Lanier High School (Austin, Texas)

Sidney Lanier High School was established in 1961 as the sixth high school in the Austin Independent School District and was originally located in the building which is now Burnet Middle School. Lanier is named in honor of the famous Confederate soldier and southern poet Sidney Lanier. The current campus, opened in 1966, is located on Payton Gin Road. In 1997, Lanier was nationally recognized as a Blue Ribbon School, the highest honor a school could receive at the time. When it first opened, Lanier had virtually an all Caucasian student base with a highly active FFA Chapter, but over the years it has grown into a primarily Mexican-American school with close to 85% of its students being Latino.