The district, and therefore the school, serves most of DeSoto and the Dallas County portion of Glenn Heights, and a portion of Ovilla in Dallas County, as well as a small portion of Cedar Hill.[3]
From 1956 to 1962, DeSoto High School was located at 200 East Belt Line Road. In 1962, a new campus opened at 601 East Belt Line Road (present-day DeSoto East Junior High). As the district continued to grow, voters approved a $7.5 million bond by a vote of 445–366 in 1973 that contained a provision for the construction of a new high school.
On February 15, 1974, a groundbreaking ceremony took place at the new site, 600 Eagle Drive. The building contract was awarded to Central Texas Construction of Terrell at a cost of approximately $3,100,000. The school opened on August 16, 1976.
To relieve overcrowding, an adjoining Freshman Campus opened in 1997 to serve the district's ninth graders.
In 2011 The Dallas Morning News reported that the school "had a lower-than-expected college readiness percentage."[4] In 2011, the district built additions to improve the school's college and career academies.[4] The State of Texas defined "college readiness," or readiness to undergo university studies, by scores on the ACT, SAT, and 11th grade Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) tests.
DeSoto High offers International Baccalaureate, early college, and academic magnet programs to better serve the academic needs of its high-achieving students preparing to attend college.[5]
In the 2014–2015 school year, DeSoto High had a total of 2,238 students in grades 10-12 (82% African American, 3% White, 14% Hispanic, 0.2% Asian, and 0.2% Native American).
The DeSoto Baseball team won State Championships in 1979 and 1985.[7]
The Lady Eagle track and field team won a State Championship in 2007 followed by three consecutive State Championships in 2011, 2012, and 2013. They also won 5 straight titles in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021 bringing their total to 9 State Championships.[8]
The Eagle Boys' Track and Field team won State Titles in 2012 and 2016.[7]
The Boys' Basketball team won the Texas 5A State Championship in 2003 and 2009.[9] In 2016, the boys' team won the 6A State Championship, upsetting #1 ranked Atacostia High 73–54.[10]
In 2016, the Varsity Football team won the 6A Division II State Championship in the AT&T Stadium. This was the first State Football Championship in school history. DeSoto won the State Championship again in 2022.[11]
In 2021, the Varsity Girls Basketball team won the Texas 6A State Championship over an undefeated Cypress Creek High School (Texas). This was the first Girls State Basketball Championship in school history. In 2022, the Girls Basketball team would win a repeat championship title bringing their total to two state titles.[12]
For decades, DeSoto High has maintained a popular rivalry against their regional foe the Cedar Hill High School Longhorns. The rivalry has been deemed the "Battle of Belt Line".[13] DeSoto has an even longer rivalry with Duncanville High School.[14]
The earliest DHS rivalry was with Lancaster High School, DeSoto on the West and Lancaster to the East of Interstate 35. Pranks against each other in the 70's-80's included: Live goats tied to front door of school, and paint dumped atop the bronze eagle statue that sits in front of the building.[citation needed]
In January 2005, the school district was investigated by the press for its questionable hiring of an outside "gang consultant". The investigation focused on whether the district truly had a "gang problem" (the local police chief said it did not), or whether the consultant was creating the "problem", since the consultant stood to gain a sizeable contract if in fact a problem existed. The result is that there was no real gang problem, and the consultant's contract was terminated.
The unique feature of the investigation was that none of the media outlets in the Dallas area had anything to do with it. The investigation was performed solely by the Eagle Eye, the DHS student newspaper. For their role in the story, four members of the newspaper staff received the Courage in Student Journalism Award for their work; the student advisor received the educator's version of the award. Both awards came with $5,000 prizes.[16]
This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations.(January 2022)
