Seaman 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 ...

secondary 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 '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

Topeka Topeka ( ; Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central Un ...

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

, United States. It serves students from grades 9 to 12. It is operated by Seaman USD 345 school district, which covers 84 square miles of northern Topeka and rural

Shawnee County, Kansas Shawnee County (county code SN) is located in northeast Kansas, in the central United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 178,909, making it the third-most populous county in Kansas. Its most populous city, Topeka, is the state ...

. The high school is one of the few in the world where the students operate a chartered bank.

History

Seaman High School was founded in 1920, opening to students in grades nine through twelve on October 4 of that year. The school is named for Fred A. Seaman, who was integral in the school's founding and served as its first principal. Despite his open affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan as an Exalted Cyclops and district organizer, he became the school's namesake following a vote by students and their parents. Seaman High School's initial enrollment was 65 students, who were taught by seven faculty members. Seaman was one of the first three rural high schools in Kansas. Five students were in the first graduating class. The Seaman Bank, the first high school bank in the United States, was founded in 1927. In November 1954, Seaman High moved into a new school located one-half mile west of the former school. Enrollment in 1958 was 483 students. Twenty-two teachers were on the faculty. In December 1970, the new high school at 4850 NW Rochester Rd was dedicated. The former structure at 1124 NW Lyman now houses Logan Elementary School. The school was selected as a

Blue Ribbon School The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non-public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures, ...

in 1984. The Blue Ribbon Award recognizes public and private schools which perform at high levels or have made significant academic improvements. In January 2008, construction was completed of a freshman wing on the current building along with additions to the auditorium and the woods and metal shops. In August 2008, ninth grade, which had previously been moved to the Junior High level, was added back to the school. In 2017, Seaman High hosted a "community conversation" discussing inappropriate online behavior, harassment, and threats.Seaman High School's community conversation focuses on online behavior
/ref> Students were encouraged to report negative online behavior, and several student groups began to raise awareness around this issue.
/ref> In 2018, Seaman High School's swim team became the first swim team in Topeka to win a state championship, winning by 150 points.
/ref> In October 2020, research by Seaman High School's student newspaper revealed that Seaman had been a leader within the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

. The district's board confirmed this and stated that they were "aware of Fred Seaman’s affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan through research conducted by our teachers and students" and are "proud of our teachers and students for taking a strong interest and stance in learning about and identifying historical figures."

Extracurricular activities

The Vikings are classified as a 5A school, the second-largest classification in Kansas according to the

Kansas State High School Activities Association The Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA) is the organization which oversees interscholastic competition in the U.S. state of Kansas at the high school, high-school level. It oversees both athletic and non-athletic competition, ...

. Throughout its history, Seaman has won several state championships in various sports.

Athletics

Seaman High School offers the following sports:School Athletic Website
/ref>

Fall

* Football * Volleyball * Boys Cross-Country * Girls Cross-Country * Girls Golf * Boys Soccer * Girls Tennis * Cheerleading

Winter

* Boys Basketball * Girls Basketball * Wrestling * Boys Bowling * Girls Bowling * Winter Cheerleading * Boys Swimming and Diving

Spring

* Baseball * Boys Golf * Boys Tennis * Girls Soccer * Girls Swimming and Diving * Softball * Boys Track and Field * Girls Track and Field

Activities

Seaman's activities include *

Band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

Cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...

* Choir * Show Choir *

Debate Debate is a process that involves formal discourse on a particular topic, often including a moderator and audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for often opposing viewpoints. Debates have historically occurred in public meetings, a ...

Forensics Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and crimina ...

Jazz Band A jazz band (jazz ensemble or jazz combo) is a musical ensemble that plays jazz music. Jazz bands vary in the quantity of its members and the style of jazz that they play but it is common to find a jazz band made up of a rhythm section and a ...

Orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

* Scholar's Bowl *

Student Council A student council (also known as a student union, associated student body or student parliament) is an administrative organization of students in different educational institutes ranging from elementary schools to universities and research or ...

* Vikettes (

Dance squad A dance squad or dance team, sometimes called a pom squad or song team, is a team of participants that participates in competitive dance. A dance squad can also include: a jazz squad, ballet squad, or any kind of religion dance squad. Dance squads ...

) * Model UN

Clubs

Seaman's clubs include * Book Club * Viking Voices (Writing Club) * FCA * French Club * German Club * Literary Magazine * Math Club * Sharp * Spanish Club * Spirit Club * FBLA * Young Democrats * Civic Engagement Club * GSA

Organizations

Seaman's organizations include * FBLA * FCCLA * FFA * Interact Club * Key Club * NGHS * NHS * SADD * SEAMAPP * International Thespian Society

Notable alumni

* Rick DeHart - former

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), ...

player (

Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos (french: link=no, Les Expos de Montréal) were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in t ...

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...

) *

Wes Jackson Wes Jackson (born 1936) co-founded the Land Institute with Dana Jackson. He is also a member of the World Future Council. Early life and education Jackson was born and raised on a farm near Topeka, Kansas. After earning a BA in biology from K ...

- founder and current president of

The Land Institute The Land Institute is an American nonprofit research, education, and policy organization dedicated to sustainable agriculture, based in Salina, Kansas. Their goal is to develop an agricultural system based on perennial crops that "has the ecolo ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Public high schools in Kansas Schools in Shawnee County, Kansas Educational institutions established in 1927 Education in Topeka, Kansas 1927 establishments in Kansas