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The Student News Site of Walt Whitman High School

The Black and White

The Student News Site of Walt Whitman High School

The Black and White

The Student News Site of Walt Whitman High School

The Black and White

Five stories from the kids of Ukraine

Five stories from the kids of Ukraine

This story was published in print in April 2024.  The following interviews were conducted in Ukrainian and translated into English. “When I hear the helicopter sound, I start to remember the first...

Over-the-counter sleep: The unexpected dangers of melatonin supplements

Over-the-counter sleep: The unexpected dangers of melatonin supplements

By Colette Yehl May 9, 2025

This story was published in print in April 2024.  When someone can’t fall asleep at night, they might pick up their phone, meditate or even count sheep. Recently, though, more and more children and...

Zainab Mazari, a college student from Kabul, Afghanistan, lived part of her life amidst this volatile conflict. Her world became increasingly uncertain as the Taliban retook control in recent years, pushing her to seek a way out of the country and build a new future beyond the borders.

Escaping the Taliban: how Zainab reclaimed her future

By Rishith Alimchandani May 1, 2025

“In the college in Kabul, I wasn’t thinking about what my teacher was teaching; I was thinking all the time if the Taliban will come and kill us.” After waging a 20-year insurgency, Islamic extremists...

Apps like Google Maps that monitor travel are already the focus of subpoenas used to prosecute women seeking reproductive care out of state.

Our bodies, our data: The fight for digital autonomy

By Hannah Mullins March 21, 2025

Some names have been changed to protect privacy. This June marks three years since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade with a 6-3 ruling in Jackson v. Dobbs, breaking...

Bonded together by long hikes through the forest and poetry readings around the campfire, these are participants in Open Sky Wilderness Therapy, a program that seeks to “inspire individuals to live in a way that honors, values and strengthens relationships.”

From tough love to torture: Wilderness therapy rehabilitation programs leave teenagers traumatized

By Kate Rodriguez October 4, 2023

Trigger warning: discussion of suicide, drug abuse and violence   In the scenic mountains of Utah, worlds away from anything resembling civilization, lives a group of teenage girls. Bonded together...

The words “gay” and “girly” unsurprisingly continue to follow me, but I understand now that those juvenile claims are part of a larger pattern of people denying other men’s masculinity to assert their own.

Boys dance too: My experience as a male ballet dancer

By Jacob Cowan January 22, 2023

This story was published in print in December 2022.  The faint sound of pointe shoes echoes through a narrow walkway as I begin to ascend a set of stairs. With each step, the soft tapping crescendos...

While the Infinity Saga featured aspirational characters such as Iron Man, Captain America and Hulk as well as countless groundbreaking moments, the lack of diversity and female representation was difficult to ignore.

Are Marvel’s new projects “bad,” or are you just not the target audience?

By Maddie Kaltman January 13, 2023

Robert Downey Jr. Scarlett Johansson. Chris Evans. Their signatures scrawl from left to right as fans dry tear-filled eyes. The rolling of emotion-filled credits after “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) marked...

A legacy of achievement: Whitman alumni reflect on the culture of high performance

By Kate Rodriguez January 12, 2023

When writing her 2006 national bestselling book, “The Overachievers,” Whitman alum Alexandra Robbins (‘94) shadowed eight Whitman students in their day-to-day lives. She aimed to portray the extensive...

When they don’t “meet standard”: An inside look at evaluating teachers

When they don’t “meet standard”: An inside look at evaluating teachers

By Dani Klein December 6, 2022

Some names have been changed to respect students’ and teachers’ privacy. Every student knows that one teacher, at Whitman or elsewhere. The teacher who made their older sibling cry. The teacher...

From foster to family: Whitman boys embrace their role as foster siblings

By Grace Roddy November 29, 2022

After school, most students go home, grab a snack and unzip their backpacks to dive into a night full of homework. However, Bennett Browning (‘22) and sophomore Beckett Browning have something else on...

A single pill can kill: social media increases access to drugs

By Lauren Heberlee October 26, 2022

Trigger Warning: pertains graphic language related to an overdose. Some names have been changed to protect students’ privacy At 6:00 a.m. on January 17, Marc Hausman found his 16 year-old son,...

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