Las Plumas High School

Location

The school is situated north of the small farming community of Palermo, located just south of Oroville. Both Table Mountain and the Sutter Buttes can be seen from the school, as well as the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

The school has a large, spread-out campus that is dominated by open fields in the southern part. In the center of the campus is the quad, where most of the school's activity takes place. The quad is regularly decorated by several clubs, and is maintained by many student organizations, most notably the FFA, who planted many of the quad's flower beds and maintain the new saplings.

Student demographics

The 2014–2015 student population was broken down as follows: 4% American Indian, 10% Asian (mostly Hmong), 24% Hispanic, 1% Black, .1% Filipino, and 53% White. The ratio of males/females was 51%/49%, and the graduation rate was 89.96%. For that school year the school had 80 classroom teachers, and the ratio of teachers to students was 24:1.

Clubs and activities

Thirty-six clubs are listed at the school's official website, including the following: Academic Decathlon, Anime Club, Art Club, ASB, Asian Club, Auto Club, AVID, BSU, California Scholarship Federation, Conflict Manager, Diversified Occupations, Diversity Club, Environmental Club, FBLA, FFA, FHA-HERO, Freshman Class, Friday Night Live, GATE, Gay-Straight Alliance, Gamerz Club, Key Club, Interact Club, Junior Class, Legend Yearbook, Link Crew, MECHA, MESA, Native American Club, NJROTC, Senior Class, Snowboard/Ski Club, and Sophomore Class.

Las Plumas High has maintained a mock trial team since 1993, and has competed at the state level for 14 years. Two students have been recognized by the Constitution Rights Foundation with outstanding achievement awards at the state level - Benjamin Rodgers for outstanding pretrial in 2005, and Gary Ferdinand for outstanding prosecution witness in 2010.

The school's journalism class maintains a school newspaper, the Las Plumas Times, which is distributed to the school, as well as several businesses around Oroville and Marysville, including the Marysville Charter Academy for the Arts.

The Las Plumas/Oroville Alliance Marching Band is the biggest source of prestige for the Oroville Unified High School District, having consistently placed among the top ten bands in California while under the direction of director Jeff Stratton. In the fall of 2008, the LPO band won nine sweepstakes awards, almost breaking the record for the school. In the same school year, the band room's renovation was completed, allowing room for the hundreds of trophies and plaques accumulated over the years. Some of LPO's biggest consistent rivals include Fairfield High School, Armijo, Golden Valley, and Franklin. In the fall of 2009, the Las Plumas/Oroville Alliance marching band was named the third-best in the state by the California Band Directors Association. Normally, the band is judged by members of the Northern California Band Association.

Opportunities for higher education

Butte College offers comprehensive programs in many fields as well as a college connection program for current seniors. California State University Chico, a four-year university that offers a full spectrum of curricula, is about a 25-minute drive from the city of Oroville. Oroville is about three hours from the cultural centers of San Francisco and the Bay Area and about two hours from Reno, Tahoe and Sacramento.

Sports

Las Plumas offers sports, including football, girls' volleyball, boys' basketball, girls' basketball, girls' softball, baseball, boys' soccer, girls' soccer, wrestling, boys' and girls' track and field, boys and girls' cross country, girls' tennis, boys' tennis, and golf. The school's premiere sports are football, basketball, and baseball.

The 2012 football season marked a turnaround for the Thunderbirds. After going 5 - 85 in the previous nine seasons, new Head Coach David Morris guided the Thunderbirds to six wins over the subsequent two seasons, including back-to-back Bell game wins over crosstown rivals Oroville High. The track and cross country teams have been solid, having several state participants over the years.

School programs

The Link Crew program connects upperclassmen with freshmen students. Link Leaders help freshmen improve student study skills and beneficial academic habits. Activities including tailgate parties and movie nights help freshmen to become more involved in high school life.

The Safe School Ambassadors are students trained to identify potential problems on campus dealing with bullying and mistreatment.

Conflict Managers are students who have been trained to act as neutral third parties to help settle disputes between other students.

On Respect Days, up to 100 students are taken out of class for the day and placed together in groups of mixed races, genders, and social affiliations to promote respect for others who are different. Las Plumas High School did not observe Respect Days in the 2009–2010 school year, but may hold more in the future.

Fight song

The Las Plumas Fight song was written by art teacher Al Walsh, in 1961 Steve Green and George Kerth designed the multi-colored Thunderbird that was used as the school's symbol during its early years. The fight song fell into disuse, until it was revived by the Associated Student Body in 2008. The class of 1998 donated the fight song board located in the gymnasium next to the scoreboard. The song goes as follows:

Fly high you T-birds
Fly up to the sun
Down we go to victory
Now we've got them on the run!
Rah! Rah! Rah!

Soar to the heavens
Send aloft our cry
We will defeat them
We will beat them
Thunderbirds will conquer all!

Greg Wright incident

A lockdown which took place at the school on September 28, 2007. Student Greg Wright brought a gun to school and held a drama class hostage in the band room. The attack wasn't directed at the drama class, but at a rival student who was not on campus at the time. After about 2½ hours, he released the hostages and was taken into custody by Oroville police. The other students were taken to a church across from the school, where they were picked up by their parents.