| Fayetteville High School | |
|---|---|
| Address | |
| 1001 Stone Street US Fayetteville, Arkansas, 72701 United States |
|
| Information | |
| Type | Public high school |
| Established | 1908 |
| School district | Fayetteville Public Schools |
| Superintendent | Vicki Thomas |
| Principal | Steve Jacoby |
| Assistant principals | Denise Hoy Evelyn Marbury David Young Jon Gheen Byron Zeagler Bobby Smith |
| Grades | 10-12 |
| Enrollment | Approx. 2,250 |
| Campus | Urban |
| Color(s) | Purple & White |
| Athletics conference | 7A West |
| Mascot | Purple Bulldog |
| Nickname | The Bulldogs, Purple Dogs |
| Website | School Website |
Fayetteville High School is a public high school located in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The school is administered by the Fayetteville Public Schools system, headed by Vicki Thomas.
Contents |
The school was first opened in 1908, and its current building was built in 1950, with further renovations made in the 1990s. The current building, built adjacent to the University of Arkansas and just off of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, is also located on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail. The evidence of its location alongside the Trail of Tears is two signs at the road side—one of them a government sign, the other a sign erected by the University. Additional renovations and a new wing on the east side of the building were completed in time for the 1993-94 school year, while further renovations to meet Title IX compliance were done to the secondary gym and locker room around 2001. To meet growing demand for classroom space, the high school took over unused space in what used to be Bates Elementary, which was a building just down the hill. The school also has one of the best TV studios in the country, from which they air the Bulldog Show on Channel 14.
The school was also the first school in Arkansas to voluntarily desegregate, and on September 11, 1954, African American students first attended the high school. The school's marching band was selected to go to the Tournament of Roses Parade for 2006, only the second time an Arkansas band has attended.
In 2006, Fayetteville High School was named the 413th best high school in the nation according to the Newsweek magazine's Top 1200 US Schools [2]. Public schools are ranked according to a ratio called the Challenge Index. In 2010, Fayetteville High School was recognized above all other Arkansas public high schools, as having the most AP scholars enrolled in AP courses.
The Fayetteville High School Marching Bulldog Band is under the direction of Barry Harper. The band has marched in many prestigious parades in the past, including 1989 George H. W. Bush Presidential Inauguration Parade, the Fiesta Bowl, the Tournament of Roses Parade, the Hollywood Christmas Parade, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in both 1998 and 2008, and the 6abc Dunkin' Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade. The band is considered one of the top high school marching bands in the state and surrounding region and consists of over 200 members.
In 2005, Connotations, the school's literary magazine, received a Superior award from the National Council of Teachers of English's Program to Recognize Excellence in Student Literary Magazines.[1]
In 1993, 1995, 1997 and 2007, Connotations won the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) Magazine Pacemaker Award.[2] In 2006, Connotations was placed in the NSPA's Hall of Fame for receiving the highest rating that NSPA awards in its critique service twelve times in the schools' recent history[3]
In 1994, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association awarded Connotations the CSPA's Scholastic Gold Circle Awards for its Overall Design, Cover Design (Two or More Colors), Title and Contents Page, and Typography.[4]
The Fayetteville Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs are highly competitive in the state's largest classification, 7A, and are members of the West conference of that classification. State championships include[5]:
Saturday December 3, 2011 Fayetteville High School upset top ranked Bentonville and broke their 25 game winning streak with a 29-28 overtime victory in War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock to win their second state football championchip.
Saturday November 24, 2007 Fayetteville High School won its first state football championship in defeating Springdale Har-Ber 28-7 in Little Rock.
Saturday March 14, 2009 Fayetteville High School concluded undefeated seasons in both boy's and girl's basketball and won 7A state championships. The girls finished 32-0 while the boys finished 30-0.
In 2006, Sports Illustrated ranked Fayetteville High School in the nation's Top 20 High School Athletic Programs,[7] stating:
"Located across the street from the University of Arkansas, this school has won a state-best 24 titles in 10 sports since 1996. The Purple Bulldogs’ girls’ gymnastics team has won eight straight state championships, and the girls’ soccer team took four straight from 1998 to 2001, plus one in 2010. Since 1996 the boys’ basketball team has made five appearances in the state semifinals and went to the title game in March. Fayetteville has also won four state championships in indoor track, which is not a recognized sport in the state. Alum Wallace Spearmon, currently a star at the University of Arkansas, is the top-ranked college 200-meter sprinter in the U.S."
On March 24, 2008, the New York Times ran an article accusing the administration and teachers of ignoring violence and bullying against Billy Wolfe, a sophomore currently attending Fayetteville High School. After years of abuse, his parents have filed a lawsuit against one of the bullies, and are considering an additional lawsuit against the district, claiming that their son had been wrongly suspended and accused of being responsible for his own situation by school officials despite evidence that other students were responsible. Some students had set up a Facebook group titled "Every One Hates Billy Wolfe" calling on them to attack him at school. One entry written by a student on March 9, 2007 said ""Haha (your ) Billy got clocked today at school and I think one or two of his teeth got knocked out damn my friends are awesome"."[8][9]
Fayetteville High School representatives responded by saying that in these types of cases if laws have been violated then the school reports the incident to the Fayetteville Police Department, and complained that the article was "casting our school district in a very bad and undeserved light." However, police records, Wolfe's mother, and Fayetteville Police Department Cpl. Craig Stout said an assault report was eventually filed by the Wolfe family, not the school.[10][11] Wolfe's mother claims she begged the assistant principal of the school, Byron Zeagler, to call the police. "He said my son got what he deserved." Former Fayetteville Superintendent Bobby New said "We stand behind our administrators and believe they acted appropriately."[12] Students at Fayetteville High School, in reaction to perceived bias in the New York Times article, expressed their opinion when being interviewed by the local news. They stated that Wolfe "brings a lot of it on himself, that he actually picks a lot of the fights" and "that what he does, is he antagonizes the other person and starts the fight and when he loses he says 'Oh I got beat up.'"[13] Many students, and faculty members, were upset with the fact no one inside the school was asked their opinion or outlook on the Billy Wolfe incident prior to the New York Times article. The Times did very little to get both sides of the story; choosing the Wolfe's claim as a better topic for a sympathetic read. In a local newspaper report the following week, a student with muscular dystrophy claimed that Wolfe "likes to call him names, like stupid or retarded," and "screams in his ear, which is sensitive to noise because of his medical condition…[Wolfe] once pounded him in the back of the head several times with a medium-sized rubber ball."[14] Following the story's publication, the Fayetteville School District has reported receiving "terroristic threatening" as both a threatening phone call to McNair Middle School and an email which "suggested the district would be hit with some sort of Internet or computer network attack."[15]
The vast majority of the student body supports the administration's handling of the event and many say the blame lies solely on Wolfe. He reportedly harassed and provoked his peers often and whenever someone snapped, he acted like the victim. One of the students now involved in the trials said "Billy would come up to me in the hall and punch me in the stomach. When I told the principal, Billy stopped for a while." Another incident involved Wolfe making fun of a child who had just lost his mother. The child pushed Wolfe who then went to the counselors claiming he had been bullied.
A decade ago a student attending Fayetteville High School's Vocational Campus was harassed and beaten for being homosexual. At that time the administration of Fayetteville School District had promised the office of Civil Rights they would adopt procedures to promote tolerance and respect.[8] Currently, Fayetteville High School has a Gay-Straight Alliance, which, in 2004 was picketed by members of the Westboro Baptist Church.[16]