St. Viator High School

History

The Archdiocese of Chicago reallocated some land it had already owned — tentatively designated for a future cemetery — for educational purposes, and assigned the Clerics of St. Viator to build and run a boys' secondary school. It opened in 1961 to a small class of freshmen and a few sophomores, graduating its first class in 1965.

Enrollments waxed and waned over the next few decades. Faced with declining numbers in 1987, the choice was made to merge with Sacred Heart of Mary High School of Rolling Meadows, with which St. Viator already had a sister-school relationship. The merger was effected in the summer of 1987; St. Viator absorbed the faculty, staff, and student body of Sacred Heart beginning with the 1987–88 school year, and admitted a co-educational freshman class (the class of 1991).

The physical plant remained largely unchanged from its original 1961 footprint. A co—educational student population required the construction of a girls' locker room. This kicked off a string of renovations to occur throughout the 1990s, including a renovation of the boys' locker room, the chapel, and science labs. After a major capital campaign, the school constructed a multipurpose athletic addition, and the Boler Center was dedicated in summer of 2005.

Controversy

Since 2007, St. Viator High School has used hair samples to test each of its 1,000 students for drugs in the fall and then conduct random screens during the rest of the school year. Starting in 2013, the school will also test for alcohol. Private schools have broader legal authority to test students for illegal substances than their public counterparts. And while a few area public high schools do conduct drug testing, the practice is limited to teens in sports or other extracurricular activities. Yet even among private schools, testing students' hair for alcohol use appears to be particularly rare. The testing company, Massachusetts-based Psychemedics Corp., said St. Viator is among a handful nationwide using the company's new hair test for alcohol. At St. Viator, students are notified of their mandatory testing appointments on the morning of the test. At lunchtime, a school official snips off a sample of about 60 hairs from the crown of each chosen student's head. The alcohol test measures ethyl glucuronide, or EtG, to indicate alcohol consumption in the previous three months. The tests take about a week to process and are capable of indicating a minimum average consumption of two to three drinks per week. Students who test positive must attend a meeting with their parents, counselor and the school president. After 100 days, the student must pay about $85 for another test, and a second positive could lead to expulsion. Private schools can in general mandate drug and alcohol tests at their own discretion.

Academics

St. Viator follows a Christian Catholic Environment. Students are required to take classes from a breadth of areas, including math, English, fine arts, science, social science, and religion; a foreign language is required for a minimum of two years. Instruction in the Spanish, French, Italian and Mandarin Chinese languages is offered. German is no longer offered since 2008.

14 Advanced Placement courses are offered in English Language, English Literature, Calculus (AB & BC), Spanish Language, French Language, Biology, Chemistry, Physics (C), U.S. History, European History, Human Geography, and World History

The school requires students to complete a fixed number of community service hours in order to graduate. Starting with the class of 2010, students are required to complete 25 community service hours in one year which adds up to 100 service hours for the 4 years.

In 2008, St. Viator was named a blue ribbon school by the U.S. Department of Education. It was one of only three private high schools in the country to be recognized as blue ribbon schools. Again in 2014, the school was recognized as a blue ribbon school. This time around it was only one of six private high schools in the nation and the only high school in the Archdiocese of Chicago to be recognized. Since 1996, three students from Saint Viator have achieved a 36 on the American College Test, the ACT. In 2014, eight students were named National Merit Commended Scholars and two were named National Merit Semi-Finalists.

Extracurricular activities

Saint Viator offers various academic and leadership societies, such as National Honor Society, Ambassador's Club, Justice League, Math Club, Anime Club, Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), Yearbook, Viator Voice (newspaper), Recycling Corps, Link Crew, Tech Crew and Student Council; foreign language clubs; and Scholastic Bowl. There are also many performing ensembles offered: the Winter Musical (established in 1967), the Fall Play, Concert Band, Symphonic Band, Musical Pit Orchestra, Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, Music Ministry, and Orchesis.

Athletics

For most sports, St. Viator plays in the East Suburban Catholic Conference; for swimming and water polo, the Metro Catholic Aquatic Conference; and for lacrosse, the East Suburban Catholic Conference of the Illinois High School Lacrosse Association. The St. Viator varsity hockey team plays in both the Chicago Catholic Hockey League and the Scholastic Hockey League. Saint Viator's athletics have been a very prosperous school in some of their athletic teams. Taking top 3 almost every year in their conference. Soccer is one of these teams being one of few schools with the highest number of state appearances.

The following teams have placed in the top four of their respective sports in state tournaments sponsored by the Illinois High School Association:

Notable alumni

Notable staff