The school includes grades 9 through 12. The high school campus is the second largest in the nation in terms of campus size. The district, and therefore the high school, serves almost all of the city of Duncanville, as well as portions ofCedar Hill,DeSoto, and a small portion of southwestDallas.[2]
Duncanville High School held its first accredited graduating class in 1936. Classes moved in 1954 to a new location, now Reed Middle School. Eleven years later, it moved to its current location. Construction started on Sandra Meadows Memorial Arena in 2003. A new classroom wing was added, along with major renovations, in 2004.
Duncanville High School is the second largest high school campus in the United States. The 863,137 sq ft (80,188.1 m2) campus is more than twice as large as the nearbyMountain View College, and it is over the size of four combinedWal-Mart Supercenters.[4]
The school mascot is the Panther. With the exception of softball and girls track and field, the school has won state titles in every major team sport, including football.
The school's most notable success has been in girls' basketball, where it has won twelve state titles, including three consecutive from 1988 to 1990 while winning 134 consecutive games in the state's largest enrollment classification (a state record)[5] before losing in the 1991 state semifinal.[6] They also won 105 consecutive games and two consecutive state titles in 2012 and 2013.[7] The girls teams were undefeated champions in 1989 (39-0), 1990 (37-0), 1997 (40-0), 2013 (42-0), and 2016 (39-0).[8][9]
Duncanville is the only 6A band program in the history of the Texas Music Educators' Association Honor Band competition to win three State Honor Band titles (1999, 2005, 2009).[34]
In 2022, the Duncanville High School Choral Department was named a 2022 GRAMMY Signature School and awarded a monetary grant for the excellence of the program under the leadership of Jesse Cannon II & De'Evin Johnson. In the same school year, the Assistant Choir Director, De'Evin Johnson was named a 2023 GRAMMY Music Educator Award Quarterfinalist.[35]
The A Cappella Men's Choir has twice performed at the National American Choral Directors Association Conference those invited performances occurred in 2012 and 2021.[36] In 2021 the A Capella Men's Choir was also named a Foundation for Music Education- Mark of Excellence National High School Winner in the Open Class.[37]
The school is also known for its journalism program, which publishes thePanther Tale yearbook,Panther Prints newspaper, and the district's public relations publication,Class Magazine. The yearbook and newspaper have won numerous awards, including aRobert F. Kennedy Journalism Award[41] and Gold and Silver Crown awards from theColumbia Scholastic Press Association. For the first time in 2002, Duncanville received a Gold Crown for its newspaper and its yearbook, one of only two high schools in the nation to capture both honors that year.[42]
A video of a student from Duncanville, 18-year-oldsophomore Jeff Bliss scolding hissocial studies/history[43] teacher,[44] went viral in May 2013, and was picked up by media. CBS local news quoted the student:[45]
You want kids to come into your class? You want them to get excited for this? You gotta come in here and make them excited. You want a kid to change and start doing better? You gotta touch his freakin' heart. Can't expect a kid to change if all you do is just tell 'em.
The video was caught on video on a cellphone, posted onYouTube, and picked up byReddit,Phillip DeFranco andGawker.[46] The official reaction of the Duncanville Independent School District was not to discipline the student, but to offer private and public reminders that there are other ways to make a point. The district issued a statement, saying, in part: "He makes a number of valid statements about how classrooms across America need to change, and we view this as an opportunity to have more conversations about transforming our schools to better meet the needs of our students."
A video of students protesting the school's strict dress code was sent to several of the local media outlets, who reported on the incident. The Duncanville Independent School District said about 170 students were found in violation of the school's dress code and sent home.[47] The crackdown on students violating the dress code is what led to a spontaneous mass protest. Administrators responded to the protest with a large police presence on campus a day afterward, which remained until the last day of the school year.[48]
