Colleyville Heritage High School (CHHS) is a public secondary school in

Colleyville, Texas Colleyville is a city in northeastern Tarrant County, Texas, United States, centrally located in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. A wealthy suburb of the Dallas/Fort Worth area, Colleyville was originally a small farm town in the 19th century. Th ...

in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The school is a part of the

Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District (GCISD) is a public school district based in Grapevine, Texas, USA. The district serves most of the cities of Grapevine and Colleyville and includes small portions of Euless, Hurst, and Southl ...

and serves freshmen through senior students in Colleyville and the surrounding areas of Tarrant County. In 2018 and onwards the school met standards for student achievement, student progress, closing performance gaps, postsecondary readiness, and earned distinction in English language arts/reading, mathematics, history business computer engineering interior design politics philosophy parenting and science. The school had 2000 population between 2019-2020 Its attendance boundary includes sections of Colleyville,

Grapevine ''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 79 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus is made up of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, ...

, and

Euless Euless ( ) is a city in Tarrant County, Texas, United States, and a suburb of Dallas and Fort Worth. Euless is part of the Mid-Cities region between Dallas and Fort Worth. In 2020 Census, the population of Euless was 61,032. The population of the ...

Campus

It has a coffeeshop.

Controversy over principal

On September 1, 2021, James Whitfieldthe high school's first Black principalwas suspended for allegedly promoting

Critical Race Theory Critical race theory (CRT) is a cross-disciplinary examination, by social and civil-rights scholars and activists, of how laws, social and political movements, and media shape, and are shaped by, social conceptions of race and ethnicity. Goa ...

(CRT), an accusation that Whitfield has repeatedly denied. In support of Whitfield, students held walkouts, then joined their parents and 3 dozen teachers to meet with the school district's board of trustees, pleading with them to reinstate the popular principal. At a July 26 school board meeting, Stetson Clarka former school board candidateaccused Whitfield of promoting CRT, while several people in attendance yelled, "Fire him." Clark based his accusation on an open letter Whitfield wrote in the summer of 2020 about his concerns over the murders of Ahmoud Arbery and

George Floyd George Perry Floyd Jr. (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African-American man who was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd may have used a counterfeit tw ...

, and the

killing of Breonna Taylor Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American woman, was fatally shot in her Louisville, Kentucky apartment on March 13, 2020, when at least seven police officers forced entry into the apartment as part of an investigation into drug dealing o ...

. One of the same parents has previously attacked Whitfield for posting a photograph on his personal social media accounts depicting him and his wife on a beach. Whitfield, whose wife is

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

, viewed the criticism as predicated on their status as an

interracial couple Interracial marriage is a marriage involving spouses who belong to different races or racialized ethnicities. In the past, such marriages were outlawed in the United States, Nazi Germany and apartheid-era South Africa as miscegenation. In 19 ...

. Whitfield removed the photo after a formal request from the school district. On June 15, 2021, Texas Governor

Greg Abbott Gregory Wayne Abbott (born November 13, 1957) is an American politician, attorney, and former jurist serving as the 48th governor of Texas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 50th attorney general of Texas from 2002 ...

became the third state governorfollowing Idaho and Tennesseeto pass legislation making the teaching of CRT illegal. The Texas House Bill 3979 and the follow-up legislationSenate Bill 3authored by Senator

Bryan Hughes Bryan Hughes (born 19 June 1976) is an English football manager and former professional footballer. He played as a midfielder from 1994 to 2015, notably Premier League for Birmingham City, Charlton Athletic and Hull City as well as featuring ...

, came into effect on September 1, 2021. Whitfield's suspension is set against the backdrop of debates on the impact of similar legislation in a number of states across the country. On November 8 the school district announced a “settlement and separation agreement” with Whitfield. He was placed on paid administrative leave until August 2023. Whitfield is not allowed to discuss the details of the settlement.

Notable alumni

* Jaimie Alexander, actress *

Maxx Crosby Maxx Robert Crosby (born August 22, 1997) is an American football defensive end for the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Eastern Michigan and was drafted by the Raiders in the fourth round of ...

, NFL football player *

Annie Ilonzeh Annette Ngozi Ilonzeh (born August 23, 1983) is a Nigerian-American actress. From 2010 to 2011, she played Maya Ward on the ABC daytime soap opera ''General Hospital'', and later starred as Kate Prince in the short-lived ABC reboot of ''Charlie ...

, actress *

Kyle Kubitza Kyle Andrew Kubitza (born July 15, 1990) is an American former professional baseball third baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Angels. Career Kubitza attended Colleyville Heritage High School in Colleyville, ...

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

third baseman *

Stephen Lambdin Stephen Lambdin (born Stephen Thomas Lambdin, March 9, 1988) is an American taekwondo competitor. He represented Team USA at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil. He represented the United States at the 2011 Pan American Games, where he won a br ...

, Olympian in

Tae Kwan Do ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...

Christian Ponder Christian Andrew Ponder (born February 25, 1988) is a former American football quarterback. He played for the Minnesota Vikings, Denver Broncos and San Francisco 49ers. He played college football at Florida State, and was drafted by the Minnesot ...

, NFL

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

* James Russell, MLB pitcher * Cody Thomas, MLB outfielder *

Bobby Witt Jr. Robert Andrew Witt Jr. (born June 14, 2000) is an American professional baseball shortstop and third baseman for the Kansas City Royals of Major League Baseball (MLB). He was selected second overall by the Royals in the 2019 MLB draft and made ...

, MLB player *

Adam Zimmer Adam Zimmer (January 13, 1984 – October 31, 2022) was an American professional football coach in the National Football League (NFL). He was an assistant defensive backs coach and offensive analyst for the Cincinnati Bengals, assistant line ...

, NFL coach

References

External links

* {{authority control 1996 establishments in Texas Colleyville, Texas Educational institutions established in 1996 Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District high schools Public high schools in Tarrant County, Texas

Campus

Controversy over principal

Notable alumni

See also

References

External links