Washington High School (WHS) is public
high school
A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...
in
Washington, Missouri that is part of the
School District of Washington.
History
Washington High School was established in 1900 in the former private high school building, with its class of 1900–1901 having only five graduates, and 47 students total.
Following the case
Brown v. Board of Education
''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the ...
, Washington Schools desegregated in 1954 with Clifford Aitch being the first African-American graduate in 1959. Aitch would later teach physical education in the Washington School District as its first African-American teacher.
The new Washington High School was erected in 1956, during the tenure of superintendent CJ Burger who would later name the school’s auditorium, with its first principal being Russel C. Nix. The new school had been in the works for years, and had even received funding from the graduating class of 1949.
Dr. Donald Northington served as superintendent of Washington Schools from 1963 to 1990, and the school’s main lobby is dedicated as “Northington Lobby” in his honor.
Russel C. Nix served as the first principal of the new Washington High School and is the dedicatee of the library and cafeteria addition known as “Nix Cafeteria.”
Boundary
The district includes portions of
Franklin County. In that county, in addition to Washington, the district includes small pieces of
Gray Summit and
Villa Ridge.
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Text list
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The district extends into St. Charles County where it includes Augusta and a portion of the Defiance census-designated place
A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only.
CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...
.
The district also extends into Warren County, where it includes Marthasville and Three Creeks.
Demographics
The racial/ethnic breakdown of the 1,348 students enrolled for the 2021–2022 school year was:
* White – 93.7%
* Hispanic – 2.4%
* Multiracial – 1.9%
* Black – 1.0%
* Asian/Pacific islander – 0.7%
The male/female ratio for 2021–2022 was:
* Male – 51.6%
* Female – 48.4%
In addition, 13.7% of the students were eligible for free or reduced lunch.
Activities
For the 2023–2024 school year, the school offered 25 activities approved by the Missouri State High School Activities Association
The Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) is the governing body for high school activities throughout the state of Missouri. Approximately 580 high schools are members of MSHSAA.
The MSHSAA conducts championship-level activ ...
(MSHSAA): baseball, boys and girls basketball, cheer, boys and girls cross country, dance, football, boys and girls golf, orchestra band and vocal music, scholar bowl, boys and girls soccer, softball, boys and girls swimming, girls tennis, boys and girls track and field, girls volleyball, and boys and girls wrestling.[MSHSAA: Washington High School State Championships](_blank)
/ref>
Student activities:
* Football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
* Girls and boys swimming
Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...
* Softball
Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...
* Wrestling
Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...
* Soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
* Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
* Cheerleading
Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense Physical exercise, physical activity. It can be performed to motivate s ...
* Golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...
* Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
* Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
* Track
* Cross Country
Notable alumni
* Whitney Wegman-Wood – actress and screenwriter
* Rodney "Rocky" Sickmann, class of '76 – author, US Marine Corps, Sergeant, held hostage during the Iran hostage crisis
The Iran hostage crisis () began on November 4, 1979, when 66 Americans, including diplomats and other civilian personnel, were taken hostage at the Embassy of the United States in Tehran, with 52 of them being held until January 20, 1981. Th ...
.
References
External links
Washington High School
*
High schools in Franklin County, Missouri
Public high schools in Missouri
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