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Public secondary school in Fort Worth, Texas, United States From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arlington Heights High School (AHHS, Heights) is a secondary school located in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. The school serves grades 9 through 12, and is a part of the Fort Worth Independent School District. Its mascot is the Yellow Jacket and its colors are blue and gold.
| Arlington Heights High School | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Address | |
 | |
4501 West Freeway , 76107 United States | |
| Coordinates | 32°43′55″N 97°23′9″W |
| Information | |
| School type | Public secondary |
| Established | 1920[1] |
| School district | Fort Worth Independent School District |
| Principal | Justin Barrett |
| Teaching staff | 121.60 (FTE)[2] |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Enrollment | 1,934 (2022–23)[2] |
| Student to teacher ratio | 15.90[2] |
| Campus | Urban |
| Color(s) | Royal blue and gold |
| Athletics conference | University Interscholastic League 5A |
| Nickname | Heights |
| Rival | Paschal High School |
| Newspaper | Jacket Journal |
| Website | School website |
Arlington Heights High School serves western portions of Fort Worth including the Como, Arlington Heights, Ridglea, Meadows West[3] and Rivercrest neighborhoods, as well as the city of Westover Hills.[4]
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Arlington Heights High School was established in 1922 and hosted 715 students in its inaugural year. The current building was built in 1937 based on a design by Preston Geren Sr. Students from the area had previously attended Stripling High School, which is now a feeder middle school.
Arlington Heights was generally affluent and White until the late 1960s. Black students at the time attended Como High School, which no longer exists and was merged with Arlington Heights at its closing.
In 1968, Western Hills High School was hosted in temporary buildings at Arlington Heights[5] until its campus opened in 1969 on a 25-acre tract in West Fort Worth at 3600 Boston Avenue.[6]
As of 1996, students could be bused to AHHS from the Butler subsidized housing in downtown Fort Worth and from various communities in southeast Fort Worth with racial and ethnic minorities.[3]
Students at Arlington Heights refer to their school as "The Hill", as the main building offers a view of the Trinity River valley to the south, from which AHHS is visible.
In 1996, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram called the school a "scholastically touted institution that draws students from private schools."[3]
The school occupies a red brick building visible from Interstate 30 (West Freeway).[3]
The main building houses 74 classrooms, a library, band hall, auditorium, gymnasium, workrooms and administrative offices. Outside buildings include a cafeteria, second gymnasium, field houses with concessions stands and a weight room. A new wing opened in the fall of 2004 and houses six classrooms and a state of-the-art dance studio. A detatched cafeteria with outside seating was built and opened in 2019. [7] The surrounding grounds are covered with tennis courts, baseball, softball, a unique multi-purpose athletic facility, soccer and football fields and an all-weather track that is open for public use.[8]
In the 2022-2023 school year there were 1,934 students with a student-teacher ratio of 15.9. 51% of students were Hispanic, 23% of students were African American, and 21% of students were White, while 68% of students qualified for free or discounted lunches. [9]
Arlington Heights' student-athletes compete in the UIL 5A classification for 12 varsity sports.
In 1963, a number of Paschal High School students attacked a crowd of Arlington Heights students using blunt weapons, Molotov cocktails and a plane that dropped toilet paper with Paschal's school colors.[10] This incident led to 46 arrests, and a Heights High School bonfire being the center of a near riot.[11] In the incident, carloads of Paschal boys and exes descended on a crowd of 500 Heights students at Benbrook Lake with an armory of weapons including baseball bats, lead pipes, whips and Molotov cocktails. A private-plane flyover by a 20-year-old pilot, a 1962 Paschal graduate, dropped rolls of school-color purple-and-white toilet paper that fluttered down onto the Heights crowd, and a 1948 sedan covered in gasoline-soaked mattresses and labeled "The Panther Ram Car" was set afire by a burly graduate and rolled toward the bonfire woodpile. There was also a ground assault by boys with bows and arrows, storming over the spillway and sailing arrows in a scene a county deputy compared to a frontier Native American attack. When all was said and done there was only one injury, when wrecker driver Junior Slayton, 33, was grazed by buckshot while towing away a student's car.[12] One week later, a visiting President John F. Kennedy smiled and asked at the mention of Paschal High School, "Isn't that the school with its own air force?"[12]
In 1979, a Paschal student stole a bulldozer from a county construction site and rammed it into the Arlington Heights field house the day before the annual Heights-Paschal football game, destroying the field house.[13] The incident resulted in criminal convictions and a nationwide reassessment of safety and security measures, starting a national discussion about youth violence and vandalism on many television and radio programs.[14]
Students attending the following feeder schools are zoned to attend Arlington Heights High School:[19]
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