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Beverly Hills High School (usually abbreviated as "Beverly") is the only public high school in Beverly Hills, California . Beverly is part of the Beverly Hills Unified School District and is located on the west side of Beverly Hills, at the border of the Century City area of Los Angeles . Beverly Hills High School was founded in 1927 . Over 2,000 students currently attend the school. About 35% of Beverly's current student body were not born in the United States , and over half of Beverly's students speak a first language other than English . Many of these students are from Iran , or are of Iranian descent. There are also many students from South Korea , Israel , and Russia , as well as from many other countries and language backgrounds. ACADEMICS Beverly Hills High School has on numerous occasions won the Blue Ribbon award for its excellence. Furthermore, BHHS has two award winning news services: KBEV , the first student TV news broadcast channel in the nation as well as the longest running one (run by Romeo Carey ), and ''Highlights'', the school's newspaper, which has also won various awards for its reporting and writing. Beverly Hills High School also has an award winning US FIRST Robotics Team that made it to the US First Nationals in Atlanta by winning the Rookie All-Star Award at the Los Angeles Regionals. ATHLETICS
BEVERLY HILLS HIGH SCHOOL IN THE MEDIA For a high school, Beverly Hills High School has a high-profile public image. The media usually portrays Beverly's student body as absurdly affluent. For example, in the film version of '' The Beverly Hillbillies '', the high school had robots serving gourmet coffee to the students in the hallway. Beverly and the Beverly Hills School District speak highly of Beverly's academic reputation but downplay the affluence of the student body. Although it is true that the media exaggerates the school's affluence, it is also true that Beverly's student body is quite affluent. The school has more parking spaces than the average high school, with three parking lots, one of which is an indoor two-level parking lot. Because so many students drive cars to school, Beverly is perhaps the only public high school in the US that charges students hundreds of dollars a year for a parking permit. The school has a very expensive senior prom, which used to be at the luxurious Beverly Hilton Hotel. Now Beverly has its senior prom in backlot of Sony Pictures Studios . Beverly has been featured in the movies '' Clueless '', '' Real Women Have Curves '', and '' It's A Wonderful Life ''. ''It's a Wonderful Life'' featured a scene in Beverly's unique swim gym, perhaps the only swim gym that has a basketball court that can split open to reveal an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Built in the 1930s as a New Deal project, Beverly's swim gym can be used for volleyball, basketball, water polo, swimming, and for general physical education. "West Beverly Hills High School" Beverly gained some unwanted notoriety during the 1990s because of the popularity of the television drama '' Beverly Hills 90210 ''. Aaron Spelling , the producer of the series, initially wanted to call the show "Beverly Hills High School" and wanted to film the program on campus. The Beverly Hills School Board refused to let Spelling film at Beverly or use "Beverly Hills High School" as a title for the show. Spelling then created a fictional high school, "West Beverly Hills High School" (or "West Beverly"), and the show was filmed at North High School , in Torrance, CA. "West Beverly" is an obvious reference to Beverly Hills High School as Beverly's campus is further west than any other part of Beverly Hills. It is common for tourists to visit Beverly, believing beforehand that it will be the same campus as fictional West Beverly High School. PERFORMING ARTS Beverly Hills High School is well known for its performing arts. The department has a choir, band, orchestra, and theater department. The choir consists of three groups: the Concert Choir, Minnesingers, and Madrigals. The Concert Choir is a beginning choir group that any student can join. Minnesingers are a group of intermediate singers, composed entirely of girls who must audition before joining the group. Both boys and girls can audition to join the Madrigals, the most advanced and selective choral group at Beverly. The Minnesingers are currently under the direction of Joel Pressman. The Band is another well-known group in the performing arts department. This group is reserved for students who play woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments. The band is broken down into two groups: one is the regular band for students who are still developing their musical skills. Any student can be a part of the regular band if they play a musical instrument. The second group is the Symphonic Band, whose members play more difficult and challenging music. This group is open to anyone who qualifies through an audition. This group is nearly half the size of the regular band. The entire band is currently under the direction of Richard Farmer. From September to early November, the entire band, including regular band and symphonic band, play as the marching band and accompany the football team to most of their away games. The marching band is well known throughout Beverly Hills as they perform in many community events. This group also travels to Disneyland almost every year where they march down Main Street playing " It's A Small World ." OIL WELL Beverly is perhaps the only public high school in the country with an oil well on its campus. Owned by the Venoco Oil Company, the well can be easily seen by any car driving by Beverly on Olymic Boulevard on the way to Century City . The oil well has drilled most the oil out of Beverly's campus, and has been slant drilling under many homes and apartment buildings in Beverly Hills for decades. In the mid-1990s, an art studio volunteered to cover the well with individual tiles that had been painted by kids with cancer. The studio created the design and drew the lines on the tiles, but children painted the tiles in between the lines. The studio made the design rather abstract: the design consists of random shapes on different-colored backgrounds. Not everyone likes the design, but nearly everyone thinks it is better than the solid gray color the well used to be. A ceremony inaugurating the design was held in 2001. The Project name was called "Project 9856." Beverly gained more notoriety when Erin Brockovich and Ed Masry filed three lawsuits in 2003 and 2004 on behalf of 25, 400, and 300 (respectively) former students who attended Beverly from the 1970s until the 1990s. The lawsuits claim that toxic fumes from the oil well caused the former students to develop Hodgkin's Lymphoma or Cancer . The oil well is very close to all of Beverly's sports facilities, including the soccer field, the football field, and the racetrack. Nearly all Beverly stundents, not just the athletes but any student taking a required physical education class from the 1970s until the 1990s were required to run near the oil well. Masry claims that Beverly Hills High School's cancer rate is 20 to 30 times the national average. The city, the school district, and the oil companies named as plaintiffs dispute this assertion, claiming that they have conducted air quality tests with results showing that air quality is normal at the high school. {Link without Title} {Link without Title} NOTABLE ALUMNI BHHS has a number of famous alumni, many of whom are well-known entertainers or the children of entertainers or of other celebrities. In addition, many famous people have taught at the school; soap opera actor John Ingle taught the drama and acting program at the school for twenty years. EXTERNAL LINKS
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