La Serna High School (abbreviated LSHS) is a public high school in

Whittier, California Whittier () is a city in Southern California in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, part of the Gateway Cities. The city had 87,306 residents as of the 2020 United States census, an increase of 1,975 from the 2010 United States ...

that was founded in 1961 and is part of the

Whittier Union High School District Whittier Union High School District is a California high school district serving most of the city of Whittier, the unincorporated communities of East Whittier, South Whittier, West Whittier-Los Nietos and Rose Hills, and parts of Norwalk, La ...

. The school has been honored five times as a California Distinguished School most recently in 2021. The school's colors are

crimson Crimson is a rich, deep red color, inclining to purple. It originally meant the color of the kermes dye produced from a scale insect, ''Kermes vermilio'', but the name is now sometimes also used as a generic term for slightly bluish-red colo ...

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

, and

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

History

La Serna High School was founded in 1961. It is located on the eastern side of the city of Whittier in a neighborhood named Friendly Hills. The school has been a

California Distinguished School California Distinguished School is an award given by the California State Board of Education to public schools within the state that best represent exemplary and quality educational programs. Approximately 5-10% of California schools are awarded t ...

five times, in 1990, 1996, 2003, 2009 and 2021.

Students and student life

At La Serna High School, every senior is required to complete the

Senior Project A culminating project (also known as a senior project, grad project or exit project), is a project that challenges high school seniors to demonstrate their academic knowledge in an experiential way (in most cases). According to the United States ...

in order to graduate high school.

Link Crew

Link Crew Link Crew is a North American student leadership program. Its focus is on making select individuals from the Junior and Senior classes, known as "Link Leaders," into mentors for freshmen and new students. Link Crew operates in 3,705 schools in 47 U ...

was a system implemented in 2005 that was aimed at helping incoming freshman students acclimate to the high school environment by having junior and senior peer mentors help them through their first year in the

Model United Nations

Model United Nations was founded in the 2015–2016 school year. The Model United Nation's team attends an annual average of six conferences and one travel conference. In 2016, La Serna's MUN team competed at the UC Berkeley MUN conference.

''The Freelancer''

left, 200px, The controversial "Sex Issue" ''The Freelancer'' is the name of La Serna High School's newspaper, which releases one issue each month during the regular school year. ''The Freelancer'' is created and written by the students, who also allow feedback mail to which they respond. One teacher oversees the production of each newspaper per year. In 2006, English teacher Holly Vance was demoted from her position as the adviser of the newspaper's production, due to the controversial

penultimate Penult is a linguistics term for the second to last syllable of a word. It is an abbreviation of ''penultimate'', which describes the next-to-last item in a series. The penult follows the antepenult and precedes the ultima. For example, the main ...

issue on May 10, 2006, entitled "The 'S' Word", which discussed

sex Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones ( ova, of ...

amongst teenagers. Also due to this, the final edition of the year, for the month of June, was banned. The student body was unsuccessful in overturning this decision. ''The Freelancer'' was revived during the 2014–2015 school year under the supervision of English teacher Gina Alexander.

''The Pennon''

La Serna High School's yearbook is called ''The Pennon'', which is created by the Annual Staff (students) and a teacher adviser.

Athletics

La Serna High has a large athletics program. Their sports include

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 c ...

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 events ...

, cross country,

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

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 Summ ...

, baseball,

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 ...

, tennis,

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 ...

, swimming, basketball and

Marching Band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Most marching bands wear a uniform, ofte ...

.MaxPreps.com
Retrieved on 2007-10-22. Boys' football, boys' and girls' cross country, boys' and girls' marching band, boys' water polo, and girls' volleyball are held in the autumn; boys' and girls' basketball and soccer are held in the winter; and boys' baseball,

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 ...

, and girls' softball, boys' and girls' swimming, and boys' and girls' track and field are held in the spring every school year. The 1967 La Serna Lancer Football team were CIF AAA Champions led by Coach Harry Robinson, beating the heavily favored Temple City Rams 33-7 in the CIF Championship game. The varsity football program were the 2013 CIF Southern Division champions in the southern section, with Frankie Palmer's winning touchdown in a double overtime against Norwalk High School. The Boys' Water Polo program were CIF Division V Southern Section champions in 2010 and Division III champions in 2017. In 2019, the Boys' Cross Country Program reached the CIF State Meet for the first time in school history, finishing 12th overall at the Division I level.

Notable alumni

Dave Dalby David Merle Dalby (October 19, 1950 – August 30, 2002) was an American football center; he played fourteen seasons in the National Football League (NFL), all with the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders. Early years Dalby was a star linemen at center ...

, 1968 – professional football

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

for the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

from 1972 until 1985 * Bill Bathe – professional baseball player * Royce "The Voice" Reynolds, 1984 – a member of the

doo-wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ...

group The Alley Cats *

Gary Allan Gary Allan Herzberg (born December 5, 1967) is an American country music singer. Signed to Decca Records in 1996, Allan made his country music debut with the release of his single " Her Man", the lead-off to his gold-certified debut album '' U ...

Herzberg, 1986 – country music artist * Jeff Davis, 1991 – actor most notable for his appearances on ''

Whose Line Is It Anyway? ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' is a short-form improvisational comedy show originating as a British radio programme, before moving to British television in 1988. Following the conclusion of the British run in 1999, ABC began airing an American ...

'' *

Matt Gourley Matt may refer to: * Matt (name), people with the given name ''Matt'' or Matthew, meaning "gift from God", or the surname Matt *In British English, of a surface: having a non-glossy finish, see gloss (material appearance) * Matt, Switzerland, a ...

, 1991 – comedian known for the ''

Superego The id, ego, and super-ego are a set of three concepts in psychoanalytic theory describing distinct, interacting agents in the psychic apparatus (defined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche). The three agents are theoretical const ...

'' podcast and his appearances on ''

Drunk History ''Drunk History'' is an American educational comedy television series produced by Comedy Central, based on the Funny or Die web series created by Derek Waters and Jeremy Konner in 2007. They and Will Ferrell and Adam McKay are the show's exec ...

''. *

Ara Babajian Ara Babajian (born July 9, 1972) is an American drummer who has been a member of such bands as Leftöver Crack and The Slackers. Etymology Ara is of Armenian descent, and is named after Ara, an Armenian king. Career Together with Dunia Be ...

, 1990 – drummer for the Slackers and the McMartin Choir Boys *

Andrea Barber Andrea Laura Barber (born July 3, 1976) is an American actress. She is known for playing Kimmy Gibbler in the ABC sitcom ''Full House'' and the Netflix sequel series '' Fuller House''. Early life Barber is the youngest of three children. She g ...

, 1994 – actress most notable for her role as

Kimmy Gibbler The American television sitcom ''Full House'' ran for eight seasons on ABC from September 22, 1987, to May 23, 1995. Its sequel series '' Fuller House'' followed 21 years later, airing on Netflix, beginning February 26, 2016; the two parts of ...

on ''

Full House ''Full House'' is an American television sitcom created by Jeff Franklin for ABC. The show is about widowed father Danny Tanner who enlists his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis and childhood best friend Joey Gladstone to help raise his three dau ...

'' * Tupe Peko, 1996 – professional football

offensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

for the

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Since the 2008 ...

from 2002 until 2004 *

Adam Snyder Adam Richard Snyder (born January 30, 1982) is a former American football offensive guard. He was drafted in the third round in the 2005 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers. He also played for the Arizona Cardinals and the New York Giants. At ...

, 2000 – professional football offensive guard. *

Andrew Garcia Andrew Adrian Garcia (born October 18, 1985) is an American singer from Moreno Valley, California who was the ninth place finalist on the ninth season of ''American Idol''. Garcia has released two EPs and numerous standalone singles. He has a ...

2010 – 9th place on ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...

'' Season 10 * Chase De Leo 2013 – professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player *

Vanessa C. Tyson Vanessa Catherine Tyson is an American political scientist and politician. She is an associate professor of politics at Scripps College and a political science fellow at Stanford University. Tyson was an unsuccessful candidate for California's 5 ...

– political scientist * Aaron Valdes (born 1993) – professional basketball player

References

https://lshs.wuhsd.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=752688&type=d&pREC_ID=1160396 {{authority control Educational institutions established in 1960 High schools in Los Angeles County, California Public high schools in California 1960 establishments in California