Foothill High School (Henderson, Nevada)

Infobox School
name = Foothill High School


imagesize = 250px
caption = Foothill High School
location = 800 College Drive
Henderson, NV
coordinates =
district = Clark County School District
principal = Jeanne Donadio
viceprincipal = Jordan Phee
Roy Thompson
Scott Walker
dean = Bill Love
Tiffany Seibel
staff =
faculty =
schooltype = Public high school
enrollment = 2,257
grades = 9-12
conference = Sunrise 4A Region
motto = Going Above and Beyond
team_name = Falcons
school_colours = Navy blue, columbia blue, and gold
colorbox|navy colorbox|#9BDDFF colorbox|#DFAF37
publication =
established = 1999
homepage = http://www.foothillnv.org

Foothill High School is four-year secondary school in the Clark County School District, located in the city of Henderson, Nevada.

Programs and Academics

Foothill High School's debate program is esteemed among the finest in Clark County; indeed, with the help of debate coach Karen Vaughan, it has not only led the county, but the team has of late begun to receive national recognition. In June, 2008 Foothill High School and Co-hosts Karen Vaughan and Scott Ginger (Forensics, Green Valley High School) hosted the 2008 NFL (National Forensics League) National Championships. With the co-operation of Foothill High School, Green Valley High School, UNLV, and three area middle schools, the National Tournament was an unrivaled success. Communicator-of-the-Year was awarded to C.S.I. Guru Anthouny Zuiker at the closing ceremonies held at UNLV's Cox Pavilion.

Foothill is also widely known for its business and leadership class, YES, Inc., an innovative, ground-breaking course designed to simulate the business environment through self-paced learning, meant to prepare students for the world of work. Fact|date=April 2007Foothill also runs a broadcasting program named "FST News", which is broadcast school-wide daily.Fact|date=April 2007

Foothill's Belief Statement

We believe students should be actively involved in the learning process and have a variety of opportunities to demonstrate their understanding of essential knowledge and skills.

We believe a student's success is determined by the cooperative relationship of students, parents, teachers, and administrators.

We believe students should develop self-discipline and accept the consequences of their actions.

We believe modeling and reinforcing basic values such as respect towards others, trustworthiness, caring, fairness, citizenship and responsibility is an integral part of education.

We believe extracurricular activities enhance self-confidence, team building, independence, leadership and individual and civic responsibility.

Athletics

In spite of the fact that the school is a relative new-comer to the district and the southeast subdivision, it has a flourishing athletics program, having attended several regional and state competitions thus far.

Football

The school's football program has remained one of the best in the state of Nevada, which has won several division championships, qualifies for the playoffs yearly and has reached the state tournament several times. [ [http://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/preps/football/ reviewjournal.com - Sports: High School: Football ] ]

Cross Country

Foothill's boys and girls cross country teams have been successful as well. Over the years they have done well in division and regional finals and every year, the girls cross country team has made it to state.The Girls team has won Sunrise Regional Championships in 2005 and 2006. The Boys team also won their first Sunrise Regional Title in 2007. And has high hopes of bringing home another banner this year.

Basketball

The boys basketball program has had its fair share of success. The team of 2004 won the school's first Regional title and reached the state finals. The program also hosts the annual Big Time Tournament during the summer, which attracts schools from all over the nation to compete.

In 2006, after losing its first Southeast Division game of the season, Foothill's boys basketball team was 4-9.cite web | url=http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2007/Feb-10-Sat-2007/sports/12518985.html|title=Las Vegas Review-Journal Assessment|publisher=http://www.reviewjournal.org/ Foothill remains on roll, nabs Southeast's top seed: Falcons pick up 14th victory in last 15 games.] But since then, the Falcons were nearly unstoppable. After picking up an 89-76 road win over Silverado High School, Foothill finished the regular season 18-10 and had by then won 14 of its last 15 games.cite web | url=http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2007/Feb-10-Sat-2007/sports/12518985.html|title=Las Vegas Review-Journal Assessment|publisher=http://www.reviewjournal.org/ Foothill remains on roll, nabs Southeast's top seed: Falcons pick up 14th victory in last 15 games.] The win gave the Falcons the division's top playoff seed that season.

Dance

The dance team has won several in and out of state competitions and has competed in many national competitions. A renewed team to Foothill this year is a JV dance team coached by former seniors, one was a part of the Foothill Varsity Dance Team for three years.

Controversy and Criticism

During her 15 June commencement address at the close of the 2005-2006 school year, Foothill's eighteen-year-old valedictorian graduate Brittany McComb was publicly censored by school officials. In spite of having signed an agreement (standard) to not deviate from her prepared speech, McComb quickly went off topic and began prosthelizing, coming into direct conflict with the public school's prohibition against promoting religion (see First Amendment, U.S. Constitution). McComb's speech was swiftly censored by school district personnel.

McComb sought to take legal action against the administration, suing the school. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court of Nevada, and cites as defendants the principal, the assistant principal, and the school employee who turned off the sound system on McComb.

The Rutherford Institute, a free speech group, released a video of McComb’s commencement address, held at The Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where four-hundred graduates and their families were gathered for graduation. School officials had warned McComb against veering away from the school-approved text that expunged any mention of Jesus or the Bible. They made good on a threat to cut her off when a school employee pulled the plug on the microphone in the middle of McComb’s speech to her graduating class.

The video shows McComb speaking, “God’s love is so great that He gave His only Son up,” whereupon the sound system was cut off leaving her to continue without amplification. She continued, “... to an excruciating death on a cross so his blood would cover all our shortcomings and provide for us a way to heaven in accepting this grace.” The audience became outraged at the school’s censorship, booing, and chanting “Let her speak!” [ [http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2006/07/14/religious_valedictorian_sues_nevada_school/ Religious valedictorian sues Nevada school - Boston.com ] ] [ [http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCampus.asp?Page=/Campus/archive/200607/CAM20060714a.html Valedictorian Sues High School for Censoring Jesus Speech - 07/14/2006 ] ] [ [http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jul/06071406.html High-School Valedictorian Sues School for Muting Speech Thanking Jesus ] ] [ [http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/dec/06122006.html Court Will Hear Case of Valedictorian Silenced Over Christian Faith, Judge Rules ] ]

Notes and References

External links

* [http://www.foothillnv.org Official site]