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West Charlotte High rocked the auditorium Monday night with a rally for academic pride and achievement.
"There is no more awesome force of nature than a pride of lions," Principal Shelton Jefferies said, referring to the school mascot. About 200 students whooped and hollered for the chess team and cheerleaders, recent graduates, faculty who care and alums who still support their school.
Students organized the rally to highlight the good things going on at their school, said organizers Naiya Patterson, student body president, and Alexis Turner, sophomore class president. They urged students and West Charlotte supporters to wear maroon and gold ribbons all week.
"We are a place of learning and growth," Alexis said.
The program featured the marching band strutting on stage and an a capella song that received a standing ovation.
A couple of recent fights and the reassignment of about 80 failing students had drawn attention to problems at the school. Jefferies listed many bright spots: students taking college-level classes and getting into top universities; community service projects; an accomplished marching band; and JROTC, business partners and a loyal brigade of alums, including Charlotte's new mayor, Anthony Foxx.
Foxx wasn't there, but the parade of proud alums included Mable Latimer, class of 1952. The 75-year-old told the cheering teens she still comes to work as a secretary at the school every morning because "I have over 2,100 grandchildren up here."
West Charlotte was an all-black school during segregation, and it earned national attention as a focus of Charlotte's court-ordered desegregation in the 1970s. In more recent years, the school sank to one of the state's lowest academic rankings, then saw significant test-score gains.
"West Charlotte, keep hope alive," urged teacher Michele Jones. "This is only the beginning of a brighter future."
Kelly Anderson, mother of two West Charlotte students, urged the teens to take charge of their own destiny. She led them in a chant that she said should become their new mantra: "You get out what you put in."
