Sissonville High School is a public high school in Kanawha County, West Virginia

Kanawha County, West Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 200,073 people, 86,226 households, and 55,960 families residing in the county. The population density was 222 people per square mile . There were 93,788 housing units at an average density of 104 per square mile...

. It is located in Sissonville, West Virginia

Sissonville, West Virginia

Sissonville is an unincorporated census-designated place in Kanawha County, West Virginia, along the Pocatalico River. The population was 4,028 at the 2010 census...

, more specifically Pocatalico

Pocatalico, West Virginia

Pocatalico is an unincorporated community in Kanawha County, West Virginia, United States. Pocatalico is located along Interstate 77 south of and near Sissonville....

, which is a suburb of Charleston

Charleston, West Virginia

Charleston is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha Rivers in Kanawha County. As of the 2010 census, it has a population of 51,400, and its metropolitan area 304,214. It is the county seat of Kanawha County.Early...

.

Activities

• Student Council
• Yearbook
• Academic Honorary
• Prom Planning Committee
• Fellowship of Christian Athletes
• Christian Youth Fellowship
• International Club
• Young Democrats
• Young Republicans
• French Club
• Spanish Club

Arts

• Band
• Theatre

The Sissonville High School marching band is one of the eight public high schools that compete in the Daily Mail Kanawha County Majorette and Band Festival

Daily Mail Kanawha County Majorette and Band Festival

The Daily Mail Kanawha County Majorette and Band Festival is an annual festival dedicated to high school bands and majorette corps in Kanawha County, West Virginia. The event is held at the University of Charleston Stadium at Laidley Field in Charleston, West Virginia at the end of September of...

. They have won the Festival Grand Championship once in 1978. They have also had eight girls named Miss Kanawha Majorette. They include:

• 1993-Susan Booth
• 1992-Kim Jarrett
• 1990-Leigh Ann Dolan
• 1977-Donna Rowley
• 1976-Debbie Wilkinson
• 1975-Dawn Bailey
• 1968-Janie Coffman
• 1964-Betty Conner

Athletics

• Baseball
• Basketball
• Cheerleading
• Football
• Golf
• Soccer
• Softball
• Tennis
• Track
• Volleyball
• Wrestling

In the news

The Katie Sierra suspension controversy began in October 2001 when high school student Katie Sierra was suspended from Sissonville High School for her activism in opposition to the bombing of Afghanistan. The fifteen-year old Sierra was engaged in anti-war activism at her school, near Charleston, West Virginia, wearing clothes with handwritten messages objecting to U.S. militarism, racism, sexism, and homophobia. She applied for permission to start an anarchist club at the school, and was denied by the school's principal. Her attempts at publicizing the club led to her being suspended from school for three days. Incendiary comments by the principal and the members of the school board were reported in the press and provoked a controversy that garnered national and international media attention.

Following verbal and physical assaults by Sierra's fellow students, her mother withdrew her from the school and, with the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union, they initiated legal action against the headmaster and the school board. Initially unsuccessful and subject to various setbacks, these efforts eventually succeeded in overturning the school's decision not to allow the club, although the propriety of other actions by the school was upheld. Sierra briefly returned to Sissonville High in August 2002 before again withdrawing over peer harassment after less than a week. The actions and attitude of the school toward Sierra were sharply criticized in the media for what critics perceived as censorship and McCarthyism, as a dark sign of post–September 11th American society and its concept of freedom of speech.