Oak Ridge High School is the

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 sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

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 ...

for

Oak Ridge, Tennessee Oak Ridge is a city in Anderson County, Tennessee, Anderson and Roane County, Tennessee, Roane counties in the East Tennessee, eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about west of downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, Knoxville. Oak Ridge's popu ...

, enrolling grades 9 through 12. It was established in 1943 to educate the children of

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

workers.

History

Founding and first location

Oak Ridge High School was established in 1943 by the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

to educate children of the workers building and operating Manhattan Project facilities in Oak Ridge. The original school building was in eastern Oak Ridge on the hill above the community's first commercial center at Jackson Square. The school's

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 ...

venue, Jack Armstrong Stadium and Blankenship Field, is adjacent to the original site of the school.National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for Oak Ridge Historic District
, July 18, 1991 The schools' mascot and colors were selected in 1943 by Ben Martin, who was athletic director (1943-1971) and coached football (1943-1947), basketball (1943-1959), and track (1944-1965). As a graduate and former athlete at the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

, Martin adopted Kentucky's "Wildcats" as the ORHS mascot. He chose cardinal red and gray as the school colors to emulate the successful sports programs at

Dobyns-Bennett High School Dobyns-Bennett High School is a high school ( grades 9–12) in Kingsport, Tennessee, United States. It typically educates around 1,800 students, although enrollment for the 2014–15 academic year exceeded 2,100 students. As a part of Kingsport ...

Kingsport, Tennessee Kingsport is a city in Sullivan County, Tennessee, Sullivan and Hawkins County, Tennessee, Hawkins counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, its population was 55,442. Lying along the Holston Ri ...

New campus

The high school moved to its current central location in Oak Ridge in 1951 after a new state-of-the-art campus was built under the auspices of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, which then operated Oak Ridge and its public schools. The new school, which had a capacity of about 1500 students and cost $2,980,000 to build, consisted of four buildings (designated "A", "B," "C", and "D") in two groups, connected by an enclosed glass corridor. The auditorium had a seating capacity of 1400 and was intended to serve the community as well as the school. The school attracted national media attention for its innovative features. A

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and th ...

newspaper dubbed the new buildings “Classes in Glass” because of the unusually large amount of

glass Glass is a non- crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenchin ...

used in their design. Two circular buildings, designated "E" and "F", were added in 1963. With the move to the new campus, the school's street address was 127 Providence Road for many years until the school's reconstruction in 2005 moved the administrative offices to the Oak Ridge Turnpike side of the school. The school's street address is now 1450 Oak Ridge Turnpike.

Racial integration

In its early years, Oak Ridge High School was racially segregated like other schools in the region. On September 6, 1955, it became the first high school in the

southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

to integrate after the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 '' Brown v. Board of Education'' decision. On that date, 42

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

students attended the first day of school. The integration of Oak Ridge High School was the result of a January 1955 directive by the Atomic Energy Commission. Oak Ridge's advisory town council had passed a resolution in December 1953 calling for school integration, leading to an unsuccessful attempt to

recall Recall may refer to: * Recall (bugle call), a signal to stop * Recall (information retrieval), a statistical measure * ''ReCALL'' (journal), an academic journal about computer-assisted language learning * Recall (memory) * ''Recall'' (Overwatc ...

council chairman

Waldo Cohn Waldo E. Cohn (1910–1999) was an American biochemist known principally for developing techniques for separation of isotopes necessary for the Manhattan Project. Birth and education He was born in San Francisco, California, on 28 June 1910, a ...

, and during the summer of 1955 some citizens had urged a school

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict so ...

to protest integration, but the actual integration of the high school (which was photographed by ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...

'' magazine) was uneventful.Bob Fowler
Before Clinton or Little Rock, Oak Ridge integration made history
''

Knoxville News Sentinel The ''Knoxville News Sentinel, also known as Knox News,'' is a daily newspaper in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, owned by the Gannett Company. History The newspaper was formed in 1926 from the merger of two competing newspapers: ''The ...

'', February 16, 2009 In the first year of integration, two African American students became members of the ORHS

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

team, but because segregation was still in force at all other Tennessee high schools, they were not permitted to participate in

away game Away may refer to: Film and television * ''Away'' (2016 film), a 2016 British film * ''Away'' (2019 film), a 2019 animated silent film * ''Away'' (TV series), a 2020 science fiction drama on Netflix Literature * ''Away'' (play), a 1986 play by M ...

s and the coach had to get permission from the opposing teams before they could participate in home games.

Grade level reorganization

Until 1995, the high school enrolled grades 10 to 12.

Grade 9 Ninth grade, freshman year, or grade 9 is the ninth year of school education in some school systems. Ninth grade is often the first school year of high school in the United States, or the last year of middle/junior high school. In some countrie ...

was added in 1995 when Oak Ridge Schools reorganized grade levels.

School reconstruction

Oak Ridge High School underwent extensive reconstruction, starting in 2005 and completed in 2008, to update its facilities, incorporate significant energy-conserving features, and construct newer, better equipped learning areas. The total cost of the school renovation was $61 million. Designed by

DLR Group DLR Group is an employee-owned integrated design firm providing architecture, engineering, planning, and interior design. Their brand promise is to elevate the human experience through design. A self-described advocate for sustainable design, the ...

, the renovated Oak Ridge High School was featured in the December 2008 issue of ''School Planning & Design''. It received several awards, including a Citation Award from the

American Association of School Administrators The American Association of School Administrators (AASA), founded in 1865, is the professional organization for more than 14,000 educational leaders across the United States. AASA's members are chief executive officers and senior-level administra ...

, recognition as a Green Project of Distinction Winner in the 2008 Green Education Design Showcase, and a 2009 Learning by Design Citation of Excellence from the ''

American School Board Journal The ''American School Board Journal'' is a monthly trade magazine on school administration established in 1891 by the United States National School Boards Association. Scope The focus of the ''American School Board Journal'' is on the challen ...

''. The Tennessee School Boards Association selected ORHS as the School of the Year for Excellence in Architectural Design; ORHS earned second place in the Renovation Division.Oak Ridge Schools website
accessed August 29, 2009

''Oak Leaf'' controversy

Oak Ridge High School gained notoriety in November 2005 when principal Becky Ervin, then in her first year at the school, censored the

student newspaper A student publication is a media outlet such as a newspaper, magazine, television show, or radio station produced by students at an educational institution. These publications typically cover local and school-related news, but they may also rep ...

, the ''Oak Leaf''. The November issue originally contained an article with information on

birth control Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...

and another with photographs of students'

tattoo A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing ...

s. Though the paper had already been printed, Principal Ervin attempted to confiscate all 1800 copies. The newspaper's staff, with the help of the

Student Press Law Center The Student Press Law Center (SPLC) is a non-profit organization in the United States that aims to protect press freedom rights for student journalists at high school and university student newspapers. It is dedicated to student free-press righ ...

, brought the controversy national attention. On April 10, 2006, the incident led to Oak Ridge High School receiving a Jefferson Muzzle Award, issued annually by the

Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression is a nonprofit, nonpartisan institution devoted solely to the defense of the First Amendment rights guaranteeing freedom of speech and of the press. The center was founded in 1989, un ...

to focus attention on free speech and

First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

violations in the United States. Also in April 2006, Ervin was released from her position as principal and notified that her contract would not be continued for the following school year. Administrators gave no reason for their decision not to renew Ervin's contract. She was temporarily replaced by vice-principal Chuck Carringer, who was appointed to the position on a permanent basis early in 2007.

Notable honors

The Oak Ridge Wildcats

team were national champions for 1958, when they averaged 43.8 points per game and allowed their opponents an average of 2.6 points. In the school's history, the team has won eight state championships. The Oak Ridge High School cross country teams have won a total of 14 state championships: 8 for boys and 6 for girls. In 2007 the boys' team won the first-ever Nike Team Nationals Southeast Regional and placed 18th at the national meet. ''

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 ...

'' ranked Oak Ridge High School 456th on its 2006 list of the United States' 1200 best public high schools. In 2005, Oak Ridge sent a group of three seniors to the national finals of the

Siemens Competition The Siemens Competition was a science competition for US high school students funded by the Siemens Foundation, which was administered by the College Board from 1999-2013 and by Discovery Education from 2014–2017. The Siemens Foundation released ...

, where they finished fourth for their work in

Natural language processing Natural language processing (NLP) is an interdisciplinary subfield of linguistics, computer science, and artificial intelligence concerned with the interactions between computers and human language, in particular how to program computers to proc ...

. During the first week of December 2006, three seniors from ORHS presented their research on alternate fuel sources and won first place nationally. Scott Molony, Scott Horton, and Steven Arcangeli split a college scholarship worth $100,000. In April 2006, another senior tied for first place in the Young Epidemiology Scholars Competition sponsored by the

College Board The College Board is an American nonprofit organization that was formed in December 1899 as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) to expand access to higher education. While the College Board is not an association of colleges, it runs a ...

and another senior received a smaller scholarship in the same competition. Oak Ridge is also nationally known for its consistent performance in

Science Olympiad Science Olympiad is an American team competition in which students compete in 23 events pertaining to various fields of science, including earth science, biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering. Over 7,800 middle school and high school team ...

. Until recently, ORHS regularly sent a team to the nationals. Students from Oak Ridge also traditionally perform well on the American Math Competition exams. In 2007 longtime ORHS math teacher Benita Albert was named to the ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' All-USA Teaching Team, along with 19 other outstanding teachers from around the United States. Earlier that year student Scott Molony was named as one of 20 USA Today student All-Stars. The Oak Ridge High School orchestra was founded by Edgar Meyer, Sr. in 1970 and was directed by him until 1988. His son, Edgar Meyer, was an ORHS student and is now an internationally renowned bassist and composer who has won four Grammy's. Beginning in 1988, the orchestra was led by Jenifer Van Tol for more than 25 years. Van Tol was succeeded by Doug Phillips in 2014. The Oak Ridge high school band (or Wildband), currently directed by Michael Spirko, formerly directed by Thomas Wade (retired 2012), Chuck Yost, Jeff Kile and Dale Pendley, consists of two bands: symphonic and concert. In 2009, ROAR teacher Beth Estep won the Titans Teacher of the Year Award for her outstanding performance and care for her students graduation. In 2011, Seniors Cassee Cain and Ziyuan Liu won the Siemens Competition for their work using an Xbox Kinect to analyze the walking patterns of people with prosthetics. In March, 2012, The Oak Ridge Wildbots

FIRST Robotics Competition FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an international high school robotics competition. Each year, teams of high school students, coaches, and mentors work during a six-week period to build robots capable of competing in that year's game that weig ...

Team in their Rookie year won the Rookie All-Star award at the Smoky Mountain Regional Competition at the Knoxville Convention Center. They would go on to compete at the FIRST Championship in St. Louis from April 25–29. Ultimately placing 68th out of 100 in the Curie division. In March 2013, The Secret City Wildbots FIRST Robotics Competition team in their second year won the Smokey Mountain Regional in Knoxville, TN, along with the HVA RoHAWKtics and Red Nation (Halls), and proceeded to the FIRST Championship in St. Louis.

Principals

Oak Ridge High School principals through the school's history have been: * Charles Oliver, 1943–1945 * E.C. Cunningham, 1946–1947 * Donald Roe, 1948–1953 *Tom Dunigan, 1954–1971 *Jim Schott, 1972–1973 *Don Bordinger, 1974–1982 *William E. Hodgers, 1983–1994 *James F. Duncan, 1995–1999 *Kenneth E. Green, 2000–2005 *Becky W. Ervin, 2005–2006 *Chuck Carringer, 2006–2009 *Jody Goins, 2009-2013 * David Bryant, 2013–2015 *Martin McDonald, 2015–2020 *Garfield Adams, 2020-2021 *Drayton Hawkins, 2022-

Notable alumni

* Bill Appleton, software developer and entrepreneur * Jennifer Azzi, WNBA player and Olympic gold medalist, head coach for University of San Francisco Dons 2010 to 2016; member of

Women's Basketball Hall of Fame The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame honors those who have contributed to the sport of women's basketball. The Hall of Fame opened in 1999 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. It is the only facility of its kind dedicated to all levels of women's ba ...

*General B.B. Bell, commanding general of U.S. Army in Europe, commander of U.S. Armed Forces in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

* A. Keith Bissell, member of Tennessee House of Representatives and chairman of

Tennessee Public Service Commission The Tennessee Public Service Commission, also called Tennessee Railroad and Public Utilities Commission, was a three-member elected body which regulated private utilities, trucking firms, and railroads within the U.S. state of Tennessee. It was di ...

* Jane Blankenship,

spectroscopist Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra that result from the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation. Matter wav ...

* Mike Caldwell, former NFL player and coach *

Dean Dillon Dean Dillon (born Larry Dean Flynn; March 26, 1955) is an American country musician and songwriter. Between 1982 and 1993, he recorded six studio albums on various labels, and charted several singles on the '' Billboard'' country charts. Since 1 ...

, songwriter in Country Music Hall of Fame. * Raynella Dossett Leath, convicted murderer * Charlie Ergen, co-founder and CEO of

EchoStar Communications Corporation EchoStar Corporation is an American company, a worldwide provider of satellite communication and Internet services through its Hughes Network Systems and EchoStar Satellite Services business segments. EchoStar is based out of unincorporated Arapa ...

* Nikki Caldwell Fargas, women's basketball head coach for

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

, formerly at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

* Stan Fritts, former NFL player * Mindy Gehrs, All-American swimmer * Tee Higgins, wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals * Otis Howard, played basketball in the NBA * Gene Kimmelman, consumer advocate and attorney *

Kai-Fu Lee Kai-Fu Lee (; born December 3, 1961) is a Taiwanese computer scientist, businessman, and writer. He is currently based in Beijing, China. Lee developed a speaker-independent, continuous speech recognition system as his Ph.D. thesis at Carnegie ...

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

executive * Doug Martin, head football coach at

New Mexico State University New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public land-grant research university based primarily in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest public institution of higher education in New Mexico and one of the state's ...

, previously Kent State * Jason McAddley,

National Football League 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 ...

player * Randy McNally, Tennessee state senator, Speaker of the State Senate and Lieutenant Governor since 2017 *

Edgar Meyer Edgar Meyer (born November 24, 1960) is an American bassist and composer. His styles include classical, bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz. He has won five Grammy Awards and been nominated seven times. Meyer is a member of the Telluride Bluegras ...

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

-winning bassist *

Sarah Monette Sarah Elizabeth Monette (born November 25, 1974) is an American novelist and short story author, writing mostly in the genres of fantasy and horror. Under the name Katherine Addison, she published the fantasy novel '' The Goblin Emperor'', which ...

, fantasy author * Bruce Ohr, U.S. Department of Justice official * Ellen Reid, composer, received Pulitzer Prize in music in 2019 * Bobby Richards, NFL player (Philadelphia Eagles 1962 to 1965, Atlanta Falcons 1966–67) *

Mitch Rouse Edward Mitchell "Mitch" Rouse (born August 6, 1964) is an American film and television actor, director, and screenwriter. Rouse was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and raised in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where he played football at Oak Ridge High Sch ...

, actor, screenwriter, and director in TV and filmBendewald, Rouse married in Malibu,
The Oak Ridger
', March 1, 2002 *

Cameron Sexton Cameron Sexton (born November 11, 1970) is an American politician serving as a Republican member of the Tennessee House of Representatives for the 25th district. He is the 83rd and current Speaker of the House in the Tennessee House of Represen ...

, Tennessee state representative; Speaker of the State House since 2019 * Scott Stallings, professional golfer on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also ...

First PGA win a 'blessing' for Oak Ridge graduate Scott Stallings
''

'', August 1, 2011

References

External links

Official website

Football website

Listen to Basketball & Football Live
{{authority control Public high schools in Tennessee Schools in Anderson County, Tennessee Oak Ridge, Tennessee Performing arts centers in Tennessee School buildings completed in 1943 School buildings completed in 1951 School segregation in the United States 1943 establishments in Tennessee