W. B. Ray High School

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W. B. Ray High School
Established 1950
Type Public, Secondary
Principal Steve Gonzales
Students 2400
Grades 9–12
Location Corpus Christi, Texas USA
Colors Scarlet and Silver
Mascot Fighting Texan
Website http://ccan.corpuschristiisd.org/ray/index.cfm
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W. B. Ray High School is a secondary school centrally located in Corpus Christi, Texas and is part of the Corpus Christi Independent School District. The school is named in honor of the school board president, William Benton Ray. W. B. Ray High School opened in 1950.

Contents

[edit] Racial Tension

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As of 2005, W. B. Ray has a student body of approximately 2400 students with an ethnic distribution of 70% Hispanic, 27% White, 1% Black and 1% other ethnicities including Native Americans, Asian and Pacific Islanders, Jews, and South Asians. The district's boundaries include the Ocean Drive, Hewitt, and Lamar Park areas of Corpus Christi where many of Corpus Christi's more "affluent" citizens live. On the other end of the spectrum, the neighborhood surrounding Ray and the neighborhoods in the west end of the district are typically from low socio-economic households, many below the poverty level.Race conflict at the school has in recent years become tense, due to the increasingly racist attitudes of members of the student body. The school's student body appears to participate in a form of self-segregation, which is most visibly apparent when entering the school's cafeteria.[citation needed] The cheerleading squad has come under fire over the past few years due to the majority of its members being white. This and other perceived privileges that the affluent caucasian students are seen to enjoy has led to charges that the school's social structure is a sort of informal apartheid.[citation needed] This perception is further exacerbated by the fact that the white minority consistently acts to protect its own "interests."[citation needed] Mexican parents often lack the resources to protect their children and are generally at a disadvantage.[citation needed]

[edit] Profile

The school principal is Steven Gonzales, who replaced Dr. Dawn Dorsey at the beginning of the 2005-2006 school year. 98% of seniors who attend graduate with their diploma.

The school's motto is "The Difference Shows". Their mascot "Tex" (and Mary-Lou) school colors are scarlet and silver.

[edit] Notable alumni

  • Kipp Layton from the Tonight Show with Jay Leno

[edit] Sports

The school was at one time in its early history competitive at the state levels even winning the 1957 Football State Championship. In recent years however the school sled into athletic mediocrity which was to characterize most South Texas sports as they failed to compete with the generally larger players from north and east Texas schools. However the Texans again became competitive in the 21st century this time in the sport of Basketball. Although the football program had high hopes under coach Gary Tuberville and led by all South-Texas quarterback Travis Wheat in 2002, their dreams were squandered after Wheat suffered a season ending injury mid-season and the Texans finished a dissapointing 5-5. Led by high school hoopster legend Taurean Mitchell the Texans would eventually become one of the greatest teams in the state. In 2003 they made it to the state finals where they lost to DeSoto. In 2004 the team was to have one last hurrah which would end in one of the most racially charged games in Texas Sports history. The Texans which was a majority black team were playing Austin Westlake, known throughout the state for its unofficial motto "were rich, were white, were westlake". During the game Austin Westlake dominated and the Westlake student body began yelling racially demeaning chants at the Ray basketball team as Westlake cruised to victory. This moment was the beginning of the end for Ray sports. Today Ray is forced to wallow in the shadow of its former glory. Former, meaning in most male sports. The ladies of W.B. Ray Athletics have been striving to get a taste of the "squandered" dreams. The Lady Texan Soccer team achieved a Silver Medal in the Gold Division of the Gulf Coast Classic Soccer Tournament for the first time in the 2006-2007 School year under the coaching of Larry Mathys and assistant Daniel Kelly. The Texan Swim team, influenced by Suann Pyle also achieved victory in 2007 taking a State title or two. The Wrestling team lead by "Coach Arvin" in the past four years has had a couple of stand out athletes to make it to state. Including "Jackie" Stiles, who dominated her way to the top and was named champion for the 2007 National Collegiate Women's Wrestling.

[edit] School Crime

The school has suffered a black eye in recent years because of escalating crime. The school is in local slang known as "the war zone" because of incidents of gang warfare. This and hate crimes committed against the school's gay community have given the school its reputation of violence. This and the school's history as a conducive area for drug dealing have led to the school becoming highly undesirable and leading to a white flight to more safe schools in the district such as Richard King High School and Mary Carroll High School. Truancy has become atrocious in recent years and many teachers feel overwhelmed dealing with it. The presence of armed police officers is required in order to keep student crime in check.

[edit] School uniform

The school has a dress code that is similar to a school uniform; tops must be red, gray, and white, and bottoms must be solid white, tan khaki, or blue denim. Assistant Principals and armed police officers guard the main hallways in search of dress code offenders. In 2000, there was a push in the administration (led by Dr. Scott at the time) to ban flip-flops, but student and parent outcry and lack of support from teachers led to this being dropped. [1]

[edit] Contact information

W. B. Ray High School
1002 Texan Trail
Corpus Christi, TX 78411

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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