East Jefferson High School

Story

East Jefferson High School is a public high school located in Metairie in unincorporated Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States. It serves portions of Metairie and Kenner. East Jefferson High School was built in 1955 in a residential neighborhood. The school serves grades 9–12. It is a part of the Jefferson Parish Public Schools system.Gender Segregation and Platoon YearsBeginning in 1966, East Jefferson was a boys-only school for grades 10 to 12, with various junior highs supporting grades 7 to 9. In 1968, a new girls-only high school, Grace King High School, was built but no new school for boys. By 1970, the school's attendance swelled to over 2000 boys and forced a two-shift "platoon" system to be implemented. Under the "A.M. & P.M." platoon shifts, the first classes went to school from 7 A.M. until noon, and the second shift went from 1 P.M. to 6 P.M. (the school cafeteria was converted to a library). In 1973, the school board began building a new all-male school near Kenner, called Alfred T. Bonnabel High. Even though it would not be completed until 2 years later, they decided to call the East Jefferson morning shift “Bonnabel” and the afternoon shift “East Jefferson”. The following year the two shifts flip-flopped. For the third year, the students who had been using the name “Bonnabel” moved into their new buildings, just north of I-10 near Power Blvd. All Jefferson Parish high schools returned to co-ed status in the early 1980s.