South Oak Cliff High School

South Oak Cliff High School (colloquially referred to as SOC, pronounced "sock") is a public secondary school located in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas (USA). South Oak Cliff High School enrolls students in grades 9-12 and is a part of the Dallas Independent School District (DISD).

The school serves the area of Dallas known as "South Oak Cliff" (generally east of Interstate 35E and south of Illinois Avenue, though the area was never technically part of Oak Cliff). The school also previously had some students who lived in the former Wilmer-Hutchins ISD boundaries. DISD began to take in WHISD-zoned students during the 2005–2006 school year, and at that time the entire Wilmer-Hutchins High School senior class attended South Oak Cliff.

According to the federal No Child Left Behind Act evaluation, the school "did not make adequate yearly progress" in 2004–2005. The state department of education identified this school as "in need of improvement, Year 1" for 2005–2006.

In 2015, the school was rated "Improvement Required" by the Texas Education Agency.^[5]

History

South Oak Cliff opened in 1952 as the first DISD high school to be constructed in almost 15 years (Lincoln High opened in 1939.) The school served developing areas of south and east Oak Cliff. In the first year only a few hundred students enrolled, but the school grew rapidly as new housing developments were completed along Kiest Boulevard and Ledbetter Drive. In the late 1950s, before Kimball and Carter high schools were opened, SOC was one of the largest high schools in the city. For its first 13 years SOC was designated a "white" high school by DISD, but the neighborhoods surrounding the school began to change rapidly to African-American in the early 1960s. Many of the schools that fed into SOC (Holmes and Zumwalt junior high schools and Miller, Stone, Pease, Bushman and Mills elementary schools) were converted to "negro" elementary schools in the late 1960s.

This picture of the 1967-1968 SOC football team illustrates the school's changing demographics

Roosevelt High School was opened in north Oak Cliff 1963 to serve the growing African-American student population, but at the beginning of the 1966-1967 school year, DISD was forced to desegregate its high schools and black students enrolled at SOC for the first time.

Between 1966 and 1970 the student body changed from nearly 100 percent white to almost 100 percent African-American. This type of racial turnover was common in the US during the white flight era of the 1960s, but it was rare to see it happen in such a newly developed area. Most of the homes, businesses and shopping centers in this area of Oak Cliff were less than ten years old when the racial changes began.

After the A. Maceo Smith High School moved in 1989, the attendance boundaries between Smith and South Oak Cliff shifted, with students zoned to Stone Middle School and Zumwalt Middle School, except for students also zoned to Bushman Elementary, moving from SOC to Smith, and students zoned to Storey Middle School, except for those who began their educations at Marshall and Oliver elementaries, would be zoned to SOC.^[6]

In 2005, after the closure of the Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District, what would have been the entire senior class of Wilmer-Hutchins High School was sent to South Oak Cliff. SOC and other DISD schools absorbed the remaining WHISD high school students.^[7]

In 2011, the district re-opened Wilmer Hutchins and converted A. Maceo Smith into a technology magnet.^[8] Some former WHISD zones covered by South Oak Cliff were rezoned to Wilmer-Hutchins.^[9][10] South Oak Cliff absorbed parts of the former A. Maceo Smith boundary.^[11][12]

Extracurricular activities

Athletics

The South Oak Cliff Golden Bears compete in the following sports:^[13]

• Baseball
• Basketball
• Cross Country
• Football
• Golf
• Soccer
• Softball
• Swimming and Diving
• Tennis
• Track and Field
• Volleyball
• Wrestling

Football

Though no State Championships, South Oak Cliff consistently has one of the nation's most talented teams (currently 17 straight playoff appearances). South Oak Cliff football also ranks #1 for the most NFL alumni of any Texas High School and #10 in the country according to Pro-Football-Reference.com. South Oak Cliff Ranks #2 amongst public high schools in the country as all other schools in the top ten, except Susan B Miller in Compton, California, are magnet schools or sports academies that recruit.^[14]

Basketball

South Oak Cliff High School has won six boys' basketball state championships, occurring in 1977, 1992, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

However, the latter four titles have come under suspicion that teachers were (sometimes under pressure) changing the grades of failing players so they could remain eligible for play. The DISD has been conducting internal investigations into the matter, and agreed that three titles (the 2005, 2006, and 2007 titles) should be forfeited. The DISD forfeited the 2006 title in January 2008; the University Interscholastic League (UIL) accepted the forfeit in June 2008.^[15] The DISD later forfeited the 2005 title in February 2009; the UIL accepted the forfeit later that month.^[16] A formal decision to forfeit the 2007 title has not been made.^[17]

The girls' basketball team has won three state championships in 1977, 1980, and 1985.

School uniforms

SOC has chosen to institute mandatory school uniforms consisting of white, black or gold tops and khaki or black bottoms.^[1]

The Texas Education Agency specified that the parents and/or guardians of students zoned to a school with uniforms may apply for a waiver to opt out of the uniform policy so their children do not have to wear the uniform,^[18] parents must specify "bona fide" reasons, such as religious reasons or philosophical objections.

Feeder patterns

Harrell Budd (PK-5), Lisbon (PK-5), Thomas L. Marsalis (PK-5), Clara Oliver (PK-5), Clinton P. Russell (4-5), Erasmo Sequin Community Learning Center (PK-3) and Robert L. Thornton (PK-5) all feed into Boude Storey Middle School, which is the sole middle school that feeds into South Oak Cliff High School.^[19]

Controversy

A 2008 investigation within the Dallas school district's Office of Professional Responsibility found that then-principal Donald Moten as well as other school officials staged cage fights among troubled students, making them fight in a steel utility cage inside a boys locker room.^[20][21] The investigation showed that Moten and other employees "knew of the practice, allowed it to go on for a time, and failed to report it".^[22][23]

South Oak Cliff High was stripped of its 2006 state basketball championship after investigators determined Moten had coerced teachers into changing athletes' grades. District reports also confirmed unauthorized pep rally fundraisers that Moten used to fund personal gambling trips. Moten had a previous checkered work history at the Dallas Police Department – one that included staging his own kidnapping and the fatal shooting of an elderly crime-watch volunteer. Moten was moved from South Oak Cliff High to Jackson Elementary School in 2006, and resigned from the district in 2008.^[24][25]

Notable alumni

• Darrell Arthur, class of 2006; NBA player for the Memphis Grizzlies, former member of the Kansas Jayhawks
• Tony Battie, class of 1994; NBA player for the New Jersey Nets^[26]
• Lincoln "Link" Browder, class of 1983; R&B singer, songwriter & producer
• David Brown, Dallas Chief of Police^[27]
• Danny Colbert, NFL player
• Tim Collier Former NFL defensive back (1976–83) for Chiefs, Cardinals, and 49ers; 1972
• Michael Lynn Downs, class of 1977, former All-Pro safety Dallas Cowboys (1981–1988) and the Arizona Cardinals (1989)
• LaTarence Dunbar, class of 1998; former player for the Atlanta Falcons and Houston Texans^[26]
• Chryste Gaines, Olympic sprinter^[26]
• Casey Gerald, class of 2005, Yale Football, Harvard Business School, founder MBAs Across America^[28]
• Nekeshia Henderson, American basketball player
• Charles Hudson, former MLB pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers
• Rod Jones, NFL player^[26]
• Eric July, class of 2008, rapper
• Mike Livingston, class of 1964, quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs from 1968 to 1979, graduate of SMU, earned 12 letters in football, baseball, basketball and track
• Harvey Martin, class of 1968, former NFL defensive player of the year and All-Pro, Dallas Cowboys
• Wayne Morris, former NFL running back for the Saint Louis Cardinals and the San Diego Chargers
• Jack Nance, actor
• Guy Reese former NFL defensive lineman for the Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Colts and Atlanta Falcons
• Oscar Roan Former Cleveland Browns (1975–78) tight end; went to UCLA then SMU; 1970, Football
• Dennis Rodman, NBA Hall of Famer^[26]
• Durwood Roquemore Former Chiefs (1982–83) and Bills (1987) defensive back played at Texas A&I; 1978, Football
• Jacquies Smith Current NFL player for Tampa Bay
• Ken Smith, former ABA player for the San Antonio Spurs (1976–77)^[29]
• Karl Sweetan Class of 1961. Former NFL quarterback for the Detroit Lions (1966-1967), the New Orleans Saints (1968), and the Los Angeles Rams (1969-1970).
• Malcolm Walker Class of 1961. Former NFL center for the Dallas Cowboys (1966-1969) and Green Bay Packers (1970). One of the 55 greatest football players at Rice University (1962-1965)

References

External links

• Official website
• School profile (PDF)
• Attendance zone map (PDF)
• hs.beloblog.com