Ballou High School was founded in the early 1960s to serve residents in the Southeast part of Washington, DC to include
Congress Heights,
Washington Highlands, and
Bellevue. The school was named for Frank Washington Ballou, the D.C. public schools superintendent from 1920 to 1943. In 1998, author
Ron Suskind published the book "
A Hope in the Unseen" about a Ballou High School student named Cedric Jennings. The book was based on a series of Pulitzer-prize winning articles written in
The Wall Street Journal by Suskind. The story follows Jennings's efforts to attend an
Ivy League university despite his troubled upbringing. In 2003,
mercury spread throughout the school, causing its closure for several weeks and the redirection of
students and staff to nearby educational facilities. On February 2, 2004, 19-year-old Thomas J. Boykin fatally shot 17-year-old James Richardson. Boykin was later acquitted on the charge of murder. NBC4 News reported another shooting on August 26, 2008, of a 16-year-old just off the campus grounds resulting in a lock-down of the campus. In 2008, director Michael Patrei, released a documentary
Ballou about the Ballou High School Marching Band that aired on
BET. during Fall 2009. From August 2016 to May 2017 about 25% of the staff left the school; this occurred as almost 200 DCPS teachers left their jobs.
Controversy In February 1977, six employees from the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began tutoring Ballou students in computer technology,
photogrammetry, and photo science. Parents, teachers, and lawmakers expressed concerns about privacy and student recruitment after learning of the program months after it had already begun. The CIA denied that they were recruiting or violating privacy within the school. == Admissions ==