Sidney Lanier High School is a local public high school of the

San Antonio Independent School District San Antonio Independent School District is a school district based in San Antonio, Texas, United States. San Antonio ISD ranks is the 13th largest of Texas' 1,057 school districts. The District encompasses 79 square miles with a total population ...

in the westside of

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

(

United States 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 territori ...

). Serving the San Antonio Independent School District, Lanier boasts an enrollment of more than 1700 students.

History

Sidney Lanier High School first opened in 1915 as McKinley Elementary School. The school is named after Confederate poet Sidney Lanier, who came to San Antonio in 1872 in search of a cure for tuberculosis. He didn't find one but became enchanted with the Mexican flavor of San Antonio. In San Antonio, Lanier sought out the local historians and penned his long, essay entitled, "San Antonio de Bexar," in 1873. In 1923, McKinley was renamed after

Sidney Lanier Sidney Clopton Lanier (February 3, 1842 – September 7, 1881) was an American musician, poet and author. He served in the Confederate States Army as a private, worked on a blockade-running ship for which he was imprisoned (resulting in his catch ...

in accordance with the District's practice of naming the junior schools after American authors. Lanier became a junior-senior high school in 1929 until 1969 when Tafolla Middle School opened. The new Lanier Campus, on the site of the old school, opened in 1975. Currently, Sidney Lanier High School serves 9th through 12th grade students. The most tumultuous event occurred between the years 1967 and 1969 when a group of students changed the curricular structure of the school amid cries of vocational tracking and insufficient academic college preparation. Student leaders Homer Garcia, Edgar Lozano, Stephen Castro, Irene Ramirez, and other participants challenged the authority of the school and staged a walkout that catapulted Sidney Lanier into the limelight and forced district to adapt changes. Student Council President Pablo Ortiz was appointed by school administrators after Homer Garcia was deemed too disruptive and radical. Later, school administrators finally bowed to student and community pressure conceding to demands. Even though a massive walkout was averted, some students did stage their own protest march leaving the campus during lunch. In the end, the legacy benefited students to the point that more scholarships were awarded and change became apparent. The 1969 graduate, Homer Garcia, ultimately became an unsung hero and forged alliances with other campus leaders. He went on to graduate from the University of Texas culminating in a Ph.D. in sociology from Yale University. Other students involved indirectly were members of the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) started by Mario Compean, Jose Angel Gutierrez, and Ignacio Garcia, all students at St. Mary's University. Student leaders from Edgewood High School and even former Central Catholic High School students contributed with ideas and participatory support. Former alumni from the pivotal year went on to author books and become professors (Rafael Castillo, Ignacio Garcia and Daniel Hernandez).

Traditions

Their mascot is a Vok, a gear emblem which symbolizes a smaller part of a big machine. Ultimately, the Vok represents an essential gear that would not function without support from its integral whole therefore analogous to a vocational student entering society and the workforce. Sidney Lanier was one of the first vocational schools in the westside of San Antonio. The school's most popular event, "The Chili Bowl," an annual football game played yearly against its rival Fox Tech High School since 1932, was popular until Fox Tech closed. Although the term "Chili Bowl" has an underlying negative connotation with racist tint, the alumni adopted it nonetheless and reversed its negative effects by owning it. The district, however, announced in November 2009 that it would discontinue sports at Fox Tech as part of its plan to convert Fox Tech into a magnet school (football to be discontinued after the 2009-2010 year, and the remaining sports after two more years), thus ending the event after 2009. The Lanier Voks ended up winning the last game over the Buffaloes, 30–14. Afterwards both of the teams gathered in the center of

Alamo Stadium Alamo Stadium is a horseshoe-shaped football and soccer stadium in the Monte Vista Historic District of San Antonio, Texas. Nicknamed "The Rock Pile" due to its primarily limestone construction it was completed in September 1940 as a Works P ...

, the place where this historic event was held, and took time to reflect on what this tradition meant to them, and how it felt to take part in this game. They joined in a chant, "Brothers!" and left after few photo-ops

Athletics

The Lanier Voks compete in the following sports:The Athletics Department
/ref> *

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 ...

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 ...

* Cross Country * Football *

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 ...

* Soccer *

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 ...

* Swimming and Diving *

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

Track and Field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

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 ...

References

*Castillo, Rafael. ''Books opened minds and inspired change.'' San Antonio Express-News. December 4, 2017. *Recalling the walkouts of 1968. http://www.expressnews.com/150years/education-health/article/in1968-students-here-defied-prejudice-and6446428.php? *United States Commission on Civil Rights. Hearing Before the United States Commission On Civil Rights.: Hearing Held In San Antonio, Texas, December 9–14, 1968. Washington:U.S. Govt. Print. Off, 1969. *Garcia, Ignacio. ''United We Stand: The rise and fall of La Raza Unida Party.'' Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1989. *Hernandez, Daniel. ''The Milagro Affair''. Archway Publications, 2017. *Castillo, Rafael. ''Aurora''. Berkeley Press, 2010. *Castillo, Rafael. ''Distant Journeys''. Bilingual Review: Arizona State University, 1990. *Lanier, Sidney. ""San Antonio de Bear"". (reprinted by Mary Ann Guerra). American Litho, 1980.

External links

* {{authority control Educational institutions established in 1915 High schools in San Antonio San Antonio Independent School District high schools 1915 establishments in Texas