Jena High School is a secondary school located in

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, United States. The school, serving grades 9 through 12, is a part of the LaSalle Parish School Board. As of 20062007, the school enrollment was 538 students. The school serves the town of Jena and the unincorporated communities of

Belah Belah is a suburb of Carlisle in the City of Carlisle district, in the county of Cumbria, England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The I ...

, Nebo, and Rhinehart.

History

2006 student fight gains national attention

The high school reflects the population of the town and about 10% of its students are African Americans. At times there have been tensions between different groups of students, including some groups divided by race. Beginning September 1, 2006, several incidents in the area occurred which some observers thought were all related to racial tensions. Law enforcement investigations by parish and federal prosecutors did not support that conclusion for each incident. On December 4, 2006 a fight broke out on campus, in which six African-American students assaulted a white student. They were arrested and five were charged with attempted second-degree murder. As prosecution of their case gained national attention because of the severity of the charges in relation to the students' ages, they were later dubbed the Jena 6. The complex case and related issues have been highly controversial and eventually attracted widespread national media attention, development of a legal defense fund, and thousands of protesters at an event in support of one of the students. It is covered in full at the main article noted above, as the trials, appeals, changes in charges and subsequent sentencing have taken years to play out. These elements reflect more about the criminal justice system, racial discrimination, and media coverage than they relate specifically to this high school. For a time the town gained international notoriety, described by the UK's ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' as a place showing the "new 'stealth' racism" in

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. National attention was drawn to the events by a

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

prime time story on July 30, 2007.

John Mellencamp John J. Mellencamp (born October 7, 1951), previously known as Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American singer-songwriter. He is known for his catchy brand of heartland rock, which emphasizes traditional instrument ...

released a song called "Jena" in August 2007, which referred to events at the small high school.

Feeder patterns

The following schools feed into Jena High School: * Fellowship Elementary School (grades PreK–8) * Jena Junior High School (grades 6–8) ** Goodpine Middle School (grades 3–5) *** Jena Elementary School (grades PreK–2) * Nebo Elementary School (grades PreK–8)

Athletics

Jena High athletics competes in the LHSAA.

Notable alumni

Jason Hatcher Jason Dewayne Hatcher (born July 13, 1982) is a former American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players o ...

, NFL player

References

External links

* http://www.thejenatimes.net/ * http://www.lasallepsb.com/ {{authority control Public high schools in Louisiana Schools in LaSalle Parish, Louisiana Crimes in Louisiana