Role in Popular Culture
Walt Whitman High School was the subject of the 2006 best-selling book, The Overachievers. The non-fiction book concerns itself with several students who were members of Whitman's class of 2004, 2005 or 2006. From July 20, 2004 - December 9, 2005, the author, Alexandra Robbins, followed eight Whitman juniors and seniors through their daily lives. It uses the lives of the Whitman students to show pressure in academia and the negative effect in today's society. Robbins is a Whitman alum of the class of 1994.
In 2005, in wake of Hurricane Katrina, a Whitman student and her two younger sisters started Project Backpack, an organization which donated backpacks filled with toys to displaced children. The project exceeded all expectations and received thousands of backpacks which were delivered to the New Orleans victims. To honor their deed, President Bush invited them to light the National Christmas Tree.
In 2006, five Walt Whitman High School Juniors were involved in robbing a Smoothie King in Downtown Bethesda. One of the people involved in the robbery was Highly recruited star Linebacker Patrick Lazear. Since the robbery was planned during class, Lazear was forced to transfer to Wheaton High for his senior year and lost over 20 scholarships, while the other four boys were forced to transfer to other schools in the county. The students would become known as the Whitman Five throughout the region, and were ridiculed for receiving sentences that many saw as a slap on the wrist that ranged from 30–90 days.
The December 15–22, 2008 edition of U.S. News & World Report, in which the nation's top 100 public high schools were unveiled, featured three Whitman students on the cover.
In December 2008, River Road, a street the school is located just off of in Bethesda Maryland, had a burst water main gain national attention. The burst cut off water to the school and community for the entire day, and flooded the road to such an extent that not only was traffic cut off for several blocks, but rescue teams were needed to help those stuck in their cars.
In April 2009, the school was the site for a protest by the Westboro Baptist Church. Seven members of the church traveled to the school in order to protest the sexual orientation of Walt Whitman, for whom the school was named. The students organized a counter protest, in which over 500 Whitman students and alumni participated. The protest was covered by national media.
Helen Thomas was scheduled for June 2010 to be the commencement speaker at graduation. A few weeks before, she was asked to comment about Israel. She replied, "Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine," and that "they should go home" to Poland, Germany, America and "everywhere else". Thomas subsequently issued an apology on her personal web site, but Principal Alan Goodwin said, in an email to Whitman parents, "Graduation celebrations are not the venue for divisiveness." Thomas was subsequently replaced as speaker.
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