Woodland Hills High School Tour

PITTSBURGH (NewsRadio 1020 KDKA) - KDKA Radio host Mike Pintek travels to different high schools around the area to interact with students. On Thursday, he was joined by Woodland Hills High School students and many of the faculty members.

Woodland Hills Superintendent Alan Johnson joined Mike throughout the show to discuss just how special and responsible his students are. He talked how successful they are as they move forward after their high school career.

"Ninety-four percent of our students go off to an institution after high school; 84% to a four-year or two-year school," said Johnson. "Ten percent will go to an alternative school and three percent will join the military."

The school has many extracurricular activities for their students to participate in, including journalism, radio, television, mock trial, choir, theater, athletics, peer-tutoring and more! The school even offers their students a college and career readiness center, which is known as the College Access Center.

The center offers students help with scholarships, college visits, group tours to colleges, peer tutoring, and  SAT/ACT prep work. All of these activities are facilitated by teachers who have dedicated their time to helping their students succeed after high school.

"When I made the transition between Catholic school to public school I was fearful at first," said a female student. "But when I came in to Woodland Hills on that first day, I knew I had made the right choice."

Before Mike went to the high school, he had many people remark about how he should "be safe" or "take care." He believes they were insinuating that the school is full of misbehaving kids.

Outsiders see a school with metal detectors to be full of dangerous kids, instead of appreciating the extra precaution that school is taking to keep their students safe. Some students would say that the metal detectors could encourage fights to break out, but others feel more safe with policemen and detectors in their school.

"We aren't a bad school, it's from our schools history that continues to give us a bad name," said a female student. "It's a segregation-thing that people believe happens here, but it doesn't."

"So much good goes on here, there are no facts to the stereotype we have," said a female student. "I feel very safe and extremely well-educated here."

Pintek was able to change that stereotype by interacting with the most enthusiastic and well-spoken students of Woodland Hills High School. His mind has changed and he hopes that his listeners will reconsider their preconceived notions about these students.

"I know my opinion has been changed dramatically," said Pintek.

Pictures from the Woodland Hills broadcast are located here.