Hollywood High School: Latino Population Dominates Student Body (PHOTOS)

The faces may change, but the surrounding stays the same at Hollywood High School.

The Los Angeles school, known as Hollywood High, has educated some of the late -- and current -- greats in the entertainment industry. But today, a vast majority of the student body is composed of Latinos.

According to a Los Angeles Unified School District report, 1,216 Hispanic students out of 1,716 students attended Hollywood High during the 2009-2010 school year. This ratio is actually down from past years in which Latino students encompassed 71.1 (2008-09), 75.1 (2007-08) and 73.9 percent (2006-07) of the school.

School officials chalk this up to the transformation of the surrounding area, since waves of immigration have flooded nearby neighborhoods over the past 30 years, CNN reports.

Yet, despite the change in diversity, the memory of Hollywood High remains very much the same.

See the slideshow below for a look back at Hollywood High and the stars who once matriculated there.

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[Eddie Martinez]

10:57 AM on 02/23/2012

Hollywood High: great story-great mural!

[Luis Rojas]

12:51 AM on 02/23/2012

Whats the point of your articles, Sara Gates? I dont see how this pertains to any value to the Latino community. Is it to insight comments like the ones below of people who believe people from my background are inferior to them? This one and the one about the Nicaraguan are just to stir peoples emotions.

[sibyl9]

02:19 PM on 02/23/2012

The purpose of this article is to brag about how the latino population, courtesy of unfettered illegal immigration, is taking over our country and in particular, the LA area. Unforturnately, this demographic shift has had a very negative effect on our public education system here as the posters below have pointed out. You will notice similar dismal stats on most LAUSD school websites as well as other surrounding school districts where the latinos dominate.

[TarzanaGirl]

06:18 AM on 02/24/2012

It's so sad, but I have to agree with you siby. During the years I was a K-12 student in California (a bit more than a generation ago), California schools ranked at the top when compared to other school districts. Now we're near the very bottom! During my university years, I worked with junior and senior high students, both as a Counseling Intern and Substitute Teacher. The population I was working with made the environment seem more like a juvenile detention center - i.e. locked down campuses, security guards, students who would miss weeks or months at a time, students who talked back and swore at their teachers, parents not showing up for important meetings - overall, a complete disrespect for our education system. It's as if these students had never been in a public school in their lifetime!!! Teachers have it HARD these days, and I feel BAD for them - i.e. having to deal with students who can't understand them because they don't speak English and parents who don't see education as a major priority. And Congress is blaming teachers for what has happened to the system?!

Many of the 'regular' teachers I worked with told me how much they hated their jobs, felt exhausted all the time, felt more like babysitters than educators, and were so fed up they were thinking of quitting. This is NOT the California school system that I grew up in. The future of our country is not looking good ...

[mira chancleta]

12:49 AM on 02/23/2012

I'd say it's time to rename it....Hollywood Titanic Memorial High School...the metaphor just begs...

[Elecktra001]

08:30 PM on 02/22/2012

Hollywood High most recent CAHSEE stats by demographic group according to their school report card:

Hispanic/Latino: ELA - Not Proficient - 68.5%
Math - Not Proficient - 71.2%

The only CST(California Standards Test) scores available reflect 2007-2008 and they are equally as dismal. Obviously, this "transformation" does not reflect progress.

[Kurfco]

09:50 PM on 02/22/2012

If you want to really rub it in, check out what proportion of the students graduate and what proportion of the "graduates" come out having taken and passed the "A through G" requirements minimally required to even apply to a four year college. I doubt it's even 15%. This school, like so many others in Socal, has been "transformed", you bet!

[El Chingaso]

03:36 PM on 02/23/2012

How convenient that such quantitative realities (or "horrors") were -- ahem -- omitted from the...article.

[UKLLee]

07:45 PM on 02/22/2012

We should start taxing mexico to pay for all the illegal immigrants we're supporting in california.