Forest Brook High School was a high school located at 7525 Tidwell Road in Houston, Texas, United States. Serving grades 9 through 12, Forest Brook was a part of the North Forest Independent School District.
The school has a brook channeled through the campus.[1]
The campus is now used as Forest Brook Middle School.
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Forest Brook was built in 1972,[2] and Forest Brook opened on August 2, 1972.[1]
In June 2001 Tropical Storm Allison damaged Forest Brook High School and NFISD officials temporarily closed the school. District officials wanted to put the children on the campus of M. B. Smiley High School. NFISD residents protested the plan. Some argued that because Forest Brook and Smiley were rivals, putting the students on the same campus would lead to incidents. On July 19, 2001 district officials announced that they would move Forest Brook students to B. C. Elmore Middle School until Forest Brook was repaired.[3]
During the 2001-2002 school year, Forest Brook had 1,206 students. It had a capacity of 2,750 students. This gave the school a 44% classroom usage rate.[4]
On July 20, 2007, some teenagers vandalized the school with a water hose.[5][6] The water was left on for several hours, causing part of the floor to collapse. The library and a number of rooms and hallways were damaged.[5]
After the vandalism of Forest Brook High School, North Forest ISD decided to merge Forest Brook's population into M. B. Smiley High School until Forest Brook is repaired. Some parents and observers criticized the decision, fearing territorial rivalries would cause tension between Forest Brook and Smiley students. School officials states that the repair would take at least four months.[7][8] Two former students from Forest Brook were later arrested. One, 18-year old Demont Demouchet, was a pitcher and outfielder for the school baseball team. The man, who was set to attend Texas College, was charged with criminal mischief in excess of $250,000 United States dollars, a first-degree felony, and was placed on a $999,999 bail. State District Judge Denise Collins reduced the bail to $50,000.[9] The other vandal was Demouchet's 16-year old brother.[10] Forest Brook re-opened in the spring.
The Dallas Morning News wrote a July 21, 2007 article explaining cheating at Forest Brook. The Texas Education Agency declared the school to have had no cheating based on scores from 2006 and earlier. When TEA monitors were placed at Forest Brook, test scores decreased.[11]
In 2007 Johns Hopkins University referred to Forest Brook as a "dropout factory" where at least 40 percent of the entering freshman class does not make it to their senior year.[12]
In March 2008 North Forest ISD announced that it will consolidate its two high schools.[13][14] The new school, located in the Forest Brook location, was named North Forest High School.[15] In September of that year Hurricane Ike hit Houston and Forest Brook received damage. Therefore the school was relocated to the former Smiley campus.[16]
The former FBHS campus is now used as Forest Brook Middle School.[17][18]
The former campus includes the Edgar W. Thomas, Jr. Activity Center.
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