Cranston High School West (often called West, Cranston West or abbreviated as CHSW) is a public high school located in

Cranston, Rhode Island Cranston, once known as Pawtuxet, is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island. The official population of the city in the 2020 United States Census was 82,934, making it the second largest in the state. The center of population of Rhode Island ...

, United States. The

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes comp ...

comprises five buildings; one of these buildings is the Cranston Area Career and Technical Center. The school grounds include six tennis courts, a baseball field, and a track and football field. West has 155 staff members who work with the student population of approximately 1850 daily. The program of studies encompasses 203 different courses. The Cranston Area Career and Technical Center offers 17 different courses. All courses are geared toward student academic abilities. Fifty-two percent of graduates go on to pursue a four-year degree while twenty-two percent pursue a 2-year degree. Numerous athletic teams have won championship titles for the school, more recently being the 2004 varsity football team, 2006 varsity wrestling team, 2007 varsity wrestling team, 2008 varsity wrestling team, 2009 varsity wrestling team, 2006 varsity baseball team, 2007 varsity baseball team, 2009 varsity hockey team, 2011 varsity baseball team, and 2012 varsity boys tennis team. Also the varsity boys volleyball team made it to the semifinals of the State titles in 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2015 while winning the State Championship in 2016 and 2019. The 2017 boys swim team were the division three dual meet champions. It is also the high school of former NFL Pro Bowl running back Mark Van Eeghen.

''Ahlquist v. Cranston''

On April 4, 2011, 10th-grade student Jessica Ahlquist filed a federal lawsuit aimed at ending the school's display of a prayer on a banner. District Court Judge Ronald R. Lagueux issued a decision in favor of Jessica on January 11, 2012. The decision was in part based on the

Establishment Clause In United States law, the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, together with that Amendment's Free Exercise Clause, form the constitutional right of freedom of religion. The relevant constitutional text ...

of the First Amendment, and the '' Lemon v. Kurtzman'', '' Lynch v. Donnelly'', and ''

Lee v. Weisman ''Lee v. Weisman'', 505 U.S. 577 (1992), was a United States Supreme Court decision regarding school prayer. It was the first major school prayer case decided by the Rehnquist Court. It held that schools may not sponsor clerics to conduct even non- ...

'' US Supreme Court cases. Upon learning of the results of the case, some residents of Cranston, and others opposed to the decision and to Jessica's atheism, took their anger out on Jessica on

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and

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, and local florists refused to deliver to her.

Notable alumni

Monty Are I Monty Are I (formerly known as Monty's Fan Club and Monty) is an American rock band from Cranston, Rhode Island. The band is named after the groups’s former music instructor, Arthur Montanaro. The "Are I" portion of the name is a pun on " ...

- an

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

band named after Arthur Montanaro, a teacher at West. * Mark van Eeghen - former NFL Pro Bowl running back; only person from Cranston West to have number retired in any sport. * Marissa Castelli - figure skater, 2-time national pairs champion; bronze medalist in 2014 Winter Olympics. * JVKE - American singer-songwriter, producer, and social media personality (born 2001) *

Katelyn Bouyssou Katelyn Jarrell (born Bouyssou) (born June 11, 1994, in Hope, Rhode Island) is an American national competitor in judo is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling co ...

- member of the US Judo national team; 3 time US Judo national champion.

References

External links

* {{authority control Buildings and structures in Cranston, Rhode Island Schools in Providence County, Rhode Island Public high schools in Rhode Island