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Lower Merion High School

Lower Merion High School is a public high school in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, in the Main Line suburbs of Philadelphia. It is one of two high schools in the Lower Merion School District; the other one is Harriton High School. Lower Merion serves both Lower Merion Township and the Borough of Narberth.

Lower Merion High School
Lower Merion High School in November 2024
Address
Map
315 East Montgomery Avenue

Ardmore
,
Pennsylvania
19003

United States
Information
TypePublic high school
college preparatory
MottoEnter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve
Established1894
School districtLower Merion School District
PrincipalDr. Michael Johnson
Faculty140.60 (FTE)[1]
Grades9–12
GenderCo-Educational
Enrollment1,712 (2022–23)[1]
Student to teacher ratio12.18[1]
CampusSuburban
Color(s)Maroon and White
   
Athletics conferencePennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA)
Central Athletic League
Mascotbulldog
Team nameAces, Bulldogs
PublicationThe Merionite
Websitewww.lmsd.org/lower-merion

In 2020, Niche.com ranked Lower Merion High School ranked sixth among college preparatory public high schools in Pennsylvania and U.S. News & World Report ranked Harriton High School and Lower Merion High School 13th and 14th in the state respectively. The school mascot is a bulldog, and its athletics teams are known as the "Aces”, honoring the U.S. Air Force Flying Aces established by Lower Merion alumnus Henry H. Arnold, an American general in both the U.S. Army and Air Force.

History

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19th century

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Lower Merion School District in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
 
Lower Merion High School's old building

In 1894, with the consolidation of the area's three village high schools (Merion Square, Bryn Mawr, and Ardmore), Lower Merion began its first year in a stone building shared with the Ardmore Avenue Elementary School in Ardmore. In 1897, nine students participated in the school's first commencement ceremony. The original high school faculty had seven members, including the principal and superintendent. The curriculum offered only a two-year preparation for either college or industry.

20th century

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The Ardmore Avenue School burned in 1900 but was rebuilt, also of stone. In 1911, the high school moved out of the elementary school to new quarters, designed and constructed at the present site, 245 E. Montgomery Avenue. Dedicated on December 2, 1911, Lower Merion Senior High School was an impressive granite and stone edifice considered one of the finest new educational facilities in the state. The 17-acre (69,000 m2) property, complete with three stone-arch entrances, landscaped grounds, and a football stadium, eventually grew to 23 acres (93,000 m2) with the purchase and annexation of the Clarke House. At its opening, twenty-one staff members were employed under principal "Professor" Charles B. Pennypacker.

In 1922, Lower Merion Junior High School, later renamed Ardmore Junior High School, was constructed adjacent to the senior high school, and in 1926 two new wings were added on either side of the main high school building. These additions doubled the size of the original school, helping to accommodate rapidly increasing enrollment. The present administration building was constructed in 1932 to provide office space and an additional twenty-five classrooms. By 1940, the teaching staff had expanded to 61 under the direction of principal George H. Gilbert. Total student enrollment was 1461 for grades 10–12.

In 1943, an adjoining technical building was added along the School House Lane side to house shops for auto repair, metal, print, wood-working and drafting. In 1950, a cafeteria/library wing, designed by the Philadelphia firm of Savory, Scheetz and Gilmour, was added near Pennypacker athletic field. That same year the 18-acre (73,000 m2) General Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold athletic fields opened directly across Montgomery Ave. By 1957, enrollment had grown to 1,663 students and the time had come to build a second high school (Harriton) in Lower Merion Township. The original 1910 building was demolished in 1963 and replaced by an air-conditioned classroom structure designed by H. A. Kuljian and Co.

Decreases in enrollment district-wide caused many Lower Merion elementary schools to close in the late 1970s along with Ardmore Junior High School. This move changed the remaining junior high schools to becoming middle schools (grades 6–8) and moved the ninth grade to the high schools. The Lower Merion High School graduation class of 1982 was the first freshman class at the high school including those students who four years earlier were members of the last graduating class of Ardmore Junior High School.

Due to later enrollment increases and to accommodate changing program needs, the district frequently reconfigured spaces in the facility, including re-opening classroom and storage space in the former Ardmore Junior High School in the 1990s. (Most of the junior high school had been demolished in 1992 to make way for additional parking). Rooms in the technical building were converted to other uses, including art classes, computer labs, and the school's television studio. Original classrooms were repurposed as spaces for individualized learning support and students with special needs.

21st century

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In 2004, the central lobby that connected the 1932 and 1963 structures was converted to a college-style help center.

Also in 2004, a community advisory committee determined that existing facilities no longer met the standards of the Lower Merion community and recommended that a new school, configured for 21st century education, be constructed on the same site. The Board and administration authorized construction of this new school in 2007. Demolition of the "Ardmore Annex", the natatorium, and one of the school's two gyms commenced in the summer of 2008 to make way for construction. The new Lower Merion High School opened in September 2010 and was dedicated in a public ceremony on October 17, 2010. In addition to state-of-the-art classrooms, science laboratories, art classrooms, and music rehearsal spaces, the new Lower Merion features a lecture hall with tiered seating, a multi-purpose black box theater, an 850-seat auditorium/theater, a greenhouse for environmental and horticultural studies, high-performance athletic facilities, a swimming pool, a television studio, multi-media production facilities, a music technology lab, an expansive courtyard, and a two-story, glass-encased library that serves as the building's exterior focal point along Montgomery Avenue.

The school also features a planetarium on top of the old building that closed after it was declared a fire hazard. It was then temporarily transformed into a staff lounge room. However, the room is currently vacated.

The new school was constructed adjacent to the historic district administration office (DAO) building, which is the only original structure that remains on the site. A number of measures were approved by the Lower Merion Historic Commission to ensure the school was designed to complement this Class I historic resource. The placement of the new building provides an unobstructed view of the DAO from Montgomery Avenue. The color and size of the masonry used in the new building is reflective of materials of the DAO.

On November 13, 2021, the school principal, Sean Hughes, was killed in a car crash while driving his teenage son to a soccer game.[2]

Athletics

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Lower Merion Athletics compete in the Central League. The league expanded in 2008 to include the schools Harriton and Garnet Valley for a total of 12 schools. and are represented as either the Bulldogs or the Aces. Bulldogs is used for football, girls ice hockey, and softball. Aces is used by all other sports. Fall sports include cheerleading, cross country, field hockey, football, golf, soccer, tennis, volleyball, and water polo. Winter sports include basketball, ice hockey, indoor track, squash, swimming, and wrestling. Spring sports include baseball, crew, lacrosse, softball, tennis, track and field, ultimate frisbee, and volleyball.[3]

Varsity basketball

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The Lower Merion High School basketball team has won seven Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association State Championships. In 1930, 1931, and 1939 Lower Merion lost the AAA championship games (then the highest level of competition). They won the AAA championship in 1933, 1941, 1942, and 1943. The Aces won the AAAA championship in 1996, 2006, and 2013; they were AAAA runners-up in 2005 and 2012. Their most recent championship came in 2013 under Head Coach Gregg Downer (1990–).

In 1996, the Aces rode a 30-game winning streak to a district title and their first state title in 50 years, finishing the season 31–3.

Former NBA player Kobe Bryant led Lower Merion to the state championship before graduating in 1996.[4] In 2013, the Aces won the 2013 PIAA State title.[5]

Varsity tennis

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The Varsity Boys' Tennis team won total of 11 PIAA AAA (3A is the highest level of competition for tennis in PA) state titles for Lower Merion high school. The Aces won the state team gold in 2006, 2007, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2021, and 2022, [6][7] and finished second in 2008, 2023, and 2024. Individually, the Aces won the PIAA AAA state boys' singles title in 2003 and 2021, while winning the state boys' doubles title in 2009 and 2021.[8] The boys' 2021 tennis team is the first in Pennsylvania high school tennis history to capture the triple crown by winning the team title, singles title, and doubles title.[9]

Boys' varsity lacrosse

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The Lower Merion boys' varsity Lacrosse team has won seven PIAA and or Pennsylvania Scholastic State Championships, (1966, 1967, 1969, 1977, 1979, 1984, 1999) the most of any high school in the Commonwealth, came in second three times (1970, 1978, and 1980)[10] and have had 21 players be named All-American.

Laptop controversy

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Main article: Robbins v. Lower Merion School District

In the 2010 WebcamGate lawsuit, plaintiffs charged that Lower Merion School District (including Lower Merion High School and Harriton High School) secretly spied on students enrolled at the two high schools by surreptitiously and remotely activating webcams embedded in school-issued laptops the students were using at home, and therefore infringed on their privacy rights. The schools admitted to secretly snapping over 66,000 webshots and screenshots. Those included webcam shots of students in their bedrooms.[11][12][13] In October 2010, the school district agreed to pay $610,000 to settle the Robbins and parallel Hasan lawsuits against it.[14]

Two parents filed the lawsuit against the school district on February 11, 2010.[15][16] The plaintiff was a student at one of the two district high schools. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction ordering the district to stop its secret webcam monitoring, and ordered the district to pay the plaintiffs' attorney fees.[17][18][19]

In July 2010, a Lower Merion High School student filed a parallel second suit.[20] The school was also put on notice of a third parallel suit that a third student intended to bring, for "improper surveillance of the Lower Merion High School student on his school issued laptop", which included taking over 700 webcam shots and screenshots between December 2009 and February 2010.[21]

A U.S. Senate Judiciary subcommittee held hearings on the issues raised by the schools' secret surveillance, and Senator Arlen Specter introduced draft legislation in the Senate to protect against it in the future. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Attorney's Office, and Montgomery County School District attorney all initiated criminal investigations of the matter, which they combined and then closed because they did not find evidence "that would establish beyond a reasonable doubt that anyone involved had criminal intent". The civil lawsuit has a much lower burden of proof, and is unaffected by the decision. Lower Merion Police Superintendent Michael McGrath said: "This would appear to be a matter to be resolved in civil court."[22] An investigative report prepared by the law firm Ballard Spahr–the firm that the Lower Merion School District had hired to defend it–did not find evidence that the system "was used to 'spy' on students", but was unable in many instances to find who had authorized that the system take surreptitious photographs, for what reason, and to find copies of photographs that had been deleted from the school server.[12]

Notable alumni

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Kobe Bryant's retired #33 jersey and banner hang in the Lower Merion High School gym

Graduation year in parentheses.

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Lower Merion HS". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved April 7, 2024.
  2. ^ "Sean Hughes, principal of Lower Merion High School, died in a car crash Saturday". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved November 16, 2021.
  3. ^ "Central League Schools - Lower Merion School District". www.lmsd.org. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
  4. ^ Edmonds, Javon. "Kobe Bryant's legend endures in the form of inspiration for many across Temple basketball". www.inquirer.com. Retrieved February 21, 2023.
  5. ^ "Raheem Hall enjoys Aces' PIAA state title game victory". Main Line Media News. March 22, 2013. Retrieved August 30, 2022.
  6. ^ Adams, Bruce (May 22, 2017). "Undefeated LM boys' tennis team wins 3rd consecutive PIAA state title". PA Preplive. PA Prep Live.
  7. ^ "Back-to-back: Lower Merion boys' tennis squad repeats PIAA 3A team title – PA Prep Live". May 22, 2022.
  8. ^ Adams, Bruce (June 2021). "Lower Merion's Vikas Miller wins PIAA 3A state singles title; LM's Yi brothers capture state doubles crown". PA Preplive. PA Prep Live.
  9. ^ Adams, Bruce (June 7, 2021). "Lower Merion boys' tennis team was a group of perfect Aces". PA Preplive.
  10. ^ "Pennsylvania Boys Lacrosse State Champions" (PDF). www.piaad1.org. Retrieved December 24, 2021.
  11. ^ Doug Stanglin (February 18, 2010). "School district accused of spying on kids via laptop webcams". USA Today. Retrieved February 19, 2010.
  12. ^ a b Report Regarding Monitoring of Student Laptop Computers by the Lower Merion School District, Ballard Spahr (LMSD's counsel), May 3, 2010. Retrieved August 15, 2010.
  13. ^ "Initial LANrev System Findings", LMSD Redacted Forensic Analysis, L-3 Services – prepared for Ballard Spahr (LMSD's counsel), May 2010. Retrieved August 15, 2010.
  14. ^ Mucha, Peter (October 12, 2010). "Lower Merion district's laptop saga ends with $610,000 settlement". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved January 7, 2011.
  15. ^ "Pennsylvania schools spying on students using laptop webcams, claims lawsuit; Class-action suit alleges schools remotely activate webcams on school-issued notebooks", Gregg Keizer, Computerworld, February 18, 2010
  16. ^ "School district accused of spying on kids via laptop webcams". USA Today. February 18, 2010. Retrieved September 14, 2010.
  17. ^ Fitzgerald, Thomas (August 31, 2010). "Lower Merion School District ordered to pay plaintiff's lawyer $260,000". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved September 14, 2010.
  18. ^ "Judge: Lower Merion must pay attorney in laptop case". Main Line Media News. August 30, 2010. Retrieved August 30, 2022.
  19. ^ The Philadelphia Inquirer
  20. ^ Albanesius, Chloe. "Another Lawsuit Filed Over School Webcam Spying". PC Magazine. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
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  26. ^ "Kabir Akhtar". IMDb. Retrieved August 28, 2023.[user-generated source]
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  28. ^ a b c O’Loughlin, Kathy (May 31, 2012). "MAIN LINE HISTORY: Our hometown military heroes". Main Line Times. Retrieved August 30, 2022.
  29. ^ Rosenfield, Wendy (October 6, 2009). "Playwright returns to his Phila. roots". The Inquirer. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
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  38. ^ Adams, Bruce (September 19, 2023). "Lower Merion Football Hall of Fame to induct eight new members Oct. 7". Mainline Media News. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
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