Seaholm High School
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| Established | 1951 |
|---|---|
| Type | Public |
| Affiliation | Birmingham City School District |
| Principal | Terry Piper |
| Students | 1146 |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Location | Birmingham, Michigan, USA |
| Website | [2] |
Ernest W. Seaholm High School is a public school located within the Birmingham City School District in Birmingham, Michigan, serving grades 9-12. It is located at 2436 West Lincoln Road, Birmingham, Michigan 48009. Seaholm opened its doors for the first time in 1951 under the name Birmingham High. At the time, the principal was Ernest W. Seaholm and the treasurer Wylie E. Groves. These men's names would be the source of the modern names of Birmingham's two main high schools: Seaholm High School and Groves High School. The current principal is Morem Doresi (2008-2009 academic year). The assistant principals are Staci Peterson and Debra Boyer. Seaholm's student body and athletes are represented by a maroon and white maple leaf mascot. The school has a comprehensive Division II sports program that includes cross country running, American football, baseball, basketball, tennis, volleyball, golf, wrestling, swimming, water polo, diving, and track & field.
In addition to sports, the Forensics Team has consistently enjoyed success at the state-finalist level. Quiz Bowl team has also had success, winning a national championship in 1991 at the American Scholastics Competition Network Tournament of Champions and a state championship in 1994.[1]
The yearbook, called The Piper, has also consistently enjoyed success. In 2002 the The Piper was inducted into the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association's Publication Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame consists of only 8 Michigan high school yearbooks. [2].
Seaholm was ranked 498th in a Newsweek list of the 1000 best public high schools in America.[3]
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[edit] In the News
On March 6, the Birmingham girl former Seaholm High School teacher Dennis Michael Carter had a sexual affair with spoke publicly for the first time, describing her relationship with Carter as “the single worst time of my life.”
Under a plea bargain in which Carter admitted to two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct with his former student, Judge Ray Lee Chabot ordered him to spend between one and 15 years in prison, pay $4,825 in restitution, $120 in fees and $5 a week to a program for victims of sexual abuse as designated by the girl’s family.
Reading from a prepared statement at Carter’s sentencing in Oakland County Court, the woman — who is now 19 and in college — sobbed, “Every day is a struggle, like I’m running uphill … because of Dennis Carter I feel cheated out of life.”
She first met Carter as a 13-year-old ninth-grader on the swim team at Seaholm, but the relationship didn’t become sexual in nature until she turned 16 in 2003. Looking back, she said, Carter tried to cultivate a relationship with her from the beginning.
“Dennis made a choice. He is at fault,” she said.
Birmingham Police Cmdr. Jon Van Gorder said the woman admitted the acts were consensual, but because she was only 16 at the time, she was not of age to consent. He said Michigan law prohibits teachers from starting a sexual relationship with a student until the student is 18 years and one day old.
Police said the sexual encounters happened over a six-month period in several cities, at hotels and other places across metro Detroit, including Birmingham and Royal Oak.
To keep their meetings secret, Carter bought a plastic cover to hide the license plate number on her car and a second cell phone so her parents wouldn’t see their phone calls or text messages.
“Dennis made me lie to my family, friends and myself,” she said. “He isolated me from my mother, the one person who could have helped me, he lied straight to her face … he bashed my dad and brainwashed me into believing things that weren’t true … I was so young, how was I supposed to know what he was capable of?”
The relationship continued into her senior year, until she broke it off in February of 2004.
“Not one part of me was left unscarred, untouched,” she said.
Since then, she said, her life has completely “shattered.” She said she is on antidepressants and has already spent a year in therapy, adding that she will require more. She said her grades have also “severely suffered” while she works on “repairing herself.”
“I’ll never be the same. I’ll never be the girl I was before,” she said. “… He’s made my hometown the most uncomfortable place on earth.”
The woman said that if Carter “truly regretted what he did, it never would have happened in the first place,” adding that she believes he is only “feeling sorry because he got caught.”
“Every day you’re in prison, I want you to remember why you are there,” she said to Carter in court.
Chabot thanked the woman for her statement saying, “I don’t know how much courage it took, but I know it took a lot to come up here,” and turned the floor over to Carter, who also spoke publicly for the first time.
“I just want to express how sorry I am … I was the adult — as things changed, I should have stopped things immediately. I’ve lost everything I’ve worked for,” he said, addressing the woman and her family.
Carter, of Ferndale, started working in the BPS district in 1990 as a teacher in the engineering technology program and coached the Seaholm girls swim team to Class A championships in 1995, 1996 and 1997. He resigned from Seaholm for personal reasons on March 17, 2006.
Carter initially pleaded not guilty on May 16, 2006, to the seven counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct he was originally charged with, but decided to change his plea to guilty for two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct on Jan. 22 after the two parties reached a sentencing agreement.
Defense Attorney Jerome Sabotta said the agreement with Assistant Prosecutor Nicki Weisberger lowered Carter’s sentencing guidelines from a minimum sentence of 51-85 months in jail to a minimum of one year — maximum of 15 years — in prison and dismissed five of the seven counts of third-degree CSC.
[edit] Notable Alumni
- Tim Allen, actor/comedian (1971)
- Mike Binder, (1976), actor/director
- Douglas Clemons, (1976) Film Writer/Producer/Editor; known for All Jacked Up (film)
- Pamela Anne Eldred, Miss America (1970)
- Laura Innes, (1975) actress
- Christine Lahti, actress (1968)
- Aaron Simpson, Emmy-nominated animation producer (1989)
- Noel Paul Stookey, Peter, Paul & Mary, singer
- Kelley Stoltz, Songwriter/Musician, Recording artist with Sub Pop Records
- Dr. James Tobin, author, (1974) Ernie Pyle's War (Free Press)
- Carolyn Warmus, schoolteacher and convicted murderer
- Elizabeth Reaser, Actress (1993)
- Dr. Jake Martin, Gay Rights Activist (1984]) """Not A Choice"""" (Detroit Metro News)
- Chuck Norris, Action film actor
- Nick Cromie, Gay rights activist and pioneering inventor of the come out of the closet campaign.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Athletic calendar
- Orchestra homepage
- Forensics homepage
- Seaholm Football Homepage
- Hockey Team Homepage
- Seaholm Baseball Homepage
- Seaholm Class of 1962 Web Site
[edit] Notes
- ^ [1]
- ^ http://mipa.jrn.msu.edu/hof.html
- ^ Newsweek's ranking is based on the ratio of Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams taken by students to the number of graduating students that year, regardless of the scores earned by students or the difficulty in graduating. Schools with average SAT scores of above 1300 or average ACT scores of above 27 are excluded from the list.
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