James Monroe High School (JMHS), at 9229 Haskell Avenue in North Hills, California, is a public high school in the

Los Angeles Unified School District Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a public school district in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the 2nd largest public school district in ...

. It is home to

Small Learning Communities A Small Learning Community (SLC), also referred to as a School-Within-A-School, is a school organizational model that is an increasingly common form of learning environment in American secondary schools to subdivide large school populations into s ...

(SLCs) and two

magnet school In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities (usually school boards) as school ...

s. Its mascot is the Viking.

History

The school opened in the fall of 1958. The team name Vikings was selected by a student leadership class, as were the school colors and song. The Multipurpose room was named Odin's Hall, and the Annual was named "Valhalla". It was in the

Los Angeles City High School District Los Angeles City High School District (known in its last year as West County Union High School District) was a school district that served high school-aged residents of western Los Angeles County, California from 1890 to 1962. At times the distri ...

until 1961, when it merged into LAUSD. In 2004, five drop-out students including future rapper

Hopsin Marcus Jamal Hopson (born July 18, 1985), known professionally as Hopsin, is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer from Los Angeles. In 2007, he was signed to Ruthless Records, and had founded his own record label, Funk Volume, i ...

were arrested for vandalizing James Monroe High School property, which was intended to be a school prank. They were later all charged and held on $20,000 bail. The opening of

Panorama High School Panorama Senior High School is a public high school located on Van Nuys Boulevard in the Panorama City district of Los Angeles, California, United States. Designed by architect DLR Group WWCOT, Panorama High School opened in 2006 to students in g ...

in October 2006 relieved overcrowding at JMHS. In 2010, it was ranked 420 in Newsweek's list of U.S. high schools.

Smaller Learning Communities (SLCs)

*9th Grade Academy *ARMY JROTC program called the Viking Battalion *Arts, Media, & Entertainment *Public Service (Fire Academy) *Engineering & Design (including the Monroe SAS) *Magnet (Law & Government and Police Academy)

School for Advanced Studies (SAS)

The Monroe School for Advanced Studies, formed in 2001, belongs to the larger SLC of Engineering & Design.

Magnet schools

The school offers two Magnet programs to prepare students to pursue careers in law, police science, criminology, forensics, and related fields.

Monroe Law and Government Magnet

*Established in 1991 *Activities like mock trials, debate team, internships, Junior Statesmen of America membership, and invitations to events by local politicians *Graduates accepted at top universities including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, USC, UC Berkeley, UCLA

Monroe Police Academy Magnet

*Established in 1996 *Special physical education class with obstacle course * Student immersion in career opportunities in a range of law enforcement related fields

Mock trial competitions

Because of the Law and Government Magnet, Monroe has its own

courtroom A courtroom is the enclosed space in which courts of law are held in front of a judge. A number of courtrooms, which may also be known as "courts", may be housed in a courthouse. In recent years, courtrooms have been equipped with audiovisual ...

. It has a

mock trial A mock trial is an act or imitation trial. It is similar to a moot court, but mock trials simulate lower-court trials, while moot court simulates appellate court hearings. Attorneys preparing for a real trial might use a mock trial consisting ...

team that competes in the Los Angeles County Mock Trial Competition run by the Constitutional Rights Foundation, where about 80 schools compete each year. From 2002 to 2007, Monroe reached the semifinals four times, and the quarterfinals two times. In 2008, it reached the finals but lost to Gabrielino High. In 2009, Monroe once again took 2nd place, losing by .76% to Louisville High School, a private all-girls school.

Notable alumni

Angelyne Angelyne (born Ronia Tamar Goldberg, September 12, 1950) is an American singer, actress, media personality, and model who came to prominence in 1984 after the appearance of a series of iconic billboards in and around Los Angeles, California, wi ...

– model and Los Angeles icon *

Meredith Baxter Meredith Ann Baxter (born June 21, 1947) is an American actress and Film producer, producer. She is known for her roles on the CBS sitcom ''Bridget Loves Bernie'' (1972–73), American Broadcasting Company, ABC drama series ''Family (1976 TV ser ...

– actress, producer (briefly attended during her sophomore year) *

Guy Benjamin Guy Emory Benjamin (born June 27, 1955) is a former American football quarterback who played six seasons in the National Football League. College career Benjamin played high school football at James Monroe High School in North Hills, California ...

– NFL quarterback for the Dolphins, Saints, and 49ers *

Brandon Browner Brandon Kemar Browner (born August 2, 1984) is a former American football cornerback and convicted felon. In 2005, Browner signed with the Denver Broncos as an undrafted free agent out of Oregon State. Browner played four seasons with the Calgar ...

–

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

player for the Seahawks, Patriots and Saints *

Larry Cedar Larry Frank Cedar (born March 6, 1955) is an American voice, film and television actor, best known as one of the players of the Children's Television Workshop mathematics show ''Square One TV'' on PBS from 1987 to 1994. He played Max, Alex the B ...

– TV character actor *

Doug DeCinces Douglas Vernon DeCinces ( ; born August 29, 1950) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a third baseman from 1973 to 1987 for the Baltimore Orioles, California Angels and St. Louis Cardina ...

– former

Major League Baseball 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), ...

player for the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...

and

California Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team ha ...

* John Ennis – former

player * Jon V. Ferrara – computer software entrepreneur, CE
Nimble Inc.
co-founder o
GoldMine CRM
one of the early pioneers in Contact Management, Sales Force Automation (SFA) & Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software *

– rapper *

Jimmy Keegan James E. Keegan (born November 3, 1969) is an American drummer and voice actor. He has played with artists such as Santana, as the drummer on the song "Primavera" on Santana's hit album '' Supernatural'' and with John Waite. He was the drummer ...

–

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

for

Spock's Beard Spock's Beard is an American progressive rock band formed in Los Angeles. The band was formed in 1992 by brothers Neal (lead vocals, keyboards) and Alan Morse (vocals, guitars), John Ballard (bass) and Nick D'Virgilio (drums). Ballard was rep ...

Santana Santana may refer to: Transportation * Volkswagen Santana, an automobile * Santana Cycles, manufacturer of tandem bicycles * Santana Motors, a former Spanish automobile manufacturer Boats * Santana 20, an American sailboat design by W. D. Sch ...

and

Kenny Loggins Kenneth Clark Loggins (born January 7, 1948) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. His early songs were recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1970, which led to seven albums recorded as Loggins and Messina from 1972 to 1977. His ...

Lori Lively Lori Lynn Lively is an American actress, television co-host/designer, and acting coach. Best known for ''Dead Space'' (1991). Early life Lively was born into a family of actors. Her mother, adoptive father and all four siblings are, or hav ...

– actress and older sister of

Blake Lively Blake Ellender Lively ( Brown; born August 25, 1987) is an American actress. Born in Los Angeles, Lively is the daughter of actor Ernie Lively, and made her professional debut in his directorial project ''Sandman'' (1998). She starred as Brid ...

and

Jason Lively Ronald Jason Lively (born March 12, 1968) is an American actor. He is best known for ''European Vacation'' (1985), ''Night of the Creeps'' (1986), and ''Ghost Chase'' (1987). Early life Ronald Jason Lively was born on March 12, 1968 in Carroll ...

Wayne Massey Donald Wayne Massey (born April 10, 1947) is an American country music artist and actor. He is best known for playing the role of country/rock music superstar Johnny Drummond on the American daytime soap opera '' One Life to Live'' from 1980 to 19 ...

– actor, recording artist, musician, music producer, CEO; varsity baseball pitcher for Monroe and drafted by Los Angeles Angels *

Kevin Mitnick Kevin David Mitnick (born August 6, 1963) is an American computer security consultant, author, and convicted hacker. He is best known for his high-profile 1995 arrest and five years in prison for various computer and communications-related crim ...

– computer security consultant and convicted hacker * William T. Perkins, Jr. –

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor. ...

recipient, Vietnam War, 1967 * Gary M. Rose –

recipient, Vietnam War, 1970 *

Sharon Shapiro Sharon Shapiro is an American former gymnast. She won five gold medals at the 1977 Maccabiah Games. In 1978, she was the U.S. National Champion in the vault. She was a two-time National Collegiate All-Around Champion. In 1981, she won the Honda-B ...

- gymnast * Steve Wapnick – former Major League Baseball player *

Ron Wasserman Ronald Aaron Wasserman (born September 2, 1961), also known as Aaron Waters and The Mighty Raw, is an American musician who composed the original theme song for ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers'' and numerous original songs he also recorded for the ...

– award-winning television composer, songwriter and producer *

Debra Winger Debra Lynn Wingerhttps://www.pressreader.com/usa/closer-weekly/20200511/282084868951188https://www.discountmags.com/magazine/closer-weekly-may-11-2020-digital/in-this-issue/99961 (born May 16, 1955)https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Inter ...

–

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

-nominated actress

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Monroe, James High School Educational institutions established in 1958 Los Angeles Unified School District schools Magnet schools in California High schools in the San Fernando Valley High schools in Los Angeles Public high schools in California 1958 establishments in California