Many teens—including a lot of BHS students—either do not believe Helen Keller ever existed, or do not believe her accomplishments are real. Baldwin High School newspaper reporters Katie Fillipih, Lucas Ovitsky, and Katherine Gruendler were assigned to look into this bizarre phenomenon for The Purbalite, and the ensuing odyssey found them doing loads of research and interviewing a social media influencer who played a big role in starting this conspiracy; a reporter from the fact-checking site Snopes; a local expert; and many BWSD members for whom this Keller issue hits very close to home.
Six weeks and multiple revisions later, their news story not only won Best of School Newspapers Online recognition, but also stands as the most in-depth reporting students have done in recent memory—and probably in the paper's history.