Sandra Day O'Connor High School

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Sandra Day O'Connor High School
Location
25250 N. 35th Ave
Glendale, Arizona 85310
Information
Principal Cindy Rudrud
Enrollment

2,400
Type Public
Mascot Eagle
Color(s) Royal Blue and Gold
Newspaper The Talon
Established 2002
Homepage http://sdohs.dvusd.org

Sandra Day O’Connor High School, part of the Deer Valley Unified School District (DVUSD), is located just west of I-17 and north of Happy Valley Road in Glendale, which is near Phoenix, Arizona. The campus is named after former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who grew up in Arizona, served as an assistant attorney general, was member of the state senate, and eventually became the first woman appointed as a Supreme Court Justice. When confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 1981, Justice O’Connor was the only sitting member of the Court who had been elected to a public office.

This Arizona high school is not to be confused with the one in Helotes, Texas (whose mascot is most distinctly a Panther). Hillcrest middle school and Stetson Hills K-8 school feed into O'Connor.

Contents

[edit] History

SDOHS opened as the fourth high school in DVUSD, on Thursday, August 22, 2002, accommodating grades 9 and 10. Due to time constraints, the school was opened unfinished and still under construction, with no Performing Arts building and only one academic building, which caused problems for students and staff. It should be noted that in the manner of most Arizona schools, the facility is designed after the style of many community college models--a series of many buildings. The following year, the school expanded to grades 9-11, and opened a new academic building. The next year, an auxiliary gym was added and the Performing Arts building was finally established. The Performing Arts building became the new and permanent home to dance, ceramics, band, choir, guitar, and theater classes. It currently provides a 200 seat auditorium and a smaller auditorium for various school-centered purposes. That same year, O'Connor high school had finally become a 9-12 facility, with its first graduation ceremony held in May of 2005.

[edit] Media coverage

On April 1, 2005, O'Connor held a unique fundraiser to help benefit two students diagnosed with cancer. One was 14-year-old Samantha Thorne, who had leukimia and was awaiting a bone-marrow transplant. The other was 17-year-old Kendra Raymond, who was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of cancer. The fundraiser was to help raise money for Kendra's Race, a race initially dedicated to Raymond, who was the only student battling the disease in previous years. The fundraiser was unique in which students were to sign up to win a raffle ticket for getting their head shaved. While head-shaving benefits supporting those battling cancer are fairly common, it was at the time a distinctive feat for Glendale. Thorne's sister won a chance and Thorne gratefully shaved off her sister's long hair, which was donated to Locks of Love, an organization that fashions human hair into high quality wigs for cancer patients. Other students won chances as well, including various teachers and coaches. The fundraiser accumulated a total of around $700.[1]

During the spring semester of the 2004-2005 school year, a morning pep rally was held in order to promote that night's varsity home football game. One student, a senior and captain of the football team, was brought on stage to help with the promotion. When the hosting cheerleader asked him what the team planned for that night's game, he inadvertently answered with an explitive. The student was immediately brought off stage, where, according to the student, the principal forcefully led the young man into his office, grabbed his jersey, and aggressively chastised him. The student saw this as an assault, and waited until after graduation to file a complaint with police. The student states the reason for waiting was because "at first he was too scared to mention it during football season and risk over-aggressive responses and lose the ability to play football all together". He further stated "his mother decided it best to report after the school year to the police so the principal, whom in her opinion had already shown the ability to act unreasonable, wouldn't try to interfere with her son's graduation." According to the principal, however, he never used unprofessional and unreasonable aggression towards the student and simply placed his hand firmly on the student's shoulder. The police did not contact the principal. The student was sentenced to four days suspension, suspended from two football games, and his title of football captain removed. The student states he was "requested in order to stay on the football team to make a public apology for the words so then he did."[2] While television news media was not informed, The Arizona Republic contacted the school to cover the story. After the incident, many people, especially students, were skeptical the principal truly behaved in such a manner. A numerous amount of these people stated that the stories in the newspapers were accusing someone of a fabricated occurrence, regardless of whether they attended the pep rally or not.

In May 2007, former student Jordin Sparks, then a semi-finalist on the famed TV show American Idol, was visiting Glendale to film footage of her hometown for the following week's semi-finals. During her visit, she had come back to O'Connor to sing two songs she performed on the show. In light of her visitation, the school put on a welcome back assembly for her in the main gym. When she went up in front of the nearly 2,000 students, she announced, "Hey, guys. Did you miss me?" KSAZ (Arizona's FOX network) and KTVK (Arizona's own 3TV network) were present to film the occasion. Jordin would have been attending as a junior that year.

[edit] Activities and academics

SDOHS offers a full complement of academics, College Board/AP/honors level courses, special education inclusion, fine arts, career and technical education, and technology courses to students in grades nine through twelve. In addition, a wide range of student activities and clubs are available to all students. Competitive athletics for both young men and women are offered at the freshmen, junior varsity and varsity levels.

[edit] Athletics

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Template:Www.azcental.com/communtiy/westvalley/articles/0319wvangela0319Z1.html
  2. ^ Template:Www.azcentral.com/community/westvalley/articles/0805wvoconnor0805Z1.html

[edit] External links