Kamiakin High School is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

Kennewick Kennewick () is a city in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is located along the southwest bank of the Columbia River, just southeast of the confluence of the Columbia and Yakima rivers and across from the confluence of the C ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, the second of three

comprehensive high school Comprehensive high schools are the most popular form of state school, public Secondary school, high schools around the world, designed to provide a well-rounded education to its students, as opposed to the practice in some places in which examinati ...

s in the

Kennewick School District Kennewick School District # 17 is the largest employer in the city of Kennewick, Washington. The school district runs 17 elementary schools, five middle schools, and three high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides ...

. Kamiakin opened in the fall of 1970 and serves the district's northwest portion. The

school colors School colors (also known as university colors or college colors) are the colors chosen by a school as part of its brand identity, used on building signage, web pages, branded apparel, and the uniforms of sports teams. They can promote connectio ...

are scarlet and gold and the mascot is the Braves.

Overview

The school is named after Kamiakin, a chief of the

Yakama The Yakama are a Native American tribe with nearly 10,851 members, based primarily in eastern Washington state. Yakama people today are enrolled in the federally recognized tribe, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. Their Yak ...

Tribe in the 19th century and a leader of the American Indian side in the

Yakama War The Yakima War (1855–1858), also referred to as the Yakima Native American War of 1855 or the Plateau War, was a conflict between the United States and the Yakama, a Sahaptian-speaking people of the Northwest Plateau, then part of Washington T ...

. Kamiakin went through a remodel from 2002–04 that added 15 new classrooms, a new gymnasium and converted the existing lecture hall into an auditorium capable of seating 600 people as well as updating safety to meet standards throughout the campus.

Academics

Kamiakin is generally considered to be one of the highest ranked public high schools in all of southeastern Washington of size 3A or 4A (along with

Hanford High School Hanford High School is a public high school located on the northern edge of Richland, Washington. It is part of the Richland School District. The school's mascot is the falcon, and its school colors are purple and gold. The high school, buil ...

in nearby Richland) and is ranked among the top 1,500 best high schools in the nation by

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

. Kamiakin's four year graduation rate is 89.4% and 92.4% after five years, around 13% higher than the state average.

Testing

In 2014, 511

AP Exams Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curriculum, curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement ...

were given, with 87% of students enrolled in one or more AP classes electing to take an exam. (Kamiakin is subsidizing AP tests starting in the 2015–2016 school year. Some teachers do require an AP test as a portion of the class. Each student may choose whether or not to take the test and must pay the reduced price should he or she decide to take it.) The school's HSPE (High School Proficiency Exam) scores annually rank higher than district and state averages with a passing rate around five percent higher than the state average in both reading and writing.

Running Start

Running Start Running Start is a dual credit enrollment program in Washington, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Montana and Illinois which allows high school juniors and seniors to attend college courses numbered 100 or above, while completing high school. It is simila ...

is a program offered to Kamaiakin students, as well as other Washington State students, in grades 11 and 12. Kamiakin Running Start students get the opportunity to earn both high school and college credits from college courses taken at the nearby

Columbia Basin College Columbia Basin College (CBC) is a public community college in Pasco, Washington. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. The college offers English as a second language and General Educational Development (GED) ...

in Pasco, Washington. Students do not pay tuition, but they are required to pay mandatory fees, buy their own books, and provide their own transportation.

Post Graduation

In 2014, 67% of Kamiakin graduates continued their education immediately after high school, 72% after two years, at a postsecondary school, 5% higher than the state average. Of the 67% choosing to further their education 84% choose to do so in state, 49% of whom choose to attend Columbia Basin College.

Athletics

The school has 19 varsity teams, 12 junior varsity teams and nine "C" teams. Kamiakin's football and soccer teams play their home games at

Neil F. Lampson Stadium Kennewick High School is a public high school located in eastern Kennewick, Washington. It was founded in 1904 to serve the educational needs of the new city of Kennewick. It is one of only a few schools to have its music department honored with t ...

, while a majority of the other varsity sports compete on campus.

Classification

Kamiakin competes in WIAA Class 3A, with the state's second largest group of schools. Kamiakin is one of eight schools in the hybrid 3A/4A Mid-Columbia Conference, along with Chiawana, Hanford,

, Pasco, Richland, Southridge, and

Walla Walla Walla Walla can refer to: * Walla Walla people, a Native American tribe after which the county and city of Walla Walla, Washington, are named * Place of many rocks in the Australian Aboriginal Wiradjuri language, the origin of the name of the town ...

high schools. Kamiakin is one of only seven schools with the 3A classification in the state's Yakima Valley District Five, which includes Benton, Kittitas, Klickitat and Yakima counties.

Rivalries

Kamiakin's biggest

rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant o ...

in most sports are Southridge High School in southwest Kennewick and

Kennewick High School Kennewick High School is a public high school located in eastern Kennewick, Washington. It was founded in 1904 to serve the educational needs of the new city of Kennewick. It is one of only a few schools to have its music department honored with t ...

in east Kennewick. In

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

, the annual game with the much larger 4A Pasco High School ranks as one of the fiercest among high school rivalries in the state.

Controversies

At a regular season football game in October 2018, the student spirit leader of the school-sponsored group, "Run Kano", encouraged pro-Trump and anti-Latino chants and rhetoric, including the waving of a Trump "MAGA" flag. This fueled racial tension on campus to new heights. Student activists at the school confronted district leadership and organized a protest against the school and district for not handling this situation fairly. The protests, which featured dozens of Kamiakin students, shed a light on the racial issues that existed. The racial issues at Kamiakin, following the incident, has even received national attention.

Alumni

* Ron L. Childs – 1990 – former

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

for the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

( NFL) and

Tri-City Fever The Tri-Cities Fever were a professional indoor American football, indoor football franchise based in Kennewick, Washington. The Fever joined National Indoor Football League (NIFL) in 2005 as an expansion team. The Fever were owned by Teri Carr. ...

( AF1) *

Kailee Dunn The Miss Washington competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Washington (state), Washington in the Miss America pageant. Regan Gallo of Pierce County, Washington, Pierce County was crowned Miss Washington 2022 ...

– 2010 –

Miss Washington The Miss Washington competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Washington in the Miss America pageant. Regan Gallo of Pierce County was crowned Miss Washington 2022 on July 2, 2022, at Highline Performing Arts ...

2014 pageant winner * Cam Hall – 2001 – former

for the

Winnipeg Blue Bombers The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West division. They play their home games at IG Fiel ...

(

CFL The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

) *

Tony Mounce Anthony David Mounce (born February 8, 1975) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. He pitched in 11 games (starting all 11) for the Texas Rangers in , winning 1 and losing 5. Mounce was originally selected by the Houston Astros in the 7th ...

– 1993 – former

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

for the Texas Rangers (

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), ...

) *

Scot Pollard The Scots ( sco, Scots Fowk; gd, Albannaich) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic-speaking peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded ...

– 1993 – former

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

for the

Pistons A piston is an engineering component of engines and pumps. Piston(s) may also refer to: Science and technology * Piston (optics) * Piston (subcellular structure) * Piston valve * Fire piston, an ancient device for kindling fire * Gas-operated rel ...

, Kings, Pacers,

Cavaliers The term Cavalier () was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of King Charles I and his son Charles II of England during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration (1642 – ). It ...

and

Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

(

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

) * Mike Reilly – Transferred – former

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 ...

in the NFL and

* Ron Wright – 1994 – former

designated hitter The designated hitter (DH) is a baseball player who bats in place of another position player, most commonly the pitcher. The position is authorized by Major League Baseball Rule 5.11. It was adopted by the American League in 1973 and later by th ...

for the

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West division. The team joined the American League ...

(

)

References

External links

Kamiakin High School homepageKamiakin Football WebsiteKamiakin Boys Basketball Website
{{authority control High schools in Benton County, Washington Schools in Kennewick, Washington Public high schools in Washington (state) 1970 establishments in Washington (state)