Commitment to Diversity
MCPS is one of the most diverse counties in the country. At Walter Johnson HS, while our student population is around half white, we still have a tremendous amount of diversity. This diversity extends beyond just race, represented through diverse ethnicities, religions, and even interests and passions. As a newspaper for the whole school, therefore, we have a responsibility to represent everyone in the school, not just the people on the staff.
The 2022-2023 Pitch staff pose for a photo in the courtyard.
Photo by Wendy Borrelli
Walter Johnson High School
Our Diversity
According to the most recently available statistics, our high school, Walter Johnson HS, is 49.9% White, 18.3% Hispanic, 12.8% Black, 12.2% Asian, 6.4% 2+ races and 0.4% other. While not the most diverse school in our county, compared to other schools in our district, which can be over 60% White, WJ still has a significant amount of racial, cultural, and ethnic diversity that we cover in our reporting. This ranges from covering cultural club events to deeper investigations of the disparities that remain in our school and county between groups today.
Diverse
Coverage by Me
I have covered many news stories that impact minority or underrepresented groups in MCPS. Here are a few examples.
This article discussed MCPS systemwide plan for antiracism, a story relevant to the minority groups identified as underserved in the report.
Following other local antisemitic attacks, this article about a graffiti at the nearby Whitman HS was important as it reported on the increasing trend of antisemitic attacks in the community.
This article took an in-depth look at the legacy of segregation and unfair housing practices on MCPS boundaries today and how they cause inequities to persist.
Diverse
Coverage by Staff
During story meetings, I encourage writers to include a wide array of coverage and perspectives. In our critique from NSPA, we were awarded a Mark of Distinction for Content & Coverage, and our reviewer cited "inclusive coverage" as one of the reasons behind the award.
By Billie Lieber, Podcast Editor
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This article profiled senior Julian Bradford, who played Jean Valjean in our school's production of "Les Miserables" in the spring musical last year. Bradford was a student in the Learning for Independence program at WJ. Winning Best of SNO, this article is an example of the diverse coverage we strive for.
By Abby Kee, Senior News Editor
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This article covered the ASL class's field trip to Gallaudet University to immerse themself in the deaf community. Pitched by a staff member in the class, this was a good example of taking a story pitched by a class member to include more diverse perspectives.
By Jay Resnik, Online News Editor
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In another Best of SNO winning article, we covered the ESOL department's Thanksgiving luncheon, telling the story of international students who had never experienced American Thanksgiving before. This year, we also covered the ESOL department's annual Halloween pumpkin carving activity in a video.
The Pitch
Specialty Magazines
Each year, we publish a specialty full-color magazine, different from our regular print newspapers that examines a topic we don't normally cover in our regular issue, with the capability to go much more in-depth and with design tools to tell stories through the magazine format.
The 2023 specialty issue titled "Behind the Double Green Doors" was the first specialty magazine I worked on. It featured parts of the school normally hidden from the spotlight, including a CSPA-award winning spread about hidden spaces of WJ, and the unspoken stigma in our school around eating in the cafeteria.
As the name suggests, our 2024 specialty "People of WJ" focused specifically on the amazing people that walk through WJ every day, ranging from an Olympic skater, to a student running their own barbershop business and a teacher who drives a car painted like the Batmobile.
The 2025 specialty "Can We Fix It?" examined the many problems that students and teachers observe everyday in school that go unreported. This included my article about the trend of grade inflation and articles about chronic absenteeism, drug use and differences in how students of different genders are treated, both in sports and the classroom.
Diversity Practices
On our staff, we have two Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Editors. They act as liaisons to the over 110 clubs and student organizations in our school and work with the Editorial Board to ensure coverage of diverse events in the school community.
This year, we also started a practice of maintaining a Sources Spreadsheet. When writing a story, every writer lists their sources in the notes box on SNO FLOW and then the DEI Editors mark off the sources we use in the spreadsheet, which contains a list of every student in our school. This way, we can avoid an overuse of the most vocal students in the community and try to cover a more broad range of the student body.
Sources are listed in the notes box on SNO FLOW and then marked on the spreadsheet when used to prevent overusage of the same sources.
