Las Plumas High School

Las Plumas High School (abbreviated L.P.) is located in the north valley in Oroville, California about seventy miles north of Sacramento, California. The school was established in the autumn of 1961. The class of 1965 was the first class to go from freshmen to seniors at the school. Its main sports rival is Oroville High School. The school song used to be AC/DC's "Thunderstruck", but was later changed to the Thunderbird Fight Song.^[1]

Location

View Of South Table Mountain

The school is situated north of the small farming community of Palermo, located just south of Oroville. Both Table Mountain, and the Sutter Buttes can be seen from the school, as well as the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The school has a large, spread out campus that is dominated by open fields in the southern part. In the center of the campus is the quad, where most of the school's activity takes place. The quad is regularly decorated by several clubs, and is maintained by many student organizations, most notable the FFA, who planted many of the quad's flower beds and maintain the new saplings.

Las Plumas High School

Student demographics

The 2008–2009 student population was broken down as follows: 5% American Indian, 16% Asian (mostly Hmong), 12% Hispanic, 4% Black, and 64% White. The ratio of males/females was 52%/48%, and the graduation rate was 81%. For that school year the school had 73 classroom teachers and the ratio of teachers to students was 1:19.^[2]

Clubs and activities

Thirty-six clubs are listed at the school's official website. Those listed include the following: Academic Decathlon, Anime Club, Art Club, ASB, Asian Club, Auto Club, AVID, BSU, California Scholarship Federation, Conflict Manager, Diversified Occupations, Diversity Club, Environmental Club, FBLA, FFA, FHA-HERO, Freshman Class, Friday Night Live, GATE, Gay-Straight Alliance, Gamerz Club, Key Club, Interact Club, Junior Class, Legend Yearbook, Link Crew, MECHA, MESA, Native American Club, NJROTC, Senior Class, Snowboard/Ski club, Sophomore Class.

Las Plumas ROTC Course

Las Plumas High has maintained a mock trial team since 1993, and has competed at the state level 14 years. Two different years students were recognized by the Constitution Rights Foundation with outstanding achievement awards at the state level - Benjamin Rodgers for outstanding pretrial in 2005, and Gary Ferdinand for outstanding prosecution witness in 2010.^[3]

The school's journalism class also maintains a school newspaper, called the Las Plumas Times, that distributes to their school, as well as several businesses around Oroville, and even some in Marysville, including the Marysville Charter Academy for the Arts.

The Las Plumas/Oroville Alliance Marching band is the biggest source of prestige for the Oroville Unified High School District, having consistently placed among the top ten bands in California during the duration of it being under the direction of director Jeff Stratton. In the fall of 2008, the band (called LPO) won nine sweepstakes awards, almost breaking the record for the school. The same school year, the band room's renovation was completed, allowing room for the hundreds of trophies and plaques accumulated over the years. Some of LPO's biggest consistent rivals include Fairfield High School, Armijo, Golden Valley, and Franklin. In the fall of 2009, the Las Plumas/Oroville Alliance marching band was named the third-best in the state by the California Band Directors Association. Normally, the band is judged by members of the Northern California Band Association.

Opportunities for higher education

Butte College offers comprehensive programs in many fields as well as a college connection program for current seniors. California State University Chico, a four-year university, that offers a full spectrum of curricula, is about a 25-minute drive from the city of Oroville. Furthermore, Oroville is about three hours from the cultural centers of San Francisco and the Bay Area and just about two hours from Reno, Tahoe and Sacramento.

Sports

Las Plumas Track And Field

Football, Girls' Volleyball, Boys Basketball, Girls' Basketball, Girls' Softball, Baseball, Boys' Soccer, Girls' Soccer, Wrestling, Boys and Girls' Track and Field, Boys and Girls' Cross Country, Girls' Tennis, Boys' Tennis, Golf. Las Plumas High School's premiere sports are football, basketball, and baseball. The 2012 Football Season marked the turnaround for the Thunderbirds. After going 5 - 85 in the previous 9 seasons, new Head Coach David Morris guided the Thunderbirds to 6 wins over the past two seasons including back to back Bell game wins over crosstown rivals Oroville High. The track and cross country teams have been solid having several state participants over the years.

School programs

The Link Crew program connects upper classmen with freshmen students Link Leaders help freshmen improve student study skills and beneficial academic habits. Activities including tailgate parties and movie nights help freshmen to become more involved in high school life.

The Safe School Ambassadors are students trained to identify potential problems on campus dealing with bullying and mistreatment.

Conflict Managers are students who have been trained to act as a neutral third party to help settle disputes between other students.

On Respect Days up to 100 students are taken out of class for the day and placed together in groups of mixed races, genders, and social affiliations to promote respect for others who are different. Las Plumas High School did not observe Respect Days in the 2009–2010 school year, but may hold more in the future.

Fight song

The Las Plumas Fight song was written by an art teacher, Art Walsh, in 1961. Steve Green and George Kerth designed the multi-colored Thunderbird that was used as the school's symbol during its early years. The fight song fell into disuse, until it was revived by the Associated Student Body in 2008. The song goes as follows:

Las Plumas Portables

Fly high you T-birds
Fly up to the sun
Down we go to victory
Now we've got them on the run!
Rah! Rah! Rah!

Soar to the heavens
Send aloft our cry
We will defeat them
We will beat them
Thunderbirds will conquer all!

Greg Wright Incident

The Greg Wright Incident refers to a lockdown which took place on September 28, 2007. The lockdown was due to student, Greg Wright who brought a gun to school and held the Drama Class hostage, in the band room. The attack wasn't directed at the Drama Class, but at a rival student who was not on campus at the time. After about 2½ hours, he released the hostages and was taken into custody by Oroville police, and the students were taken to a church across from the school, where they were picked up by their parents.^[4]

External links

• http://www.crf-usa.org/images/pdf/mt_ca_winners.pdf
• http://www.ouhsd.org/lphs/clubs/LP%20TimesNewspaper/home.htm

References

• Las Plumas High School 2008 Statistics
• Las Plumas High School Website