Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/South Lakes High School

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was speedy keep. withdrawn by nom. tedder (talk) 07:18, 21 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

South Lakes High School[edit]

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It does not meet the guidelines for notability set forth in WP: Notability. It has never been featured beyond local publications and has never. for example, been on the U.S News Top Schools list. I feel a perfect example of what I am referring to can be found on the Article's talk page, where a student or alumni refers to how humorous stories from a teacher should be added to the article. According to Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies) an article must be written about in Secondary sources not sponsored by the organization itself. A quick search on Google indicates that there has been no major articles in credible secondary sources about the School. Therefore, I believe it is a candidate for deletion. 226Trident (talk) 04:21, 21 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Keep and improve. Secondary schools are inherently notable, in my opinion. --Baron Larf 04:56, 21 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It does not meet the guidelines for notability of a school. In my opinion, Secondary Schools are not inherently notable, unless they have extensive media coverage. The article has little use, anyways. Anyone who wants information about the school goes to its website. The Wikipedia page is not even on the first two pages of the Google search, so it is not even a source of information that people use.226Trident (talk) 05:42, 21 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Keep I can't remember the last time an American high school article was deleted. The school has received ample coverage in DC-area sources [1], and there's no rule that says non-local sources are necessary. Several notable people went there, like Grant Hill: [2].

I do not believe that Notable Alumni would affect the notability of the actual school. In addition, most of the local coverage is sports coverage. 226Trident (talk) 06:01, 21 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Note: While I do not believe that schools need to pass a secondary source bar to be kept, here are some sources which may be considered "credible secondary sources."

Washington Post article about its redistricting;
New York Times article about the track team winning a multi-state relay invitational;
New York Times article about its Soviet/US exchange program;
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article about Jesse Jackson anti-drinking & drug speech there;
A mention in the Eugene Register-Guard about some NBA player named Grant Hill going to school there;
Free Lance-Star (Fredricksburg, VA) article about measures to protect gay students in 1992;
New York Times article about that Grant Hill guy going to school there;
NY Times article South Lakes student running fastest mile ever by a U.S. sophomore; NY Daily News article on same student; CNN article on same student; (also Chicago Tribune, San Diego Union, Newsday, et al.);
USA Track & Field article about coach being named Nike U.S. coach of the Year;
USA Today article about school homecoming postponed because of D.C. sniper;
Washington Post article about school musical;
WTOP-TV article about law suit parents filed against school to stop redistricting. Et cetera. --Baron Larf 06:04, 21 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes it has media coverage, so I was wrong about that. However,a lot of these articles are either old (which does not lower the reference's credibility} or about redistricting (which does not lower the quality of the reference either). But comparing your media coverage with the Article on Wikipedia, I notice that there is not a mention of any of these achievements or controversy's. They certainly did not mention redistricting. I do agree however, that there is media coverage of the school.226Trident (talk) 06:13, 21 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It is true that the article needs to be better referenced (and I plan to help fix that). But I do not believe deletion is the answer for an article in need of improvement. And true, some of those articles are "old", as in from 8 to 20 years ago... but how does that affect notability? Is the bar for notability higher if the important stuff happened a long time ago? Cheers, --Baron Larf 06:24, 21 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Schools-related deletion discussions. -- —SpacemanSpiff 06:33, 21 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Keep I do not believe that all secondary schools are notable and such thinking generally damages the purposes of our notability standards. On the other hand, most schools are notable and this one has been shown to be through its mention in third-party sources. Them From Space 06:37, 21 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Keep this appears to be plenty notable as far as schools can go. JBsupreme (talk) 06:38, 21 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Keep I guess y'all are right. This article is notable enough, and with cleanup, it should meet the standards.226Trident (talk) 06:41, 21 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.