Peotone High School

Peotone High School
Address
605 W. North St.
Peotone, Illinois, 60468
United States
Information
School type Public Secondary
Opened 2001
School district Peotone Community Unit School District 207-U
Superintendent Dr. Donald A. McKinney[1]
Principal Mrs. Deanna Oliver[2]
Staff 128[3]
Grades 9-12
Gender Coed
Enrollment 679[4]
Average class size 18.4[5]
Campus size 30 acres
Campus type Rural
Song On, You Devils!
Athletics conference Interstate Eight[4]
Mascot Blue Devils[4]
Average ACT scores 20.8
Newspaper 'The Devil's Advocate'
Yearbook 'Promethean'
Website http://www.peotoneschools.org/highschool/

Peotone High School or PHS, is a four-year high school located approximately 1 mile east of Interstate 57 near the intersection of Corning Ave and Rathje Rd in Peotone, Illinois, a village located 43 miles (69 km) south of Chicago, Illinois and 16 miles (25 km) north of Kankakee, Illinois, in the United States. It is one of six schools in the Peotone Community Unit School District 207-U, one of the geographically largest school districts in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Peotone High School serves students from the south, central and eastern region of Will County, and a small portion of northwestern Kankakee County. This includes Green Garden, Manhattan, Peotone, Rockville, Will and Wilton townships. Two unincorperated elementary schools, Wilton Center and Green Garden, as well as Peotone Elementary are all assembled to in-town middle schools after fourth grade, where they continue their education in town all the way through high school.

Contents

History

Peotone Community Unit School District 207-U is one of the longest surviving school districts in Will County. The high school's location has changed twice since 1954, due to overpopulation in the growing community. Construction began on the current Peotone High School in 2000, barely being completed at the start of the school year on September 4, 2001. [6]

Student Demographics and Characteristics

The current enrollment at Peotone High School is 679. Ethnicity is 89.6% White, 7% Hispanic/Latino and 3.4% all others. 13.8% of students lie within the low income bracket. The attendance rate is 94%, and the graduation rate is 93.2%. [7]

Academics

PHS offers a wide variety of curriculum for its students to choose from. Departments include Agriculture, Business, Family and Consumer Sciences, Industrial Technology, Media and Technology, English, Foreign Language (Spanish is the only Foreign Language offered after the Class of 2009), Fine Arts, Mathematics, Health and Physical Education, Science, and Social Studies. Peotone offers AP courses in US History, English Language and Composition, English Literature and Composition, Chemistry and Calculus AB. Peotone also has a Special Education program. [8]

Peotone operates under a standard, seven period scheduling system. Classes run from 8:25 AM to 3:10 PM. From 2008 to 2010, a Zero Hour was offered, but this option was revoked due to budget cuts.

In 2010, 60% of Juniors met or exceeded on the PSAE, 7% higher than the statewide average. [9]

Juniors and Seniors also have the opportunity to attend Kankakee Area Career Center located in Bourbonnais, Illinois. Classes take place for half the school day, and is worth 1.5 credits per semester. Departments include Automotive Technology, Business Technology, Child Development, Collision Repair, Computer Technology, Construction Technology, Cosmetology, Drafting/CAD, Fire/Rescue, Health Occupations, Law Enforcement, Precision Metals and Welding Technology. [10]

Issues and Controversies

2010 Food Fight

On November 17, a large food fight broke out during the "A Lunch" period. Disciplinary actions were taken towards the group of seniors who allegedly started the food fight, and strict precautions were taken to prevent such actions to happen again, such as reduction of food portions.

Cyber Bullying

PHS made national news in April 2010 when an incident involving hate speech escalated between a Peotone student on the baseball team and a Crete-Monee High School team member. According to The Huffington Post,

"A racist and threatening Facebook exchange between high school baseball players has some wondering why a threat to lynch another person is not being taken more seriously by two Illinois schools. Crete-Monee High School honor student and pitcher Jihad Yousef was stunned the day after playing a double header against Peotone, when he checked his Facebook page and found a disturbing message from a Peotone player, according to Phil Arvia of the Southtown Star. NBC Chicago released the reported Facebook message:
"hey jihad or whatever ur muslim [censored] name is, come to peotone and be ready to be noosed in the trees....here in peotone we dont [------] around when it comes to [------] ...just be ready to become our slaves just like the way it should be since [------] dont provide to the country,...were hosting a ku kulx klan [sic] rally this week if u wanna come and be our victims."
'I was, like, confused," Yousef said. "I had to refresh the page. The feeling, I couldn't even say I was mad. Shocked, maybe.'
After trying to ignore the message, he ultimately decided to show some friends and his parents--who contacted administrators at Crete-Monee and Peotone high schools and the Peotone police. The offending student has been given a five-to 10-day school suspension and two-game baseball suspension. The Southtown Star reports:
'Yep, apparently the kid will be playing baseball again this season. What would the administration's response have been if someone showed them a Facebook picture of this young man drinking beer? This is a threatened lynching.'
'I don't care about his 10 days," Paula Yousef, Jihad's mother, told Arvia. "I want to know what's going on in his head. ... There's so much hatred in those words.'
'This doesn't fall into the hate crime category,' Peotone Police Chief Bill Mort told the Southtown Star. 'In very preliminary review by the state's attorney, we may be looking at a misdemeanor, perhaps a felony, under some fairly new statutes regarding threatening texts.'
Arvia writes that both schools are pleased with how the situation was handled, but points out that the case was not taken nearly as seriously as it should have been. 'Their kids are not racist,' Crete-Monee Principal Brian Riegler told Arvia. 'This issue is not representative of their school or their community. This is an anomaly.' Arvia disagrees: 'Someone here needs to be ashamed for these actions and show it.'"[11]

Despite what many news articles and school administration had told the public, most of what was reported was sugarcoated. The incident shocked many other students, and appalled the entire community as a whole. Others, however, shrugged the situation off as just "kids being kids."

References

  1. ^ "Dr. Donald A. McKinney - Superintendent of Peotone C.U.S.D. 207-U". Peotone Community Unit School District 207-U. http://www.peotone.will.k12.il.us/District/SuperintendentsOffice/. Retrieved 28 March 2011. 
  2. ^ "Former B-BCHS Administrator Takes Over As PHS Principal". The Peotone Vedette. http://www.russell-publications.com/articles/9/former-b-bchs-administrator-takes-over-as-phs-principal. Retrieved 28 March 2011. 
  3. ^ http://iirc.niu.edu/School.aspx?schoolid=56099207U260001
  4. ^ a b c "IHSA school information: Peotone High School". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 28 March 2011. http://www.ihsa.org/school/schools/1628.htm. Retrieved 28 March 2011. 
  5. ^ http://iirc.niu.edu/School.aspx?schoolid=56099207U260001
  6. ^ http://www.peotone.will.k12.il.us/Highschool/
  7. ^ http://iirc.niu.edu/School.aspx?schoolid=56099207U260001
  8. ^ http://www.peotoneschools.org/Highschool/Academics/
  9. ^ http://iirc.niu.edu/School.aspx?schoolid=56099207U260001
  10. ^ http://www.kacc-il.org/vnews/display.v/SEC/Programs
  11. ^ "Jihad Yousef, Crete-Monee High School Pitcher, Threatened With Lynching In Facebook Message". The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/23/jihad-yousef-crete-monee_n_549998.html. Retrieved 1 April 2011. 

External links