Washington High School (WHS) is public

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 ...

Washington, Missouri Washington is a city on the south banks of the Missouri River, 50 miles west of St. Louis, Missouri, and the largest in Franklin County, Missouri, United States. The estimated population in July 2021 was 14,916, an increase of 7% since the 2010 ...

that is part of the

School District of Washington School District of Washington is the Public School District, public school district headquartered in Washington, Missouri. Schools Secondary schools: *Washington High School (Missouri), Washington High School *Washington Middle School Elementa ...

History

Washington High School was built in 1900, with its class of 1900–1901 having only five graduates, and 47 students total. Following the case

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...

, Washington Schools desegregated in 1954 with Clifford Aitch being the first African-American graduate in 1959. Aitch would later teach physical education in the Washington School District as its first African-American teacher. The new Washington High School was erected in 1956, during the tenure of superintendent CJ Burger who would later name the school’s auditorium, with its first principal being Russel C. Nix. The new school had been in the works for years, and had even received funding from the graduating class of 1949. Dr. Donald Northington served as superintendent of Washington Schools from 1963 to 1990, and the school’s main lobby is dedicated as “Northington Lobby” in his honor. Russel C. Nix served as the first principal of the new Washington High School and is the dedicatee of the library and cafeteria addition known as “Nix Cafeteria.”

Demographics

The racial/ethnic breakdown of the 1,348 students enrolled for the 2021–2022 school year was: * White – 93.7% * Hispanic – 2.4% * Multiracial – 1.9% * Black – 1.0% * Asian/Pacific islander – 0.7% The male/female ratio for 2021–2022 was: * Male – 51.6% * Female – 48.4% In addition, 13.7% of the students were eligible for free or reduced lunch.

Activities

For the 2021–2022 school year, the school offered 24 activities approved by the

Missouri State High School Activities Association The Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) is the governing body for high school activities throughout the state of Missouri. Approximately 580 high schools are members of MSHSAA. The MSHSAA conducts championship-level activi ...

(MSHSAA): baseball, boys and girls basketball, cheer, boys and girls cross country, dance, football, boys and girls golf, orchestra band and vocal music, scholar bowl, boys and girls soccer, softball, boys and girls swimming, boys and girls track and field, girls volleyball, and boys and girls wrestling. The Washington Blue Jays have won the following state championships: * Football: 1973 * Scholar bowl: 2017 * Softball: 2021MSHSAA: Washington High School State Championships
/ref> Student activities: * Student Council * Gay-Straight Alliance * Global Community Club * Spanish Club * French Club * German Club * Book Club * Creativity Club *

Journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (pro ...

* DECA * Future Farmers of America (FFA) * Interact Club * Jay Crew * Junior Optimist International Club * Leadership * Link Crew * National Honor Society * Renaissance * Science Club * Mu Alpha Theta (ΜΑΘ) * Football * Girls and boys

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

Softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

Wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

* Soccer *

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

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 ...

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

* Track * Cross Country * Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) *

Pep Band A pep band is an ensemble of instrumentalists who play at events, usually athletic, with the purpose of entertaining and creating enthusiasm in a crowd. Often members of a pep band are a subset of people from a larger ensemble such as a marchi ...

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 ...

Percussion Ensemble A percussion ensemble is a musical ensemble consisting of only percussion instruments. Although the term can be used to describe any such group, it commonly refers to groups of classically trained percussionists performing primarily classical m ...

* Vocal Music * Key Club * Theatre Guild * Swimming *

FIRST Robotics For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (''FIRST'') is an international youth organization that operates the ''FIRST'' Robotics Competition, ''FIRST'' LEGO League Challenge, ''FIRST'' LEGO League Explore, ''FIRST'' LEGO Leagu ...

* Youth and Government Club

Notable alumni

* Rodney "Rocky" Sickmann '76 - author, US Marine Corps, Sergeant, held hostage during the

Iran hostage crisis On November 4, 1979, 52 United States diplomats and citizens were held hostage after a group of militarized Iranian college students belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over ...

. * Scott Suggs '08 - professional basketball player, Mr. Show-Me Basketball (2008).

References

External links

Washington High School
* High schools in Franklin County, Missouri Public high schools in Missouri {{Missouri-school-stub