Venue: Venice High School
Town: Los Angeles, US

Venice High School (VHS) is a public school located in the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles, California and within the Local District West area of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). As of the 2024-25 school year, VHS served 2,293 students, and had a student-teacher ratio of 21.26. The school was established in 1911 (then called "Venice Union Polytechnic High School") when classes were held in an old lagoon bathhouse two blocks from the beach. It moved to a new neo-romanesque structure at its present 29-acre campus two miles inland a decade later which was bought for $72,500 at that time. A famous statue, installed in 1922 and for which then-unknown Venice High School student Myrna Loy served as model, stood on the front lawn of Venice High School for over 70 years. An unsightly cage was erected to prevent vandalism, but the statue was ultimately removed and sent to indoor storage in 1998. However, a bronze-cast replacement statue was mounted before 2,000 cheering onlookers in an April 2010 ceremony. On March 10, 1933, the school was seriously damaged by the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. As a result, classes were held in hastily constructed tents for two years until a replacement school was built. Art Deco earthquake-resistant buildings were built in 1935, and are still used by the school today. It was in the Los Angeles City High School District until 1961, when it merged into LAUSD. Beginning in fall 2007, some neighborhoods zoned to Hamilton High School were rezoned to Venice High School. On May 15, 2009, students staged a walkout in response to LAUSD increasing class sizes and cutting teachers. Students who engaged in the walkout received support from the ACLU and the National Lawyers Guild in clearing their truancies on that particular day. A similar walkout occurred in 1951 when school administration disqualified a candidate for student body office because of a questionable campaign speech. Administration retaliated by focusing on agitators wit