even taking a test, I am listening to music.”

Kaufman has used his newfound time

To listen to Arctic Monkeys, scan here:

74% of students have used music as a coping mechanism at home to uncover new genres and discover new artists who have a positive outlook on life and have fun with their music, he said. Some of his new favorite songs, such as “Barcelona Boots” by Arlie and “High and Low” by Empire Of The Sun, have original and upbeat melodies which serve as reminders that things will get better, he said.

“COVID has been hard because I don’t get to see my friends as much as I want to and go into schools to see teachers and stuff like that,” Kaufman said. “So I turn to music to help me feel less alone.

It just makes me feel more calm and less scared of the world right now.”

Like Kaufman, many other students are also using music as a distraction from current events. Senior Sophie Holmes has used music to deal with personal challenges, she said.

For most of the past year, Holmes was able to see a small group of friends, letting her preserve some semblance of social interaction. But when her parents grounded ment sunk in. The dependable company of music emerged as her savior, she said.

“My parents were keeping me trapped in the house, so I wasn’t able to do anything or go anywhere,” Holmes said. “I was stuck with my thoughts only, and it was not a good situation. But I listened to a lot of music and learned new songs on my guitar, and that helped me cope with that.”

Music has also helped teachers cope with the daily stresses of online teaching.

English teacher Omari James, an avid guitarist and drummer, listens to his favorite playlists throughout the day to give him motivation during online classes.

“Over the pandemic, especially with online school, my relationship with music has been purely therapeutic,” James said.

“I’ve been listening to a lot of chillwave music, which is really nice to help me sit back and breathe.”

Like most teachers and students, James’ schedule gives him barely enough time between classes to take a deep noise-canceling earbuds and escape reality, no matter how short that moment may be, he said.

“I’ll have a class, and then students

minutes before the next class,” James said. “Because I’m so overwhelmed and stressed, I’ll choose to just put on one clasinstead of going to the bathroom.”

For students as well, online school has created a sense of restlessness. After logging out of Zoom for the day, senior Nikki Widra opens up Spotify on her computer and blasts the album “Favourite Worst Nightmare” by Arctic Monkeys.

Dancing to the catchy electric guitar riffs and punchy vocals is how Widra releases her pent-up energy from staring at a screen for hours. Listening to this music helps her focus on the upbeat mood of her favorite songs rather than the stresses of that day, she said.

“Music is a distraction on bad days, and since I’m cooped up in the house all day, music is a good way to cope,” Widra said. “I’ve gotten into higher energy music to overcompensate for the lack of energy in my life right now.”

Senior Willo Sheldon, like a majority of respondents to the survey, said that music has provided her with comfort during these unprecedented times. Recently, she has opted for nostalgic music like songs

by Twenty One Pilots that provide her with a supportive visit to the past, she said.

“I think I’ve regressed back to my middle school comfort music, which I’d say is kind of embarrassing,” Sheldon said. “But listening to older music makes me feel comfortable in times like this because middle school sucked and right now sucks.”

In the survey, students described the same satisfying feeling of pressing play on their favorite song after an isolating day, comparing the experience to “a warm hug,” “a calm in the storm” and “returning home.”

Like many of these students, Sheldon didn’t have a lot of time to listen to music last year because she was always on the move, she said.

“Now, I have all the time in the world to listen to music,” Sheldon said. “It’s comforting to put a background noise in the silence.”

9

More than Football: q&A With Hall of FamER Roger Staubach

by Cailey Thalman Roger Staubach is a former NFL football player who played quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys from 1969 to 1979.

Over the course of his career, he appeared in four Super Bowls, winning Super Bowl VI in 1972 and Super Bowl XII in 1978.

He also played in six Pro Bowls and was named the Super Bowl VI MVP. Staubach earned an NFL Hall of Fame induction in 1985 following his storied career with the Cowboys.

Prior to his professional career, Staubach played football for the United States Naval Academy, winning the Heisman Trophy in 1963 and leading the Midshipmen to the national championship where they eventually lost in the Cotton Bowl. The Naval Academy retired No. 12 in Staubach’s honor.

In 1977, Staubach started a real estate company, The Staubach Company, which had become extremely successful by the time he sold the business in 2008. To round out his career, former President Donald Trump awarded Staubach in 2018 with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the U.S. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

The Black & White: Why did you start playing football, and what made you want to play professionally?

Roger Staubach: When I was growing up, I was an only child. I lived in a neighborhood with a lot of kids who played lots of sports. I really got into baseball when I was seven, and soon, that turned into basketball and baseball. I didn’t start playing football until the seventh grade when I played halfback. When I got to high school, I played all three sports, including receiver on the foot-

10

ball team. My life changed when the coaches decided they wanted me to be a quarterwanted to switch me to quarterback because the other players really listened to me and I had a good arm from playing baseball. My terback, and the more I played, the more I really liked it.

RS: During my senior year, when the coachanother guy that I had to compete against to get the starting spot. I got a chance to play in the opening game of the season. We were losing at the end of the game, and I threw a touchdown pass to win the game for us.

That was truly a life-changing moment for me because if we hadn’t won that game, I would’ve lost the starting spot and my entire career would’ve looked dramatically different. made the biggest impact on you during your career?

RS: When I was in third grade, I spent all of my time playing sports, which meant that I didn’t do my homework or study as hard as I should have. My teacher at the time took me to the back of the room and scolded me. She told me I couldn’t go on the playground until I started doing my homework. That had a real impact on my life because it really drilled into my head that I still needed to study and really pay attention to my grades in school. I continued that mindset throughout high school and got good grades, which allowed me to eventually attend the Naval

Academy — one of the best things that happened to me. I also stayed out of a lot of trouble in high school because I was so focused on getting good grades, as well as getting better at whatever sport I was playing, that I had no time left. The education I received also translated to my life after football when I started my own real estate company. Your education stays with you forever, and I failed to understand that as a young kid.

B&W: What’s something that you’ve learned in your later life that you wish your younger self knew?

RS: You want to get the right people in the right places working together. That creates teamwork, and that’s something so important in not only football but life in general.

I had to learn to not only care about myself. I learned a lot from sports about how important that was, and being a quarterback helped me with that because it was all about the team. That translated to my real estate company after football because a company has to work together to do what’s best for its clients the same way a team has to work together to do what’s best for the team. Surrounding yourself with good, dependable people and understanding the importance of caring about others is something that everyone should take to heart and carry throughout their life.

B&W: What advice do you have for young people trying to achieve the level of success that you have, in football or otherwise?

RS: No matter what you choose to do, working hard is the most important thing. jams on the extra mile.” If you continue to

give the extra mile in your life, you have a much better chance of achieving whatever you want to do because most people aren’t dedicated enough to give that extra effort.

Some people are born with natural talent, but those people don’t always work on that talent. People who put in hard work will people because success doesn’t just fall in your lap. I always worked to make myself a better player in whatever sport I was playing, and I think that hugely helped my career.

B&W: What do you hope your legacy is?

RS: I would like my legacy to be that I gave a damn about someone else and that I put my family above all else. I’ve been married and three great-grandkids. Being an only child, that’s a huge change for me. I hope I’ve helped others and put people before myself. And I also hope that I’m known for realizing that other people have gotten me to where I am today, and I want to make sure I’ve thanked those people. You can never do it by yourself, so I hope everyone that’s been there for me along the way knows how much I’ve appreciated them.

graphic by EM

MA LIN

TOP: Former NFL player Roger Staubach prepares to hand the ball off to a running back. Staubach spent the entirety of his 10-year professional career with the Dallas Cowboys. BOTTOM: Staubach looks up the field for an open reciever while playing at the United States Naval Academy. Staubach played football for the USNA throughout college. photos courtesy ROGER STAUBACH

“

I would like my legacy to be that I gave a damn about someone else

”

11

Craving the classroom: students reminisce about in-person school memories

by Lily Freeman and Zoe Cantor

Whitman, what do you miss the most about in-person school?

For many, it’s a loaded question. The vast majority of Whitman stuengaging in lessons and developing relationships over computer screens. only in their imaginations. For seniors, losing events like homecoming, Battle of the Classes and prom — high school rites of passage — has been heartbreaking, although still incomparable to the losses caused by the pandemic itself.

In a May 2020 Gallup poll, almost a third of parents with schoolaged children reported their children had suffered emotionally due to the pandemic. Mental health-related visits to emergency rooms for adolescents spiked dramatically — 31% among children aged 12 to 17 — during March to October 2020 compared with the same period in 2019,

Eli Blanks, senior:

Marlo Friedland, senior:

“I miss being able to see my friends without worrying about the pandemic. Being able to hug people, hang out during lunch without masks, share food and laugh with each other made school bearable.”

Parisi Fida, junior:

according to a November report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, signaling that the lack of in-person ventures has been strikingly detrimental.

The Black & White surveyed a sampling of Whitman students across all grade levels to learn which aspects of high school they’ve missed the most during virtual learning. Students often shared the seemingly inconsequential activities that many took for granted — activities like spending early mornings in the media center, greeting teachers at the beginning of class or passing friends in the hallways.

Whitman students, when we eventually return to the slog of 6 a.m. wake-up times, stress-packed schedules and crowded hallways, let’s not forget the little quirks of in-person school that made our hearts twinge

“I miss being able to interact easily with my classmates and the non-instructional times that we got to spend together, like lunchtimes and walking in the hallways. I also transferred to Whitman during virtual school, so I haven’t really been able to get a chance to experience the school outside of the classwork aspect.”

“Whitman Drama. I miss saying hi to friends in the hallways. I miss making friends with random kids in my classes. I wish I could have a freshman or underclassman to bring under my wing, like many upperclassmen did for me when I was a freshman and sophomore. But yeah, I mainly miss Whitman Drama and performing in person with my friends.

Singing in choir and practicing for shows is a special thing that I’m really sad I missed my last year of.”

Sydney Dever-Mendenhall, sophomore: “I miss being able to have casual conversations with our teachers and other students. Online school makes it incredibly

curriculum of many classes is getting shortened. I would like to have the full experience of my classes and learn all the material instead of just some of it.”

Mira Chenok, sophomore: “Walking friends to their classes on the way to mine, laughing and stealing each other’s food at lunch and rainy days in classrooms when the lights are off.”

12

Lauren Kim, freshman:

“I looked forward to getting to know my teachers other than through a screen. I know that online school is greatly affecting teachers’ mental health too, so I miss getting to build relationships with them in person.”

Isabel Ostheimer, junior:

“I miss being able to interact with friends and do school events, such as football games, shows and dances.”

Lucia Gutierrez, freshman:

-

freshman in high school. Of course, as any student would, I miss the ‘convos’ in the hallway, building real relationships with teachers and the overall ambience of a real classroom.”

Shreekanya Mitra, sophomore:

Lucy Lieber, junior

“My favorite thing about school was when I’d be walking in the hallways and

“I really miss the transition time we had in between classes and seeing classmates in the hallway. It was always a nice surprise to see who you would run into, and it was also fun to coordinate paths with friends so you could talk to them before going to your next class.”

to the whole day. Even if it was just a quick ‘hi,’ I always appreciated it.”

Merin Thomas, junior:

Tanushree Pal, sophomore:

“I miss seeing my friends casually. A lot of people are sort of ‘school friends’ who you had a good social bond with but didn’t see out of school, and now that’s gone. Also, I really miss connecting with my teachers. That’s something that’s extremely hard to do online. Even if you’ve known them for years, it’s not the same.”

“I miss being able to see my friends and actively ask teachers questions.”

Antonio Pereda, freshman:

Colby Reeder, senior:

“I miss walking into class and having the teachers welcome you into class.

I also miss seeing all of my friends in the parking lot before school.”

Jeannie She, senior:

“Being able to pop into your favorite teacher’s classrooms during class switches or lunchtime to say hi and chat.”

“Seeing my friends.”

Arjun Mohan, freshman:

“I miss getting to feel a sense of community when I go to school. I was really looking forward to actually meeting new people, and doing virtual icebreakers isn't the same.”

Julia Federing, senior:

“Hanging out with my friends at lunch.

Talking to my classmates — not super close friends but people in your grade who you talk to now and then. Also just being out of my house.”

Nina Madeddu, senior:

“I miss seeing people. I wish we could’ve won Battle of the Classes. I miss football games and Drumline. I miss being able to interact with teachers and doing labs in science class. I miss being able to see people I know in the halls and making that awkward half-smile-nod-thing at them when we pass each other.”

Paula Gonzalez Alvarez, senior:

“Other than being with friends, I miss the big events, such as Battle of the Classes and Vikeathon.”

Grace Adkins, junior: “Bonding with people in classes.”

Ela Shroff, senior:

“I miss taking the ride-on bus in the morning because it made me feel like I was going somewhere important.”

Kat Gorlenko, senior:

“I miss Child Development, where I got to work with the cutest little preschoolers every day in person — playing with them on the playground and getting hugs. They always brightened my dull days, and seeing them online is just not the same.”

Adam Erdman, junior:

“I miss seeing friends and learning in a more one-on-one environment. I know for at least my physics class we would be doing more hands-on interactive labs in in-person school compared to the do-it-yourself at-home labs we do now. I’m on Drumline too, so I miss our weekly practices; but keep your eyes peeled.”

Rachel Chen, junior:

“I miss Whitman Drama and all of the people involved, and I miss meeting new people in my classes.”

Sonya Rashkovan, sophomore: “I miss the little things from school, like seeing my friends and doing our secret handshakes. I miss walking the hallways the most because it would give me a real sense of community and belonging to the study body. I collect sneakers, so hallways have also given me an opportunity to see shoes people are wearing and different sneaker trends among the student body. Finally, this is very sentimental, but I miss seeing the Whitman building in the morning while students walk into the building and breathe life into the school.”

13

By Alex Schupak

Democracy dies In darkness, and Groypers are here to shut off the lights

Some names have been changed to respect students’ privacy.

F

or most, a cartoon of an overweight, green frog reaching for a light switch underneath the phrase “Democracy dies in darkness” means little. But for junior Ryan, who frequently browses this type of content, the message is loud and clear: Groypers want to see the fall of democracy.

“They hate democracy and see it as having failed them,” Ryan said. “A handful just actively support a right-wing dictator at this point.”

Groypers are an online community of predominantly young white men who hold and share far-right political beliefs. They communicate through cryptic memes and inside jokes, which makes their dangerous messages undetectable to the average social media user.

Without prior knowledge of their terminology, it would be nearly impossible for an outsider to identify their extremist beliefs, Ryan said.

Whitman’s overtly liberal community seems like the last place for alt-right sentiments nature and proximity to D.C. make it a hotbed of democratic values. But in this progressive environment, a small subset of conservative students have taken refuge in online communities that are breeding grounds for bigotry and conspiracy theories. communities was in middle school, when anti-feminist compilation videos and conservaYouTube feed. In seventh grade, Ryan created an Instagram account where he reposted offensive memes. After posting a 9/11-related meme with a caption that was extremely insensitive, Pyle administrators called him down to their

14

school over what posts I should be allowed to make and what was inappropriate,” he said.

“And it started annoying me, so it kind of

pushed me toward that, ‘I can’t say this or this, but these people get me.’”

It’s common for people, especially young people, to “try on” various outsider political ideologies, said Jesse Walker, author of “The United States of Paranoia,” a book detailing the history of conspiracy theories in the U.S. “A lot of people will move among groups that, to an outsider, seem incompatible — but they’re trying on not just identities, but styles of opposition,” Walker said. “I mean, some of it has to do with style, some of it actually has to do with ideas. If you’re moving among different forms of dissatisfaction with the status quo, it makes sense that you would try one and then try something else.”

Today, Ryan says he enjoys browsing Groyper accounts for what he considers humorous content; though he’s politically right-leaning, he doesn’t identify as a Groyper.

He stopped posting memes in eighth grade and avoids political discussions in school to maintain good relations with other students and friends who have views from across the political spectrum.

Like Ryan, many right-wing individuals feel that their political opinions have been silenced by “mainstream” liberal society, from social media to educational institutions. Members of online alt-right communities often use aliases or remain completely anonymous in order to share their views without fear of repercussion, Ryan said.

“You seek out people online who have the same beliefs that you do; it gives you a sense of belonging and purpose,” said Dr. Kathryn Olmsted, a history professor at the University of California, Davis. “It gives people a sense of community.”

The term “Groyper” originated as the name of a cartoon frog that was an offshoot of the popular “Pepe the Frog” meme. Soon, image of far-right Instagram pages and political message boards on 4chan, a forum-based

website that allows users to post anonymously.

Through these platforms, extremists are able to discuss their otherwise “unacceptable” views.

Groypers hold varied right-wing beliefs, but they’re united on one front: anti-Semitism.

“I’ve never seen anything other than vitriol and hatred for Israel espoused on these pagof them.”

Zain, another Whitman junior who browses and shares alt-right memes, believes in many Groyper sentiments that perpetuate harmful anti-Semitic stereotypes.

“I feel like people with dual U.S. and Israeli citizenship are almost overrepresented in our government,” Zain said. “They have a dominant kind of position in media and politics.”

These claims are extremely common among Groypers, many of whom, including Zain, falsely believe that nearly all of Biden’s cabinet members are Jewish. Assertions like these have historically been used to scapegoat Jews as the cause of many of society’s problems. advice in alt-right circles online.

“I feel as if they know more than anyone when it comes to nutrition and dietary stuff,” he said.

Before he was exposed to this community, Zain was a libertarian. But soon, political quented, shifting his views. Certain topics like downs and the Healthy at Every Size movement diverted his search for healthier habits to a world of fringe political views.

Looking at different Groyper memes and doing more research on the topics they espoused pushed Zain further to the right politically, he said.

One meme that helped solidify his views on transgender rights, Zain said, contained a

photoshopped image of Assistant Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine with an obese family, captioned, “Biden’s new overweight transender health secretary and his/her healthy family.”

“My initial reaction to the meme was, ‘Wow, this is grotesque; this country’s done for,’” he said.

Explicit transphobia is particularly rampant in these alt-right communities, but many other forms of prejudice exist more subtly.

Groypers use distinct language and punctuation in order to express their anti-Semitic views online. They insert triple parentheses around a word in order to discreetly communicate that something or someone is controlled

by Jews; for example, using the term “(((Amazon)))” would insinuate that Amazon is run by Jews. Additionally, Groypers use cryptic terms, including the phrase “check early life,” in reference to a Jewish individual. This phrase indicates that if someone was to check their “Early Life” section on Wikipedia — an organization that Groypers also believe to be run by Jews — they would discover the individual’s Jewish heritage.

“The whole point is that if the average Joe like, ‘I don’t know what I’m looking at,’” Ryan said.

Other instances of anti-Semitism in the Groyper community include jokes revolving around last names ending in “-stein,” a tradirael Great Again,” abbreviated to MIGA, which ridicules establishment conservatives’ devotion to Israel, Ryan said. more closely tied to Catholicism, due to its longer history, than evangelical Protestantism — a sect that has connections with the GOP, which Groypers despise, Ryan said.

“Catholicism has a lot more history and imagery associated behind it, with cathedrals, the rosary, that stuff,” Ryan said. “There are a lot more things to rally behind as symbols.”

Many Groypers are unhappy with Pope Francis and his attempts at modernizing the Catholic Church, though, and some even believe Pope Francis is the Antichrist, Ryan said.

Absurd conspiracy theories and conjectures like this are not uncommon among Groyper members, and while these ideas existed before COVID-19, the circumstances created by the extended lockdown could be contributing factors to these extreme beliefs, Olmsted said.

“People have a lot more time to sit around online and learn about these various theories and contact other people who have similar beliefs,” she said. “Also, the pandemic has generated a lot of anxiety — this sort of generalized anxiety — that I think contributes to the general atmosphere of angst and paranoia.”

Groypers, similar to many leftists, vilify large-scale corporations and believe that they’re tyrannically ruling the public. But unlike leftists, who are focused on class struggle, Groypers’ outrage stems from their belief that Jewish people control these corporations.

Groyper memes frequently mock mainstream media and large-scale companies that hold de-

mocracy as a core value by representing them as gray-faced “Wojak” cartoons, which repeatedly say robotic phrases such as, “This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.”

Although they despise the democratic process, most Groypers came to the consensus that they should “settle for Trump” in the last election, Ryan said.

“They’re pretty split on Donald Trump,” he said. “They see him as not hard-line enough; they want a real strongman like Mussolini, but for America.”

Olmsted believes that Trump’s utilization of conspiracy theories is something that separates him from other politicians.

“Usually, the people who have anti-government conspiracy theories are outside the government,” Olmsted said. “Political scientists who study conspiracy theories have the catchphrase ‘Conspiracy theories are for losers,’ meaning that if you lose an election, then you have conspiracy theories about the people who won. What’s different about Trump is that he was the president, yet he acted like someone who had lost.”

Groyper memes often ironically refer to terms such as “BIBOC (Black and Indigenous Bodies Of Color)” and “folx” to mock politically correct acronyms and attack minority groups. At the same time, Groypers attack mainstream conservatives such as Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk for selling out to large corporations and opposing many of the Groypers’ alt-right stances.

With a tendency to be extremely cynical toward nearly everything, Groypers often have disagreements and contradiction even within their own community. Some mock the QAnon conspiracy while others believe it; some are white nationalists while others mock racial supremacy; some support Trump while others laugh at Trump supporters.

The absolute rejection of institutions on both the conservative and liberal sides of the aisle has created a strain of anti-intellectualism in the Groyper movement. By using terms like “chud” and “incel,” Groypers also purposefully end discussions quickly and shut down arguments in a trollish manner, Ryan said.

“They see debates and essays as a waste of time,” Ryan said. “They see it as pointless and ‘showoff-y’ and prefer to sling insults at people.”

While Groypers appear to be more of a troll group than a political faction, some Groypers have made efforts to organize into a more substantial political movement. Nick Fuentes, the de facto leader of the “Groyper Army,” hosts a podcast on which he outlines his political objectives. He advocates for restricting immigration into the U.S. almost entirely, banning all abortions, eliminating LGBTQ+ rights and curbing the effects of globalism, Ryan said.

“You can tell that Fuentes is just kind of a racist — and not just kind of,” Zain said. “He’s

dards of masculinity.

A regression to “the way things were” is a common value within the Groyper community. Groypers look favorably upon traditional gender roles and family structure, where only the man provides for the household. Zain himself believes that there needs to be a bigger emphasis on fraternal organizations, blasphemy laws and curbing single parenting.

Groypers’ beliefs, among those of other alt-right groups, have had increasingly serious consequences in the country, the most notable being the Capitol riots. On Jan. 6, hordes of Trump supporters, conspiracy theorists and Groypers — including Nick Fuentes — stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the presidential electoral vote count. Fuentes also marched in the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, where outspoken Nazi supporter James Alex Fields Jr. hit and killed counterprotester Heather Heyer with his car.

Groypers are sincere in their hatred of democracy or simply opposed to it for the sake of being contrarian to mainstream media. Regardless, their extremist views have transcended funny memes and message boards. An ever-growing group of young, angry extremists are feeling more and more comfortable ditching their online aliases and showing up to do real-world harm.

The rise of the internet has proven to be a major challenge for those hoping to stop extremism; unregulated chat rooms and anonymous posts are breeding grounds for conspiracies. Still, some see a silver lining.

“Another important thing about the internet is that it has made debunking a lot faster and easier in addition to making the spread of the stories a lot faster and easier,” Walker said.

“It’s almost like an arms race.”

There has been little consensus on how to deal with this extremism. From counterviolence to compassion, opposition groups have proposed many solutions to curb the effects of the alt-right.

“It’s pretty evident that these communities can do a lot of harm,” said junior Josh Klubes, who’s Jewish. “I think it’s really important, especially in our age, for Jewish history to be taught early, so people don’t get sucked into alt-right conspiracies about Jews running Hollywood and stuff like that.”

Klubes also acknowledged how compulsory and conformity-driven education, which some might see as promoting “liberal bias,” could push people further to the right. Instead, he advocated for a more interpersonal approach to teaching tolerance.

“Some people think Jewish people have horns,” Klubes said. “I think just having them talk to an actual Jewish person, and just communicating with a person, can really do a lot.”

racial beliefs, he supports many of the same issues that Fuentes does, like traditional stan-

15

SHEDDING MY BIASES THROUGH VIDEO GAMES

by Rafe Epstein

As I lean forward in my chair, my hands begin to sweat. Fifteen zombies surround me, arriving seemingly out of nowhere. I suddenly realize I’m cornered, with no more ammunition and no escape. I call through my headset for help; a friend hears and quickly comes to my rescue.

“I’m always saving you,” he says.

We head back to the video game lobby ing our win. Soon, the chat settles down, and my friends and I catch up on what’s happening in our lives while we wait for the next round to start. From job struggles to girlfriends to runins with law enforcement, I’ve heard it all.

My friends from school and I have made a habit of playing video games together during quarantine as a way to connect in a safe and virtual way. Playing Xbox has provided us with a sense of normalcy, and through our shared interest, we’ve become even closer.

But in addition to strengthening old relationships, Xbox has allowed me to build new ones, too. Game consoles like PlayStation and Xbox offer services for “Game Chat,” enabling users to talk to each other during games much like an audio-only group call. In what gamers call Game Chat “parties,” users can talk to both friends and other players who are logged in at the same time.

Through Game Chat, I’ve become friends with people from all over the world. I’ve played with and learned about people from Tel Aviv, Israel, the suburbs of Paris, France, and even from farms in rural Arkansas and Missouri. We’re all connected through our love of video games, but the conversation often extends beyond shooting zombies and NBA 2K lineups.

Some of the people I’ve become closest with are from southern Chicago.

Although we’ve yet to even learn each other’s real names — we call each other by our gamertags — we sometimes share intimate details about our lives.

16

Whether it’s about how our school days were or issues at home, nothing is off limits.

I would never have imagined I could forge any sort of relationship with kids I had only met through a television screen. But it took just a few weeks of gaming together for me to ly — not just for the video game, but for the chance to catch up with my new friends. or feel uncomfortable opening up. We were complete strangers who lived 700 miles away from each other, so I assumed any differences we had would exacerbate the physical divide between us. Living in a more academically-focused place like Bethesda, it’s easy to fall into the trap of assuming there are only a set number of “acceptable” life routes, and we don’t expect to build real relationships from chance encounters.

Our differences became even more apparent when my friends began detailing their pasts. Some had owned guns, joined gangs and even spent time in jail, which initially shocked me. No one I had ever met lived that kind of lifestyle, and I couldn’t rationalize the decisions they made. I assumed I could never forge a relationship with any of them. understanding: instead of seeing my friends for their past mistakes, I needed to see them for who they are in the present. People are not their pasts, and everyone has the potential to grow and learn when they want to.

Some of our differences actually made it easier to bond, not harder, and we could connect in a way that I still haven’t reached with some people I’ve known my whole life. Many of my experiences, I found, even mirrored theirs. Things like social pressures, managing differences of opinion and just getting older are struggles we’ve all dealt with, regardless of our different upbringings.

I had fallen for cognitive biases researchers call “the availability heuristic” and “an-

choring.” My initial assumptions about my friends “anchored” me. I had assumed based only on the information that was thoughts even as the conversations I had with my new friends kept proving me wrong. I shouldn’t have been so surprised when I saw they were more than capable of being welcoming and kind to others of all backgrounds.

Over the last few months, I’ve made actual friends, not merely digital ones, and I know I’ll continue chatting and playing video games with them at least for the near future. Though I don’t always agree with everything they say or enjoy, our differences turn our friendship into an environment in which I can learn, both about others and about myself.

Everyone has biases, and shedding them portant it is to do so. By trying to actively acknowledge and combat our biases, we open the door to new relationships that we could never have imagined having before.

During a pandemic that isolates so many, it’s been refreshing to meet new voices, whether they’re from Bethesda, Tel Aviv or Chicago. I now approach everyone with an open what groups people are a part of, by looking at people for how they treat one another, you can forge a relationship with almost anyone.

graphics by SAMANTHA RUBIN

EVA SOLA-SOLE hic by grap

BY LILY FREEMAN

17

Content warning: This story contains language that pertains to suicide.

G

rowing up in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, current Montgomery County resident Vito Anastasia kept his transgender identity a secret. He knew it wouldn’t be safe to reveal his true self to his community in Olean, New York, an overwhelmingly white town with a population under 15,000. Most Olean residents were deeply conservative, and Anastasia feared severe backlash. After he graduated from high school, kicked him out of their house.

Anastasia promptly left Olean. He sought more accepting spaces, and in two deep-blue cities — Cleveland and San Diego — he found them, he said. His career path led him in 2016 vocated for LGBTQ+ issues and written for his political blog MoCo Local.

Out of all the places he’s lived, Anastasia ranks Montgomery County near the top. He prizes the area’s many support systems for students questioning their gender identity, and he appreciates other residents’ “willingness” to try to be allies toward the LGBTQ+ community.

But there’s still room for improvement, he said.

“The county considers itself progressive — it’s really not,” Anastasia said. “This is a pretty diverse area, and a lot of cultures are conservative and don’t initially support LGBTQ kids when they come out.”

For Anastasia, one recent lawsuit against Montgomery County Public Schools exemplienacted reformist policies to help LGBTQ+ students, yet some local parents have gone to extreme lengths to challenge these measures.

In 2014, MCPS implemented gender identity directives to help transgender students feel comfortable expressing themselves in schools without retaliation from teachers or peers.

The school district has consistently updated the guidelines since then, and in 2019, direct that teachers shouldn’t reveal a student’s gender identity to their parents without that student’s permission.

18

This past October, two Montgomery MCPS Board of Education and Superintendent Jack Smith. The parents allege in their comviolate federal and state privacy laws.

The guidelines claim that a student’s genmedical information” and that to disclose it to others could go against the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. But the parents’ lawsuit puts forth the opposite claim: that MCPS’ directives exist in violation of FERPA, which dictates that parents have a right to examine their children’s school records.

All in all, the 31-page lawsuit alleges that the school district’s gender identity guidelines violate seven federal and state regulations, including FERPA, the Maryland Code of Regulations and the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The families claim in their lawsuit that the directives infringe on “the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children, to be primarily responsible for their children’s health and safety, and to decide what is in their minor children’s best interests.”

The plaintiffs are asking that the court prohibit MCPS from “deceiving” parents about their children’s gender identity in the future and that the judge award the parents both the expenses of the lawsuit and $1 in nominal damages. Accusers typically request nominal damages when they didn’t undergo harm but want to make a statement about the matter they’re challenging. In this case, the parents’ children don’t identify as genderqueer, but the plaintiffs still take issue with the guidelines, according to the lawsuit.

“While we are unable to comment on pending litigation, we stand by our guidelines,” MCPS Director of Communications Gboyinde Onijala wrote in an email to The Black & White. “MCPS is committed to providing a safe, welcoming school environment where students are active participants in the community because they feel accepted and valued.”

Students who were aware of the case expressed disgust that parents would turn to legal measures to challenge the guidelines. Many emphasized that the directives’ importance goes beyond protecting teenagers’ right to privacy.

“They literally save lives,” said one sophomore who’s a member of Whitman’s Pride Alliance. “They’re giving kids who have oppressive home lives an outlet that can prevent them from turning to self-harm to cope with feelings they may be having.”

More than half of transgender and nonbinary adolescents have seriously contemplated suicide, according to a study from the Trevor Project, which works to combat suicide efforts among LGBTQ+ youth.

In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs assert that because genderqueer students are at a high risk of attempting suicide, parents need to be aware of their children’s gender iden-

tity to prevent potential self-harm. Many students, however, disagree.

“It’s hypocritical, saying that they’re doing this as a form of suicide prevention,” said Whitman Pride Alliance Vice President Cayla Joftus, a senior. “What they’re doing would do the opposite if it was enacted. There are people who it’s not safe for to come out to their families.” der and nonbinary, the possibility that MCPS could remove the guidelines is alarming. The student’s parents are unaware that they prefer they/them pronouns, and they take comfort in knowing that a staff member likely wouldn’t share that information, they said.

“I don’t believe my parents would have an overly negative reaction beyond discomfort around nonbinary pronouns, but I wouldn’t be content with any teachers revealing it to them,” they said. “It would essentially rob me of my agency in deciding when to tell them.”

In the presidential election, 78.6% of Montgomery County residents voted for Joe Biden, a percentage far greater than the national average of 51.3%. But in spite of the county’s left-wing tendencies, many local parents’ conservative mindsets have forced their LGBTQ+ children to keep their identities secret, refrain from engaging in school Pride ventures or even move out of their family homes.

At the Whitman Pride Alliance’s virtual meetings, a number of students only contribute through the chat function because they don’t want their families to hear them participating in the group, said club sponsor Sheryl Freedman, a psychology teacher.

“A number of students’ parents don’t know that they go by a different gender than what they were assigned at birth, or that they go by a different name or different pronouns,” Freedman said. “Just because we live in a stereotypically liberal community doesn’t mean that all parents welcome their child having a gender identity that isn’t what many have considered the norm for a long time.”

Freedman said she would be concerned if the lawsuit were to hold. She’s seen how important it is for students to express themselves in safe spaces like the Pride Alliance without their parents present, she said.

“If students aren’t sharing, it’s for a reason,” Freedman said.

Last year, one Whitman student’s parents kicked him out of his home after they discovered that he was bisexual. Although he ended up staying with a different friend, junior Sydhaving to take him in, Spottiswood said.

“I’ve been witness to where even little children are forced to sleep on school grounds or at a friend’s house, and not at home with their family,” said Spottiswood, a co-president of the Whitman Pride Alliance and a public relations co-director of MoCo Pride. “While ly more progressive than other places within Montgomery County or just Maryland in general, there’s still a long way for the Whitman community to go.”

In neighboring Prince George’s County, 89.26% of county residents voted for Biden in 2020. Despite liberal sentiments, however, the school district lacks gender identity directives.

At the county’s Eleanor Roosevelt High School, sophomore Nora Strauss-Riggs — who is transgender and leads the Pride Alliance at her school — learned of the lawsuit against MCPS when Bethesda Beat reporter Caitlynn Peetz tweeted a link to her article about the case in January. The headline immediately annoyed Strauss-Riggs, and as she read through she said.

“This will ONLY cause harm,” StraussRiggs wrote in a retweet of the article. “You would be forcing children to choose between being themselves in the one place they can fully escape their parents for a while or being outed.”

Strauss-Riggs said she believes the guidelines are essential to ensuring the safety of transgender students and that they would have Her school is far from perfectly accepting, she said, as one hurtful email exchange she conducted for the Pride Alliance earlier this year “I sent an email to the whole school — we have a whole school mailing list — saying, ‘This is when our meeting is, and here’s how you can join,’” Strauss-Riggs said. “And someone replied to it with, ‘Homosexuality is a sin.

Repent and accept Jesus.’”

Anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments in Prince George’s County don’t affect just students. In the school district on behalf of Jennifer Eller, a former teacher who faced harassment and misgendering from colleagues and students after coming out as transgender in 2011. Eller resigned in 2017 after transferring twice to other county schools; no matter where she went, the school district put forth minimal efforts to prevent aggrievances, the lawsuit claims.

While there’s no guarantee that the presence of gender identity guidelines would have improved community members’ treatment of Eller, any measure of progress helps, StraussRiggs said. how people treat me after coming out even from nonbinary to trans,” Strauss-Riggs said.

“MCPS’ policy actually surprises me in being good, which shouldn’t be the case, but it does surprise me when policies are good surrounding trans things. Queer people will share their identity when they’re ready, with who they’re ready to share it with.”

Montgomery County has enacted several pro-LGBTQ+ measures in the past year. In October, the County Council passed Maryland’s discrimination based on HIV status or gender expression and reinforces protections for LGBTQ+ residents in nursing homes, healthcare facilities and other areas. The county’s move made national news, including features in pro-LGBTQ+ publications Instinct Magazine and Out Magazine.

“ ROB IT WOULD ESSENTIALLY

ME OF MY AGENCY

MCPS has also been a trailblazer in promoting LGBTQ+ education in schools. Last school year, the county began developing an LGBTQ+ studies pilot

course — one of

All high schools in MCPS will offer the course cient enrollment and the availability of willing teachers.

Still, a common sentiment among LGBTQ+ students at Whitman is that MCPS’ gender identity guidelines are one of the most who have open-minded parents.

“I feel like a lot of people feel — and I was also in this situation — that coming out to your parents is more permanent, just because they’ve known you your entire life,” Joftus said. “Coming out to a friend or a teacher, you still have a close relationship with them, but it doesn’t feel as permanent. But everyone’s process of coming to terms with their identity is different, and everyone has a different process for accepting themselves and learning how they want to be perceived by the rest of the world.”

That idea encapsulates why it’s “essential” that the guidelines remain in place, said MoCo Pride founder Uma Fox. Fox left MoCo Pride this past fall after moving to Hong Kong, but she continues to advocate for LGBTQ+ matters independently and noted that MCPS’ directive and others like it aren’t a cure-all for addressing gender identity issues in schools.

“It had been a pretty frequent understanding in local LGBTQ+ activism that these guidelines were necessary, but I don’t think that they’re a panacea,” Fox said. “There needs to be greater counselor sensitivity and teacher sensitivity to LGBTQ+ issues. There needs to be more anti-bias training in terms of LGBTQ+ identities — even just LGBTQ+ awareness training, as opposed to anti-bias training. These guidelines were a component of a shift toward LGBTQ+ understanding on MCPS’ part.”

The lawsuit against the school district has been sitting in federal court since late December. If the judge rules in the parents’ favor, it could set a precedent that threatens students’ rights to privacy not merely in MCPS but across the U.S., Anastasia said.

“These policies were implemented to create a safe space for students, but in a lot of cases, it’s lifesaving,” Anastasia said. “I think a lot of people who don’t have to worry about being misgendered or dead-named take it for granted. It’s a blessing to be able to live as your authentic self.”

19

STUDENT

THE DUALITY OF THE WHITMAN EXPERIENCE

by Austin Mboijana We have come to a crossroads, a culmination of events.

A global pandemic and multiple instances of racial prejudice, exposing deeper institutionalized racism, have come to the forefront of our country’s most pressing conversations. These societal challenges have provoked much of my generation to demand justice for all, in hopes

doesn’t fully accept any minority, events like these reinforce racial stereotypes and prejudices that linger in the back of every person of color’s mind.

Throughout my years of walking Whitman’s halls, I’ve overheard fellow students make racist jokes or even say racial slurs.

These words, whether or not they were said

change.

Of all the abuses of power publicized, the death of George Floyd in particular deeply bothered me. To watch a man with hazelnut

perpetuate the feeling of isolation that many people of color feel at Whitman. This racial insensitivity that students know to be quite common at our school is partly a result of the lack of education on both Black history and the history of racial slurs that are still used to make

knee on his neck was appalling and terrifying.

While attending a June protest at Black Lives Matter Plaza in D.C., I laid on the hot asphalt alongside hundreds of other protestors for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the amount of time George Floyd was held down, and I couldn’t help but think how that could’ve been me under different circumstances.

Why should someone’s skin color cause them to live in fear? It shouldn’t. But in this country, many people of color still do, and problem nor a simple one. But it’s a problem that we as a country and a community have a responsibility to address. While no one of us is able to single-handedly solve the systemic racism rooted deeply in our institutions nor the internalized racism ingrained in the minds of some Americans, I can offer my perspective as a student of color at Walt Whitman High School. tions that made me hyperaware of my race at our predominantly White school. One day from the beginning of my freshman year stands out. a White student that ended with the Black student being handcuffed and shoved into a police car while the White student was escorted into the building with a teacher’s hand grasped strongly around his arm. what kind of message does this send to a young Black bystander surrounded by his predominantly White friends? In a society that still

20

Programs like OneWhitman that seek to elevate and share the perspectives of minorities at Whitman can effectively combat this issue. But to conquer racism, students must invest in educating and bettering themselves by fully engaging in these types of programs.

Let me acknowledge that I’m in a unique position compared to some African American students at Whitman. Having grown up in the Whitman cluster, I’ve had an easy time making friends early and feeling welcome in the community, but many other students of color come to Whitman under different circumstances and feel excluded and unwanted. I’ve seen several new students of color enter our school and have peers stereotype or judge them solely on account of their skin color, home life

experiences of students of color at Whitman, the community must know that our school clearly has shortcomings when it comes to promoting equity and equality for all. In this unprecedented year, I’ve seen efforts by my peers — like with the student-led Black Lives Matter march in Bethesda — to better themselves and their communities by acknowledging and denouncing racism, but students and community members still must work on being actively anti-racist. munity often lacks the perspective to fully comprehend and address its own share of the nationwide issues of racial bias and injustice.

While some of my classmates will never understand what it’s like to live in this country with dark skin, having honest conversations allows us all to gain perspective and better understand the magnitude of the other pandemic we’re still facing, one that spreads and kills, too: racism.

graphics by SAMANTHA LEVINE

It may sound harsh, but the reality at Whitman is that students and staff too often fail to admit and rectify their lack of acceptance of some people of color.

VOICES

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE MCPS BOARD OF EDUCATION AND WHITMAN ADMINISTRATON

by Mizuki Brent As a former Whitman student and someone who was in the MCPS system from 2010 to 2020, I feel compelled to write about a pressing issue that remains unresolved and therefore dangerous: sexual harassment by teachers.

The silence surrounding this topic has been deafening for so long that even after graduating from high school, I feel I must walk backward to call attention to the issue.

The all-too-familiar predatory behavior of some teachers is part of a trend that, beyond vague emails, remains largely publicly unaddressed by the Whitman administration and the MCPS Board of Education. We’ve read too many messages from principals and board members often using words along the lines of, “We are looking into these allegations,” or that harassment “has no home here,” without any follow-up. The red tape of legal procedures and investigations within MCPS does absolutely nothing to repair or acknowledge the emotional and psychological trauma that children are experiencing as survivors.

Stopping the outreach to survivors at vague promises is more than embarrassing and irresponsible of those in administrative positions. The lack of communication and absence of updated sexual harassment prevention eftions of students who have come forward with their own experiences. Survivors deserve true support, whether in the form of proper counseling by licensed therapists or investigative efforts that hold perpetrators personally and professionally accountable.

During my sixth-grade year at Whitman cluster school Pyle Middle School, rumors quickly reached me about the reputation of certain teachers — rumors that went beyond the kind of academic grade I would receive in their classes. One teacher in particular would regularly and comfortably harass students, namely girls, and make unwanted comments about their appearance or the way they dressed. physical contact and would look down girls’ shirts in a way so noticeable that even a child understand the intentions behind it.

Students named this teacher, as well as a

few others, in multiple public posts when the Instagram account @survivorsatwhitman arose last year. MCPS, by law, had to investigate the allegations and presumably did, though the teacher remains employed despite the corroboration among students’ accounts. In the anonymous submissions to the account, students recall unwanted physical contact, uncomfortably doting nicknames and a hatred for school as a consequence of these assaults. Equally distressing is the fact that these posts often begin with the student’s uncertainty as to whether their experience “counts” as assault.

Despite public reports of sexual harassment skyrocketing in recent years, MCPS and Whitman leaders have dedicated the exact same amount of time to beginning-of-the-year sexual harassment training as they always have. Other important trainings on disenfranchisement and equithey have in years past, but these issues need not be mutually exclusive with as glaring of a problem as sexual harassment; the power imbalances at the core of each overlap in disturbing ways.

In the absence of appropriate follow-up, students are left with no option but to take to social media accounts like @survivorsatwhitman to share their experiences of sexual harassment, with both the actual instances and the reporting process. The existence of these inforschools have failed at one of their most significant responsibilities: ensuring student safety.

The issue does not dissolve at the end of the school day when students leave the building, or even when students graduate. According to the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs, survivors of harassment report long-term symptoms ranging from denial, guilt and trust issues to disassociation, depression and persistent anxiety and paranoia.

Status-quo assemblies and rubber wristbands have done little. Faced with bold perback, changing their approach if the problem

continues. Administrators can’t keep waiting There is no excuse for the same step-bystep procedure that has been failing for years.

When adults continually take advantage of positions that allow them to be predatory, especially toward children, what’s been done before is not enough.

There is no reason for delay. Nobody — my siblings, friends, fellow Whitman gradu-

ates and current students alike — should suffer of authority like our teachers, nor should they suffer from the knowledge that nothing has changed after the risks they took and the emotions they laid out in telling their stories.

And there is no better way to disincentivize coming forward than repeatedly saying “There wasn’t enough evidence,” or “There’s nothing else we can do.”

Find something to do.

The attached petition compiles signatures demanding accountability. Please add your name if you feel inclined, and amplify this message in any capacity that you see fit. Force administrators and the MCPS Board to hear our voices. Your story matters, and it needs to matter to them, too.

21

THE POWER OF POETRY:

Spoken word fuels movements, past and present

by Tara Davoodi

22

On Jan. 20, we watched as 22-year-old poet Amanda Gorman effortlessly painted a picture of a hopeful, though still fractured, America. Much of the country, we later found, had clung to her every word as she spoke of unity and division, justice and violence. We watched and rewatched, read and reread her poem “The Hill We Climb,” which expressed a collective vision of America and perfectly captured the painful emotions of the past four years.

Gorman’s job was no easy task. First Lady Jill Biden asked her to write and perform a poem for the 2021 inauguration, a

White House tradition that began in 1961 when Robert Frost spoke at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. Gorman also had to contend with the deep wounds of a country still reeling from four years of divisive knowledging its racist roots.

Poetry has always been a part of social and political movements. Whether it was delivering the surging modernist school of thought in the 1920s or the revolutionary remained a means of documenting history and providing words of encouragement,

criticism or wisdom.

In my own experiences with poetry, I’ve learned that the spoken word does more than simply create an outlet for the poet; it I signed up to take a virtual poetry class with the Bethesda Writer’s Center. I’ve always loved reading and writing poetry, and I thought the class would shake up my monotonous quarantine routine. er asked us to bring a poem to share with the group. I selected Elizabeth Alexander’s “Praise Song for the Day,” which was writ-

so many inventions and coo

praise song for walking forward in that l ten for the 2008 inauguration of President Obama. To me, the poem represented a new age, looking to the future while still acknowledging the work of previous generations. I hoped that by enrolling in the class and modeling my work after that poem, I could better translate my own passion for social justice into powerful words.

Over the course of six weeks, I wrote, drafted, edited, read and reread my own poems and the poems of the other, all adult, students. We started small; one prompt instructed us to sit outside for twenty minutes and write down everything we observed.

Another was to write an acrostic — a poem out a word — centered around the places we grew up. One had us write about citrus fruits in detail. Eventually, we tackled the bigger, more profound topics of loss, familial rela-

tionships and, in my case, social justice.

ly-conscious poems in elementary school. In fourth grade, I was immediately captivated when my class read “Harlem” by Langston Hughes. The illustrative words and similes, I remember, initially drew my attention, but I soon came to realize that the poem had more depth. Hughes asks the reader what happens when dreams are “deferred,” subtly weaving in themes of our country’s lack of progress in racial equality. I was struck by the fact that not only was the poem lyrical and beautiful to read, but it was also a lesson in history. As a 10-year-old, I had never read anything like it.

Hughes was one of the leading voices of the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural movement fueled by the migration of thousands of Black people from the American South to

urban areas in the North during the 1920s.

The poetry and literary works from that pe-

and also created an invaluable lens through which Americans viewed social progress in the 21st century.

In that same decade, the rule-breaking of modernism highlighted the era’s rapid industrialization and transition from old to new ideas through works such as T.S. Eliot’s lengthy poem “The Waste Land” and William Carlos Williams’ one-sentence poem “The Red Wheelbarrow.” Later, during the civil rights movement, poets like Gwendolyn Brooks and Nikki Giovanni emerged as powerful voices by encouraging protesters, chronicling demonstrations and praising leaders. And today, poets like Jericho Brown and Joy Harjo shed light on the experiences and identities of marginalized

- “Praise Song for the Day” by Elizabeth

In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp, praise song for walking forward in that light.

- “Praise Song for the Day” by Elizabeth Alexander communities.

I’ve always felt a connection to poems cause they have the unique ability to create change. As a medium, poetry can use dense subject matter to create a profound, emotional impact on the reader. Hughes was able to break down a complex racial history in just a few lines, a task which might warrant a whole book for prose authors.

Williams hit on themes like perception of reality and appreciation for life with only 16 words, precise language and deliberate line breaks. Poets convey universal themes and calls for change through vibrant artistic devices, presenting ideas in new ways the

audience may not have considered before.

When I put pen to paper, poetry becomes more than an expression of my ciety I know. In my summer class, I found power in writing about historical and philosophical subjects like the legacy of our founding fathers as well as more local and recent topics like the formerly segregated Glen Echo Park. Often an overlooked form of expression, poetry can produce a greater effect on the reader than regular, more straightforward speech, and I found myself wielding that power.

If anything, Amanda Gorman’s viral spoken-word poem has shown us that po-

etry still has power. That power comes in many forms, whether it’s through the lens of inspiring social progress or simply observing the communities in which we live.

The progress each historical movement saw reveals that change can often come through words, and as I’ve read and written poems, I’ve discovered the power hidden in each stanza, each line, each syllable. I hope more people tap into that power, or as Alexander puts it, “In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air, / anything can be made, any sentence begun.”

23

Whitman leadership needs to prioritize SEL, especially in the next few months, by putting more effort into making the lessons immediately applicable — tailoring lessons to the pandemic-related mental illness struggles that students currently face. Most Whitman students don’t even participate in the program. But if teachers were more enthusiastic in promoting SEL, students would feel more inclined to attend instead of viewing it as yet another optional activity on Zoom.

Taking new measures, too, like allocating more discretionary funding for additional school psychologists and giving students more emotional support from school-provided professionals, individually or in small groups, can help us focus on our personal well-being and relationships in the midst of these uncertain circumstances.

three programs Whitman offers.

While we couldn’t be more grateful for the efforts of teachers, counselors and administrators who have worked tirelessly this school year to help ease students’ worries during the pandemic, Whitman can and should do better.

The post-pandemic school environment dents, whether they’ve been at Whitman for almost four years or have never even entered the building.

Having access to mental health resources can only make our community stronger as we recover from the coronavirus pandemic. We shouldn’t let our new normal create an excuse to bury the emotions we’ve been experiencing.

Whitman staff, let’s make our school a more welcoming place for every student in light of this past year.

E

take a different amount of time for everyone; Whitman administrators need to acknowledge that and support us.

As a school and as a community, Whitman should focus on ways to combat the shock of readjustment.

Right now, MCPS requires that students attend weekly Social and Emotional Learning lessons, which promote mindfulness and teach students coping strategies for dealing with their emotions and mental health. Though implementing SEL is an important

transition period.

This school year, MCPS also introduced a well-being support system for students and staff at every school. The system, called Be Well 365, offers dozens of programs for individual schools to implement. Whitman only provides three: counseling and the student ambassador program, both of which are optional, and the mandatory Sources of Strength suicide prevention class.

These programs are not enough. Although students can seek counseling over Zoom or apply to the ambassador program, which allows a select few students to become leaders at their school, much of our large student body is still left without proper support. The February Sources of Strength suicide prevention class, during which students learned about warning signs of depression and suicide, has historically been and remains the only mandatory lecture for students to learn more about mental health.

Other schools across the county offer more support to their students. A stark contrast to Whitman, Sherwood High School offers students resources like peer mediation, one-on-one student assistance and

SOLA -SOL

everyone, detrimentally affecting many students’ mental health.

Despite progress with vaccine development and distribution, students’ feelings of loss, helplessness and loneliness during this historic period are valid. None of us were ready for the coronavirus to take away our cherished high school experiences, though this loss cannot compare to the grief of losing loved ones. The fact that we’ll eventually return to the school building doesn’t mean those emotions will immediately go away, or that we should pretend they have.

Students’ emotional well-being is declining in a way we never saw coming; with the COVID-19 U.S. death toll past the ominous milestone of 500,000, we’ve become more and more desensitized to the news. In an October 2020 Gallup poll, one in four students stated that their depression had

by EV A

Most MCPS students haven’t set foot in a classroom for over a year, and for those who have, the experience is nowhere near what we once

grap hic

Staff Editorial

We need trained professionals to aid us through the process of returning to school. The National Association of School Psychologists recommends, in a normal school year, one school psychologist for every 500 to 700 students, let alone in a virtual school year like this one. Right now, Whitman has only one school psychologist for 2,085 students, and most students have never even had the opportunity to speak to her.

Psychologists would serve as an additional resource to the already existing MCPS mental health support programs, giving students a

Whitman administration: Make mental health a priority when we return to the building 24

“IT’S SYMBOLIC OF NORMAL LIFE RESUMING”: Local teachers help hundreds as COVID-19 vaccines reach the Whitman community

by Kendall Headley

25

After seeing the January announcement that teachers were eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, Whitman Spanish teacher Kathleen Bartels immediately began digging around onFinding an appointment wasn’t easy; it took countless failed attempts and cancelations in neighboring Prince George’s County before Cross Hospital in Montgomery County.

Thankfully, the appointment ran smoothly, she said. As Bartels walked out of the hospital, she breathed –– although still through a mask –– a sigh of relief. back to normal life,” she said.

For Bartels and many others, the light at coronavirus vaccines are phased into the Whitman community and across the world. groups of Maryland residents in December.

Phase 1A allowed healthcare workers, nursing some high-risk public-sector staff to receive a vaccination. By January, phase 1B opened vaccinations to those in any congregate living setting, K-12 educators, child care staff, further essential government workers and any adults over the age of 75, among other high-risk populations. Vaccinations for phase 1C began at the end of January, including adults aged 65 to 74 and an expanded pool of essential workers.

Montgomery County has fallen behind the rest of the state, with phase 1B remaining in place for many vaccine locations through the beginning of March.

fore I saw anybody, I showered in the basement so I felt I was protected and didn’t put my family in any jeopardy,” she said. “However, after I get my second round of the vaccine, I’ll have less worries about spreading the virus to my family after I have contact with COVID patients in the hospital.”

Along with Eisenberg, senior Jolie Rosenstein received the vaccine early on. Rosenstein volunteers as an emergency medical technician at the Cabin John Park Volunteer Fire Department, which made her eligible for vaccination in phase 1A. During a shift, she rides in either an amthrough her station and jumped at the chance, she said.

“I’m riding in ambulances and going to greatly for my health and the health of those around me,” Rosenstein said. “I’m very grateful to get this opportunity because few people are able to.”

Senior Morgan Riso, who works at Potomac Grocer in the Potomac Village

Whitman parent Amy Eisenberg, who works as a nurse at Adventist HealthCare White Oak Medical Center in the medical-surgical unit.

Eisenberg was in the later round of nurses in phase 1A to receive the vaccine, as the ICU workers had higher priority, she said.

Although nurses in Maryland have adequate personal protective equipment, including double masks, face shields and gowns, Eisenberg said, they still come into close contact with COVID-19 patients. Before she received the vaccine, Eisenberg took great care to keep her family safe, going through a series of safety procedures after every hospital shift.

“I came in through the basement, took off my shoes before I got in and put my clothes right in the washing machine. Be-

did. After helping her children’s elderly piano teacher get an appointment Bartels realized

Shopping Center, was eligible for vaccination in phase 1C. She was able to secure a spot at Six Flags America, a mass vaccination site in Bowie, and even though the signeight minutes, the process was easier than expected, she said. Riso only had to bring license and her last paycheck, she said.

“We stayed in our car the whole time. After we signed in, we waited our turn to get the vaccine. When they were ready, we pulled up, and they gave it to me through the window,”

26

Riso said. “It was really simple. I was only there for about an hour total.”

Although the possible side effects of the vaccine have caused controversy, with some citing the accelerated approval from the FDA or the unknown long-term effects as reasons to refuse vaccination, Eisenberg recommends that people consider the known effects of the alternative: potentially contracting COVID-19.

“The side effects that people have had are just temporary; they just last a couple of days,” Eisenberg said. “If you think of it that way as opposed to what could happen if you get COVID –– like most likely feeling tired and sore for a few days versus ending up in the hospital and having long-term effects on your health –– the vaccine is the better option.”

With in-person schooling beginning for some students in March, Maryland’s phase 1B allowed teachers to get a jumpstart on vaccination. Many teachers and others in the expanded tier, though eager to get the vaccine, strug-

up, as they aren’t as comfortable with technology and may not have anyone to assist them, she said.

“The more access to technology you have, cination,” Bartels said. “Teachers tend to be under 65, and the essential workers, like postal workers and grocery store employees, all tend to not be senior citizens. This kind of pits them against the 65-plus crowd also trying to get vaccinated.”

Although teachers seem to work in a “petri dish” of illnesses during in-person school, Bartels never wanted to take vaccines away from vulnerable older citizens, she said. So when Sherwood business teacher Margaret Lynch teachers seeking assistance in creating a public spreadsheet with vaccination locations to help

graphic by MAYA WIESE

eager to help.

“I started with posting information about getting vaccinated on Facebook,” Lynch said.

“People just started asking me more and more about how to sign up, and I started offering to help people get appointments. One day, I woke up and had tons of inquiries for help, so I reached out to six other MCPS teachers to help me create a spreadsheet.”

Dubbed Montgomery County’s own “Vaccine Hunters,” the group includes teachDamascus, Montgomery Blair, Thomas Edison and Whitman.

As the teachers started helping their elthey found that senior citizens were trying to call a Montgomery County vaccine hotline and reaching no one, Bartels said.

They created a Google Forms survey for the elderly to informally sign up for a vaccine at White Oak Medical Center, which seemed to have many open appointments. When a spot became available, the teachers would contact Beyond helping the elderly, the Vaccine Hunters also aim to assist minorities and low-income residents who may have trouble getting access to a vaccine, Bartels said.

“In the clinics that have opened up, most of the people being served are white,” Bartels said. “There are hard hit areas in this county and across the state where the majority of the people are not white, so we were really trying to spread the spreadsheet out to communities of color.”

Montgomery County Council members and leaders have expressed similar concerns.

Raymond Crowel, director of the county’s Department of Health and Human Services, noted a centralized registration system that is equitable — that allows equity and that decreases the level of confusion about where you can register. ”

“A single system would give us that,” he said.

The Vaccine Hunters and other similar groups have met that need instead, with volunteers organizing their own groups and helping frustrated residents from Colorado to Georgia.

The teachers advertised the Montgomery County spreadsheet on Facebook and people who received the vaccine with assistance from the Hunters would recommend the group to their friends. Soon, the group began receiving an abundance of inquiries for help every week, Lynch said.

“When things exploded, we had to stop taking people because there were just hundreds and hundreds of people,” Lynch said about the online form. “There was no shortage of people looking.”

The group of seven began recruiting parent and teacher volunteers, which allowed them to open up for help requests again. When their workload became less overwhelming, the teachers decided to focus their efforts on the root of the problem: PrepMod, the online platform that’s used for appointment registrations in Maryland and other states.

The main issue with PrepMod was the unregulated use of the website, Lynch said. When someone signs up for an appointment, they get the county, their boss or an organization that had permission from the county to administer it. However, the link is easily shared, and people who are from other counties or do not meet the requirements for vaccines make appointments for themselves. When they get to the vaccination location, they cannot produce the appropriate credentials for the current tier and are turned away. Many appointments, then, go unused.

The time required to navigate the website is also an issue; applicants are forced to read through extensive information when new appointments go live before being able to secure them, Lynch said, leaving those who have trouble navigating technology at a major disadvantage.

The PrepMod page that displayed vaccine information in Spanish also had many errors in its directions and was virtually illegible, according to the Spanish-speaking members of the Vaccine Hunters.

“We realized quickly that we were getting a lot of attention and that attention would really set us in a place where we could start advocating,” Lynch said. “So we shifted our energy to advocating for a better system.”

The group had extensive meetings with several members of the Montgomery County Council, the Maryland Legislative Latino Caucus and representatives from the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human SerThrough these meetings, the Spanish teachers in the Hunters were able to improve the Spanish informational page, editing it line by line ings of their website and demanded the errors While the Vaccine Hunters put many hours into their work, Lynch believes that anyone can help someone in need get vaccinated, making a major difference in someone’s life regardless of how small the act may seem.

“As teachers, it’s part of our DNA to want to help people,” Lynch said. “We realize that we have a pretty good skill set when it comes to technology and dealing with people. But doing anything, like getting someone an appointment, maybe providing someone a ride to get vaccinated or just getting the word out in any way, is extremely important.”

Although the vaccine’s release brings hope and optimism to many, the rollout does not mean it’s time to dismiss the pandemic, Eisenberg said.

“It’s going to take a while for everybody to get vaccinated, and there are still so many unknowns,” she said. “Until we know where this is going, we have to keep wearing the masks, keep social distancing and keep playing it safe, but hold out hope for the future.”

27

Beyond the classroom: Whitman teachers jump into sports

by Cailey Thalman

O

n an early February morning, math teacher Bonnie Butler laces up her sneakers and sets out for her morning run. The sun is just beginning to rise, and the temperature is so frigid that she can see her own breath — but that doesn’t stop her. During her eight-mile run, Butler’s ing weeks. And when she returns home, she gets ready for the day and opens up her class.

This hasn’t always been Butler’s routine. In fact, she didn’t start running until she was an adult with young children. Runof the house while her husband was watching the kids, but the sport quickly turned into something she loved. She ran whenever venient because she was always on her own schedule.

Butler has continued to run in order to “That’s always been something that’s really important to me, and running is a

28

keep down my weight,” Butler said.

During her running career, Butler has participated in a total of 30 marathons, 29 of which were the Marine Corps Marathon, an annual race that brings in runners from throughout the Washington, D.C. area and country.

Butler has witnessed changes in the makeup thon, there were only about 1,200 women compared to 12,000 men. Now, the numbers are almost even.

“We got off the buses on race day, and it was all men,” Butler said. “It’s not like that anymore, but that was a huge disparity.

It really stuck with me.”

Throughout her years racing, Butler has experienced a sense of community with other runners, especially while mourning 9/11 during the Marine Corps Marathon in 2001. The race took runners directly past the Pentagon, and many stopped on the side of the road to pay their respects for those who passed away.

Butler ran her most recent marathon in

September of 2020. Due to COVID-19, the race couldn’t be held in person, so runners adapted and participated in the race virtuButler’s race was going according to plan until mile 20, when her Apple Watch, in charge of tracking her distance, ran out of battery. For the next 6.2 miles of the race, Butler had to guess her mileage. She returned home when she thought she had gone far enough to complete the race but set out again a few minutes later to run three extra miles, just to make sure she had completed the full marathon. running career has not been without its sether left foot, one of which involved repairing her achilles tendon with a cow’s tendon.

Even with these injuries, Butler’s goal is to beat the record for the most Marine Corps Marathons run by any woman.

“It’s like eating, drinking and sleeping for me,” Butler said. “It’s part of me now, and I won’t stop until I truly have to.”

While Butler trains and races, science teacher Jasen Gohn spends his time serving

and swinging on the tennis court.

When Gohn was a teenager, he stumbled upon the sport in a summer gym class. He picked up a tennis racket and immediately fell in love with the feeling of contact between the tennis ball and the strings of his racket on a perfect forehand shot, he said. He ultimately decided to join his high school’s tennis team, turning his pastime into competition.

Gohn has continued playing tennis in his he said; he loves getting his heart rate up and pushing himself in ways only sports allow him to. After the coaching job for Whitman’s boys varsity tennis team opened up, he found himself with another avenue to continue pursuing his passion, he said.

During normal school years, Gohn would play an hour of tennis starting at 6 a.m., leaving just enough time for a quick shower before ar-

sionals’ top 100 players in order.

“It’s been a lot of fun to watch him pick up the interest and enjoy playing,” Gohn said.

“It’s something we can hopefully continue to bond over as he gets older.”

Gohn plans to continue playing tennis for as long as he possibly can and hopes his son will follow suit.

“People always get to the end of their life and wish they took better care of themselves,” Gohn said. “Tennis is a great way to stay active because it is so low impact.”

When it comes to his sport, history teacher and girls varsity basketball coach Peter Kenah has the same mindset as Gohn: he has every intention to keep doing what he loves. For the past two years, Kenah, along with other Whitman teachers, has played basketball in the school gym every Tuesday and Thursday morning from 6 to 7 a.m.

“It’s something I really looked forward to every morning,” Kenah said. “It gave us teachers a way to be competitive by keeping score and talking trash that we wouldn’t always have otherwise.”

Kenah and fellow history teacher Gregory Herbert started the tradition. They had been playing each other one-on-one but decided they wanted to make it a bigger, more organized event. The idea gained more momentum after the two emailed other teachers, and soon enough, ten or twelve players would show up in the gym before school to play basketball.

Basketball was the perfect sport to play because it didn’t require the teachers to bring much equipment, Kenah said.

“The beauty about basketball is that all you need are some hoops and a ball,” he said.

Before they had to stop

because of the coronavirus, these weekly games served as a way for teachers to get to know each other better, Kenah said.

“It was really nice to see teachers you didn’t know that well at the basketball games, and then again in the hallways later that day where you could say ‘Hi,’ or mention the morning,” he said. “It was just nice to share stories with each other.”

Along with new friendships with his coworkers, Kenah found that basketball has proly and mentally. It has given him a way to be active two mornings a week, he said, and has given him a “social club,” or a way to get to talk to more teachers, as well as students who would sometimes join Kenah and the rest of the teachers for morning games.

“Everything is all about relationships and community building,” Kenah said. “This is a great way to continue to grow my community as well as strengthen and form relationships.”

has allowed Gohn to spend even more time playing tennis at the courts up by his house in Poolesville. Now, he plays whenever he has a spare moment, he said.

“Playing early in the morning means I’m it in then,” Gohn said.

Gohn’s 6-year-old son has recently joined Gohn on the courts. He watches his dad play, and the two often spend time hitting together. Gohn’s son has also challenged himself to memorize the Association of Tennis Profes-

TOP: Math teacher Bonnie Butler stands outside her house after the 2020 virtual Marine Corps Marathon.

After her mileage tracking device died, Butler finished the marathon and then ran an extra three miles to ensure that she completed the full 26.2. photo courtesy BONNIE BUTLER. BOTTOM: Science teacher Jasen Gohn smiles after a Whitman boys varsity tennis team win. Coaching is the main way Gohn continues to surround himself with tennis. photo courtesy JASEN GOHN.

29

10 9 3

4

5

6

7

8

90 8

9

1

10

2

by Kaya Ginsky and Mathilde Lambert

30

B&W

the

gra p

hic

3

sb yS

4

AM AN

TH

5

AL

EV

INE

6

7

ACROSS 6. Home cooling systems, for short 9. Famous Pakistani vocalist 13. Width, in Señora Ledet’s classroom 14. Me, in Madam Beech’s classroom 15. Something you sing 16. Newspaper with frequent printings 17. Information Services Group, abbr.

18. Whitman counselor and track coach 20. Long-time Whitman history teacher 22. Quilt, in Scotland 23. Undiagnosed Diseases Network, abbr.

24. Summer-day refresher, ___-cone 25. Cry for help 27. Legal Information Institute, abbr.

28. Forceful punch, or footwear 30. Hanker-tie 32. ____ Musk, CEO of Tesla 33. More than want 35. Not knowing for sure students 40. Single-celled organism studied in biology 43. Metrical foot in poetry 46. Current British composer, Thomas ____ 47. Paula _____, former “American Idol” judge 50. Fraud 52. Commission on Dietetic Registration, abbr.

53. Friend, in Madam Beech’s class 54. “___ Milk?”

56. Professional Bowlers Association, abbr.

57. Sees, feels, smells, tastes and _____ 59. To look at intensely 61. Syracuse International Airport, for short 62. Person who works in marketing 63. Cup for soda 64. Where Pyle 7th graders watched Tom Sawyer

Back 2 Skool

Across 66.

French-baked wafer 26. Overtime, when said in a sports podcast 67.

Underdog Racing Development, abbr. fiend- ROSEN 29. Deceased English Romantic poet, John _____ 1. Math teacher and crossword 68. Style of art originating in Belgium, Germany and the Nether31. Animated commercial, for short 6. Home cooling systems, for short- ACS lands 32. These, in Señora Romera’s class 69.

Advanced course for techies, for short 34. Rapper Dr. ___ 9. Famous Pakistani vocalist - NFAK 70. Body of water 36. Three down, for short 13.Chalkboard Width, in Señora Ledet’s classroom- ANCHO38. Study last minute 71.

14. Me, in Madam Beech’s classroom- MOI

DOWN 40. Dominican music and dance often learned in Spanish 4 15.

Something you sing- ATUNE 1.

Geometry measurement 41. Summed 2. Lecturing, “going __ ___ __” Popular clay creation of Whitman artists 16. Newspaper with frequent printings- DAILY 42.

3. AP Environmental _______ or AP Computer _______ 44. Montgomery County Public Schools’ after-school activities, 4.

Eastern Hockey League, abbr. Group, abbr.- ISG for short 17.

Information Services 5. Deceased English poet and playwright, Alfred _____ 45. Extra skin for toddlers 18.

Whitman counselor and track coach - COSTA48. East African country that borders Kenya 6.

Friends, in Spanish class 7.

Thing, in Señora Bartels’“pertaining class 49. Letter of recommendation, abbr.

19.

Suffix meaning to”- INE 8. Ends the day of virtual classes 51. Biology of ocean life 20.

Long-time Whitman history teacher- EAGAN 53. American Society of Naval Engineers, abbr.

9.

Ghanaian soccer player, Isaac ____ 10.

55. Groups, in sports 22.Corkscrew Quilt, inpasta Scotland- TWILT 11. Type of insect 58. Remote Automated Laboratory Systems, abbr.

23.Yearbook Undiagnosed Diseases 12. supervisor at Whitman Network, abbr.- UDN60. Button pressed when setting the scale back to zero 15. a playjournalism is divided into awards often given to the Black 65. Total Outstanding 24.What Digital and White-Liability, SNO abbr.

21. American Nurses Association, abbr.

25. Cry for help- SOS

31

HOMEMADE T-SHIRT QUILTS MADE LOCALLY

WAYE to Cover Up

HOMEMADE T-SHIRT QUILTS made locally by former Wood Acres/Pyle/Whitman parent, Jean Waye A fantastic and fun way to preserve the memories from your old t-shirts and make room in your drawers for new ones!

For more information, pictures and contact information: Please visit my website WayeToCoverUp.com You can also contact me directly at wayetocoverup@gmail.com or 240-687-4748