John Muir High School (Pasadena, California)

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John Muir High School
"The Home of the Mighty Mustangs"
Location
1905 N Lincoln Avenue, Pasadena, California USA
Coordinates	34°10′43″N 118°09′36″W / 34.178513, -118.159871Coordinates: 34°10′43″N 118°09′36″W / 34.178513, -118.159871
Information
Principal	Sheryl Orange
Students	approx. 1,300
Faculty	49
Type	Public
Grades	9-12
Mascot	The Mustang
Color(s)	Blue and Gold
Established	1955
Homepage	pusd.us

John Muir High School is a four year comprehensive secondary school in Pasadena, California, United States and is a part of the Pasadena Unified School District. The school is named after preservationist John Muir.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Current 2 Traditions 3 Controversies 4 Notable alumni 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

The school's buildings were originally a part of John Muir Junior College (not to be confused with John Muir College in San Diego, CA).^[1] The junior college merged with Pasadena City College, and converted to a two-year high school in 1955. (The senior students of the first graduating high-school class in 1955 were freshmen of the previous two-year junior college in the prior year.) It later become a full four-year high school, located on Lincoln Avenue, named after Lincoln, Nebraska.

Prior to 1964, mostly White and Asian students from the communities of La Canada Flintridge, California joined the historically black neighborhood of North Pasadena and the racially mixed community of Altadena, and enrollment was nearly 3,000 students. In 1965, La Canada Flintridge, California built its own school system and removed their students. Shortly after that, the Pasadena City School District created Blair High School, siphoning off another large portion of the school's population.

[edit] Current

Approximately 1300 students attend each year. The student body is 42% Hispanic, 47% black, 9% non-Hispanic White, and 2% "other", including 1.1% Asian. The school maintained an average class size of 27 students and a pupil-to-teacher ratio of 21:1 in the 2002-03 school year, during which a total of 49 fully credentialed teachers were on staff.^[2] Beginning in 2004, John Muir has received failing Academic Performance Index (API) scores by the state. Consequently, John Muir has been under scrutiny to demonstrate notable improvement to state standards.

In the Fall of 2004, approximately 100 students at John Muir were removed from the regular school system due to poor grades and placed at the remedial Rose City. However the number exceed the school's capacity, and 'Rose City North' was created on the North Western part of the campus, annexing a portion of the classrooms.

As a result of continued under performance, the Pasadena Unified School District has begun restructuring the school, as well reevaluating the current faculty.

Thirty-eight teachers and five counselors who reapplied for their jobs as part of a restructuring of John Muir High School will return next school year, officials said Friday. A total of 55 Muir employees reapplied for their positions, a requirement imposed by the school district under the overhaul plan...Muir is entering its fourth year of state monitoring after posting low Academic Performance Index scores, the state's main measure of school performance. Last year, district leaders decided to completely revamp the high school to avoid a possible state takeover of Muir.

^[3]

The revamp of John Muir High School will apply to the upcoming 2008-2009 school year.

[edit] Traditions

John Muir High School and crosstown rival Pasadena High School hold the annual Turkey Tussle, during which their football teams play a game at the Rose Bowl, the winner taking possession of a ceremonial bell. In 2005, the bell was stolen. It was found on February 7, 2006 near a road in the Angeles National Forest.^[4]

[edit] Controversies

In 2000 a teacher, Cyrus Javaheri, pleaded guilty to engaging in group sex with minors. The teacher lured two students from the school in addition to another minor through the internet. Furthermore, numerous instances of cyber sex were conducted between the teacher and various minors as young as 12.^[5]

In 2002, white teacher Scott Phelps was the center of controversy when he asserted that the majority of the students who are failing and disruptive were black.

"But overwhelmingly, the students whose behavior makes the hallways deafening, who yell out for the teacher and demand immediate attention in class, who cannot seem to stop chatting and are fascinated by each other and relationships but not with academics, in short, whose behavior saps the strength and energy of us that are at the front lines, are African American. . . . Eventually, someone in power will have the courage to say this publicly."^[6]

Opinion was divisive with whites and blacks from the community on both sides. While some students and teachers defended that his assertion, that the majority of the under performing students were black, was accurate others took offense to it. Subsequently he was placed on administrative leave but allowed to return to the school a few days later. In 2005, Phelps was elected to a four-year term on the district's Board of Education.

Racial tension and violence across the campus has become increasingly more common. On December 14, 2007, a fight broke out amongst several students, with a total of eleven students detained and charged. According to the Deputy District Attorney the incident

"...the incident began when several black students 'with gang affiliations' began assaulting Latino students. There was an indication that the number of kids had planned on trying to initiate a riot at Muir by assaulting Hispanics...It was a melee...There apparently was an awful lot of people involved, and yet it's very difficult to determine who did what because there aren't a lot of folks talking"^[7]

The demographics of John Muir High School, almost nearly half black and Hispanic, reflect similar conflicts between the two communities.

On April 5, 2008, History teacher Brandon Michael Landreth was detained and held on $2 million bail for allegedly killing Justo Cesar Morales, a man believed to have been in a relationship with his ex-wife.^[8]

[edit] Notable alumni

John Muir High School (after 1955)

• Inger Miller (1988), track Olympic Medalist ^[9]
• Renee Tajima-Peña (1976), award-winning documentary filmmaker.^[10][11]
• David Lee Roth (1972), lead singer of Van Halen until 1984.^[9]
• Juliana Gondek (1971), opera singer, UCLA Voice Division,^[12][9]
• Robert B. Lowe (1971), journalist, 1981 Pulitzer Prize winner.^[9]
• Octavia Butler (1965), award-winning science fiction author (d. 2006)^[9]
• Darrell Evans (1965), baseball player^[9]
• John Beal (1964), award-winning film and television composer. ^[9][13][14]
• Richard Bellis (1964), award-winning film and television composer.^[15]
• Sirhan Sirhan (1963), convicted assassin of Robert F. Kennedy.^[16]
• Rod Sherman (1962), professional football player.^[9]
• Koichi Nishimura (1956), chief operating officer of Solectron^[9]

John Muir Junior College (prior to 1955)

• John Van de Kamp (1952), Attorney General of California (1982-1991).^[9]
• Fred Phelps (1951), head of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church.
• Jackie Robinson (1936), first African-American major league baseball player^[9]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• John Muir High School profile provided by the Pasadena Unified School District
• John Muir High School Blazer Newspaper

Alumni general websites

• Alumni registration for all class years
• Alumni registration for all class years, operated by Glendale Online
• John Muir High School Alumni Association (1950s-2000s)