Talk:Lathrop High School (Alaska)

May, 2008
Greetings editors! I recently went through and gutted a great deal of this article.

Before adding anything to this article, please consider reading WP:SCH.

This is part of the page set up by the Wikischools project, and specifically addresses what not to include in articles about schools. For the most part, students and staff should not be included, unless they have done something worthy of their own article in Wikipedia.

Also, keep in mind: this is an encyclopedia article, not the school homepage. News items of short-term importance (like upcoming summer break .... though I have to think that is VERY much anticipated after a Fairbanks winter) are really not encyclopedic. Information about the computerized grade access are also not of long term interest. That information is great for a school website, but not for an encyclopedia.

The history section is off to a good start. Consider including references from third party, neutral, reputable sources. Also, a section on academic accomplishments, notable alumni (those that would have their own articles here), athletic accomplishments (state championships), notable rivalries, etc. would be great additions.

Best of luck, and stay warm! LonelyBeacon (talk) 00:17, 18 May 2008 (UTC)


 * I did my best to add some information, and added a school infobox. There is still a need for references.  I wish you the best of luck! LonelyBeacon (talk) 01:25, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Update on above issues
I haven't looked at prior revisions. I did my best to fill in what needed to be filled in, but with realizing that it may still need references and whatnot. A lot of that may require something approaching Real Work, which of course no one is paying me for.

The reason I'm writing this, however: someone cn-tagged the statement about East and West Lathrop. Here's what I found, from Fairbanks Area Public Schools, 1904-2004 - The First Hundred Years of Public Education in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, published by the FNSBSD in 2005:

Section entitled "Pipeline Brings More Students" - overview of the overcrowding the district already faced in the early and mid 1970s; the belief that the signing of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act by President Nixon would cause Fairbanks schools to fill to crisis level (there was serious overcrowding, but not as bad as expected;  I attended Fairbanks schools during the pipeline days and can attest to this being the case);  the fact that Lathrop's attendance topped out at approximately 2,500 students during this time;  the double-shifting established at a number of area schools, which in the case of Lathrop split the student body between those who lived in Fairbanks proper (East Lathrop) and those who lived in College, North Pole and other outlying areas (West Lathrop);  and the dissent from a number of people in the community over the double shifting plan. This plan was drawn up at around the time that North Pole High School (the building which is now North Pole Middle School) was being constructed; West Valley was still a little ways off. Here's the pertinent part, in response to the specific statement which was cn-tagged:"In April, (without being clear as to exactly what year) the school board voted 4-1 (with two members absent) for double-shifting Lathrop High School and University Park, Hunter, Barnette and North Pole Elementary schools the next school year. The lone dissenting vote on the school board was that of Jim Hayes, (better known as James C. Hayes, who served as mayor of Fairbanks from 1992 to 2001, and was later convicted of federal charges regarding misuse of grant monies received in conjunction with the church he had taken over from his father-in-law) who said the Lathrop plan 'smelled like segregation.' He and J. P. Jones of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) feared the new boundaries would separate students racially and socially.  Ethnic minorities, such as blacks and Alaska Natives and low income families were concentrated in the area to be served by East Lathrop, they explained, while white middle-upper income families predominated in the area to be served by West Lathrop. Since East and West Lathrop student bodies were to be determined by the boundaries that would later decide who went to which high school, Hayes and Jones thought the issue should be addressed before the separation was made. (Superintendent Chuck) Smith told them that he believed such a separation would take place no matter what plan was undertaken."The remainder of the section describes the protest by Lathrop students to be plan, the seeming indifference of Smith to the student's concerns, and how it went into place until the end of the 1975-76 school year, "by which time the four new schools had been built and construction of the pipeline was nearing completion." I'm guessing these schools were the aforementioned West Valley and North Pole, as well as Tanana Jr. High and Woodriver Elementary.

This reminds me of not only why I'm very cautious in using cn tags on Wikipedia, but why I detest seeing the gratuitous spamming of articles with cn tags, which I believe reveals itself to be a form of POV pushing. The IP address is that of a computer at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. This user could very well have gone right over to the Rasmuson Library and found this same book, and quite possibly could have done further research, as abundant microfilm resources of old newspapers can be found there. Instead, it's being dumped in my lap, and like I already explained, no one is paying me for this. If I could possibly get a book deal out of my research, then I may be able to benefit, but it seems as if everyone is writing a book these days. So there you go. Hope you're happy. Better still, hope I've made it a little easier for you to do your part. Unless, of course, the cn tag was all you were willing to do to contribute.RadioKAOS (talk) 20:52, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

Notable alumni
Here's an incomplete list, just off the top of my head. This also includes Fairbanks High School, pre-Lathrop:


 * Bob Bartlett
 * Ralph Beistline
 * John Binkley
 * Robert Crawford (didn't graduate high school, but still managed to enter Princeton University, from which he did graduate)
 * Michael Geraghty
 * Cathy Giessel
 * Bob Herron
 * Scott Kawasaki
 * Jay Ramras
 * Joe Thomas
 * Reggie Tongue
 * Don Wright

There are a bunch of other notable alumni of Lathrop for whom articles have yet to be written. This has been an ongoing problem, as witnessed by Fairbanks, Alaska being just a random, half-assed assortment of names which speaks nothing to offering a coherent overview of notable residents of the community.RadioKAOS (talk) 20:52, 14 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Another one who may have graduated from Lathrop was Terry Miller. As previously mentioned, students from North Pole went to Lathrop during the school's early history.  I forgot to look him up when I had the opportunity earlier today.RadioKAOS (talk) 05:15, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Confirmed (class of 1961).RadioKAOS (talk) 21:07, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Also Woodie Salmon.RadioKAOS (talk) 20:54, 17 September 2012 (UTC)

Here's another thing
The 1957 and 1958 Cache yearbooks make very firm references to Fairbanks High School, rather than Lathrop. It's unclear to me as to exactly when the school was named for Cap Lathrop.RadioKAOS (talk) 22:16, 14 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I think it was the 1961 Cache, but I've forgotten already...a photo shows signage on the building which clearly reads "Austin Lathrop" (similar to what's found on the building today), but the text throughout the yearbook still refers to "Fairbanks High School".RadioKAOS (talk) 21:09, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

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