Alcee Fortier High School

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Alcée Fortier High School was a high school in Uptown New Orleans, Louisiana. It is five blocks away from McMain Secondary School.[1]

Named for the renowned professor of Romance Languages at Tulane, Alcee Fortier, the school opened in 1931.[2] Originally Fortier was an all-boys school.[1]

In 1992 Michael Lach and Michael Loverude of the Christian Science Monitor stated "Based on test scores, dropout rates, and socioeconomic status of the students, the schools we taught in were two of the worst high schools in the country - Booker T. Washington and Alcee Fortier high schools. Given these circumstances, both schools do a fine job, but students leave deserving so much more."[3] In 2006 John Schmid of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said that Fortier was considered to be one of the "worst" schools in Louisiana.[4] According to Christine Briley, a then 17-year-old former student quoted in The Providence Journal in 2005, many fights occurred at the school and students physically attacked teachers.[5] Around 2003 it made an "academically unacceptable" list.[6]

Lusher Charter School's secondary campus opened in the former Fortier building.[4]

Curriculum

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. The school offered German after its 1931 opening. About 150 students per academic period studied German. German was discontinued in the New Orleans school system in 1938 as World War II broke out.[2]

The Fortier Marching Band was known as F-Troop, the Uptown Trash Box because of their bad sound, & Wrong Note University for the knack of playing the whole song with wrong notes.. They were also known for playing Paula Abdul's Cold Hearted Snake as their fight song. Fortier Band was also responsible for fights on Canal St. & the 82% of the Orleans Parish Prison & Angola State Penitentiary.

Notable alumni

  • Dick Juge 1955/1956 Fortier graduate in 1957 was aboard the first American ship to successfully to navigate the Northwest Passage as a crewmate aboard the CGC STORIS, and in the first American ship successfully to circumnavigate the North American Continent.<http://thehistoricnorthwestpassage.com/
  • Edward S. Bopp (Class of 1949), New Orleans lawyer and former state representative[7]
  • Edmund Graves Brown[8]
  • John Kennedy Toole[9]
  • Dave Treen (Governor of Louisiana) - Graduated in 1945[10]
  • Tony Washington (American football player) - Played American football in his junior year, moved to University School of Las Colinas due to Hurricane Katrina[11]
  • Aeneas Williams - member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
  • Russell Long - US Senator
  • Howard K Smith - Journalist
  • Ashley A Ambrose - NFL Football Player
  • Charles Ferguson, Editor of the Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans
  • George W. "Bunky" Healy, III, Internationally acclaimed Admiralty Lawyer and a President of the Maritime Law Assn. of the U.S.
  • Stephen Voelker, Jr., Lawyer, Engineer
  • C. Allen Hennesy, New Orleans attorney
  • Bemiss A. Rolfs, former President & CEO of National Car Rental
  • Clifford S. Sutter, Tennis Player, Winner of the NCAA Singles Twice (1930 & '32), the Only Native New Orleanian to Play Wimbledon (1933), Winner of the U.S. Veterans Doubles (1961, with His Brother Ernest), and an Advertising Executive in New York City
  • Ernest M. Sutter, Tennis Player, Winner of the NCAA Singles Twice (1936-37), Winner of the U.S. Veterans Doubles (1961, with His Brother Clifford), Winner of the Purple Heart in WWII, and a top lawyer with Shell Oil Co.
  • Matthew Teague, American football player
  • William W. Westerfield, Jr., member of the Tulane University tennis team, the top lawyer with Shell Oil Co. in New Orleans, later President of the U.S. division of Shell Oil in New York then Houston

References

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 Sisco, Annette. "McMain class of 1941 holds 70th reunion, celebrate the event in Metairie." The Times-Picayune. Wednesday June 8, 2011. Retrieved on March 18, 2013.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Merrill, p. 236.
  3. Lach, Michael and Michael Loverude. "Our Abandoned Teachers." The Christian Science Monitor. August 31, 1992. Start Page 19. Opinion section. Retrieved on March 18, 2013. Available at ProQuest.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Schmid, John. "URBANOMICS REBUILDING AMERICAN'S [sic] INNER CITIES Johnson Controls has a blueprint to revive urban centers across the country while expanding its business. First on its list: Hurricane-ravaged New Orleans. Corporate catalyst for stricken cities." Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. January 8, 2006. Retrieved on March 18, 2013. "But Lusher took on another challenge in its charter: It agreed to reopen Alcee Fortier High School, one of the state's worst schools."
  5. Hayes, Kia Hall. "She takes her first steps toward fitting in." Providence Journal. September 16, 2005. News A01. Retrieved on March 18, 2013. Available at LexisNexis. "MIDDLETOWN - There were no fights in the hallways as she went to her classes yesterday, evidence that Christine Briley's new school is separated from her old one by more than miles. "At my old school, as soon as you walked into the building, it was hectic; people were shoving and pushing and fighting a lot," said Briley, 17, a Hurricane Katrina evacuee from New Orleans who started classes at Middletown High School on Wednesday. At Alcee Fortier High School, the school she attended in New Orleans, even the teachers were getting beat up by students, she said. "I never really liked the high school, I just dealt with it because I had to go there," Briley said." Providence Journal. September 16, 2005. Retrieved on March 18, 2013.
  6. McGill, Kevin. "New Orleans School Woes Are More than Elementary; Superintendent Confronts Wide Range of Problems." The Washington Post. September 7, 2003. A06. Retrieved on March 18, 2013. Available on ProQuest. "Green was tapped to be valedictorian at Alcee Fortier High School, one of those on the "academically unacceptable" list. She learned only a few days before[...]"
  7. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. "Edmund G. Brown, Jr." (Death Notice) Biloxi Sun Herald. May 18, 2008. Classified. Retrieved on March 18, 2013. "After graduating from Alcee Fortier High School in New Orleans and the New[...]"
  9. "[1]" (Kiwanis Club Certificate) Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  10. "Former Louisiana Gov. Dave Treen dies at 81." The Times-Picayune. October 29, 2009. Retrieved on March 18, 2013.
  11. Glock, Allison. "Unforgiven." ESPN. August 31, 2010. Retrieved on March 18, 2013.