McKinney North High School

McKinney North High School
Address
2550 Wilmeth Rd. McKinney, Texas, 75070 USA
Information
Type	Public High School
Motto	Recognize North
Established	2000
School district	McKinney Independent School District
Principal	Jimmy Spann
Grades	9-12
Enrollment	1,700
Campus type	Suburb
Color(s)	Navy & Orange
Mascot	Bulldogs/Lady Bulldogs
Website	McKinney North High School

McKinney North High School (commonly North, McKinney North, or MNHS) is a public secondary school located on 2550 Wilmeth Road in McKinney, Texas, USA. The school is part of the McKinney Independent School District. North was also recently updated to a "recognized" status via the TEA.

Academics

McKinney North operates on a 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. schedule, which includes seven class periods and a thirty minute lunch period. Students may not leave campus during this time due to MISD's closed campus policy.

Athletics

Despite the school's short history, it has managed to achieve success in a myriad of events. The MNHS Ladydogs won the 2006 4A U.I.L. Texas State Championship in soccer, The baseball and softball teams also have a storied history in the playoffs making it to the State semifinals and area finals, respectively. Also, the cross-country program has qualified for the U.I.L. state championship twice and has won 5 district championships in all. Also, for Cross Country, Samantha Means won the 4A title, but also set the Texas time record. They also have a very successful football program making it to the playoffs for 2 straight years. In 2011, the Bulldogs finished the regular season at 6-4 and went to the payoffs for the first time in 5 years.

Extracurricular activities

• Band The MNHS Band.
• Debate Team The MNHS C-X Debate Team
• Orchestra The McKinney North Orchestra
• Table Tennis The MNHS TTC
• Theater The MNHS Theater
• Choir The MNHS Choir

Controversy

Scandal broke in 2006 with a group of cheerleaders from McKinney North High School. Local news media coined the term "the Fab Five" to refer to the girls. The group of five cheerleaders, one of whom was the daughter of the then-school principal, Linda Theret, became notorious for truancy, rudeness in class, and violations of the school's dress code. They also videotaped themselves drinking in a limo, making sexually suggestive poses, buying condoms at an adult store, and other acts of misconduct. Some of these videos were posted on MySpace and YouTube. The scandal broke into national news when the school's cheerleading coach, Michaela Ward, resigned in protest in October of that year and began talking to news and media outlets.

In December of 2006, the District Board hired a Dallas attorney, Harry Jones, to investigate the behavior of the cheerleaders with parents and teachers allegedly taking no action. Then-Principal Theret was placed on paid administrative leave and later retired, and the superintendent has said she would not return to the school or any other campus.^[1]

Most notably in Mr. Jones's report, he noted that:

• A small group of "ultra-cool" CLs at the top of the North "food chain" had resisted all authority (legitimate and hypocritical) and failed to recognize how they were hurting their community.

• A few parents had failed to see discipline as a loving instruction about life--instead they had enabled their children to a profound degree.

• Theret, the principal, had failed to balance two of the most important responsibilities in her life: principal and mother. Jones demanded that she be held principally accountable.

In October of 2009, Theret joined the Laredo Independent School District in Laredo in Webb County in south Texas as the new executive director of curriculum and instruction, under the supervision of A. Marcus Nelson, the district superintendent. Nelson defended his choice of Theret, who was a colleague of his during the late 1990s. "First of all, she's been a 5-A high school principal" and a successful teacher for diverse, urban groups. Theret said that her entire career had been "focused on raising student achievement....I'm very interested in the science of teaching, but the art as well."^[2]Nelson said that Theret was his first choice among forty-six applicants for the position.^[2]

The McKinney cheerleader scandal was portrayed in 2008 in the TV movie Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal, which Lifetime Television transmitted in August of 2008; the name of the school was changed, as were the names of the students and the teachers involved.^[3]

References

1. ^ "Cheerleading mess a team effort", Karen Ayres, The Dallas Morning News, December 8, 2006
2. ^ ^{a b} Nick Georgiou, "LISD makes administrative hires: Controversial principal is one," Laredo Morning Times, October 23, 2009, p. 1
3. ^ "Lifetime's 'Texas Cheerleader Scandal' movie resurrects McKinney melodrama", Jacquielynn Floyd, Dallas Morning News, July 31, 2008.