Vestavia Hills High School
Vestavia Hills High School (VHHS), founded in 1970, is a public high school in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, USA. It is part of the Vestavia Hills City Schools. History The land was acquired by Louis Pizitz, a Polish immigrant who settled in Birmingham in 1889. Pizitz lived here with his wife, Minnie and their son, Hortense. After their death, their son Hortense sold the land to the City of Vestavia Hills in the 1960s. The school was built in the 1970s, in the context of the establishment of segregation academies in the 1970s, which enabled white children to segregate themselves from black children, who remained in public schools. Until 2016 the school mascot, known as Rebel Man, was a plantation owner. The school "picked a Confederate Flag-waving Civil War Rebel because it saw itself as rebellious." In the wake of the Charleston church shooting in June 2015, The Birmingham News highlighted this history and called for a removal of the mascot. Meanwhile, the school superintendent called it 'a "point of contention for some members" of the community'. By early July 2015, some Vestavia Hills residents wrote an op-ed in The Birmingham News calling on the school