Talk:Richland High School (Texas)

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Some interesting things about this school are that it's mascot is the Rebels and until the mid-1990's used the confederate battle flag as a school and team flag. This resulted in occasional controversy including in 1987-1988 when I was there and again in the mid-90's when they redesigned the flag. The students repeatedly fought and demonstrated to keep the flag. I was among them at first but started having my doubts when the KKK showed up in support and now feel odd that 18 years ago I was enthusiastically waving around a confederate flag at football games. Also the band regularly played "Dixie" in substitute for the official fight song, and there was a spirit squad called "Johnny Rebs". The drill team were "Dixie Belles". I believe this is the last school in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and possibly the last school in Texas to use the confederate flag. I'm typing this in the discussion section because I don't currently have references to back this up and am not sure I can compose something encyclopedic-sounding. A couple of other things possibly worth mentioning are construction add-ons like the new front and cafeteria in 1989-1990 and closing of the campus (students not allowed to leave for lunch) sometime in the 90's. There was a school shooting in 1984 or 1985 I believe. Some famous graduates include the voice of Barney the dinosaur (class of 1988), Kelley Blackwell pro footbal player (class of 1988) and a country singer whose name I'm forgetting at the moment. If I can scare up some references or type something worthy of Wikipedia I'll give it a shot; otherwise I'll encourage other classmates to give it a try as they find my new Class of 1988 site. - Jim Nelson, RHS Class of 1988