Oyster River High School

55 Coe Drive

School District

Oyster River Coop
Grade

9-12
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:13
Type

public

School Map for Oyster River Coop School District

GreatSchools Rating

The school rating calculation is based on four ratings: the Student Progress Rating or Academic Progress Rating, College Readiness Rating, Equity Rating, and Test Score Rating each designed to show different facets of school success. Learn more about GreatSchools Ratings

Reviews

Submitted by parent on August 08, 2024

Never ever choose Oyster River unless you want to risk your children getting bullied to death -- figuratively AND LITERALLY. This school is quite tolerant of bullying, ranging from name-calling, malicious gossip, stealing to physical assault. Namely, ORHS has been witness to violent incidents caused by bullies that have brought on long-lasting health issues to the victims in addition to severe injuries that could've been FATAL. This is usually the consequence of negligent supervision. The administration has no sense of responsibility either. They'll make excuses to say the victim was the instigator instead of the bully, who gets nothing more than a slap on the wrist for sending an innocent student to the emergency room by physical assault. They are generally very preferential in their treatment of students and never take any serious measures to make sure that bullies don't threaten the safety of others. If you discuss this issue with the school they'll just be your new bullies and persecute and harass you until you either yield to them or leave the school. It's also a predominantly white and cliquey school where discrimination against minorities is quite common, so certain students who are POC or LGBT are in no position to thrive here. We seem to be in need of law enforcement patrolling throughout the campus. However, there already have been incidents of bullying and violence that were reported to the police and unfortunately for some reason they didn't bother to help either. In the past 5-10 years, a number of students have left this school mainly due to bullying.
Submitted by parent on November 03, 2022

Regardless of how many times parents and students have complained to the school about bullying, no progress is ever made. It’s very disappointing that the school claims to stand against bullying but never lives up to the ideals they teach. The bullying in Oyster River has only been exacerbating, especially since the now-Assistant Superintendent came to the ORHS community as principal. Over these years, we’ve seen a multitude of grave repercussions due to the administration’s neglect of ensuring the safety and well-being of the students, including a student taking their own life and another incident in which a student got a serious concussion from being assaulted by a bully in the cafeteria. Even worse, the school often mishandles the situation and imposes heavier penalties to the victim than the provoker, giving way to bullies causing further harm, and destroys all evidence of the incident to hide their incompetence as authorities. The fact that Oyster River is still a highly ranked school in the state is absurd. It is necessary that the Assistant Superintendent of the school district be removed from her position, in the interest of the students' safety.
Submitted by parent on July 05, 2022

Many teachers contribute to putting students’ mental health at risk by assigning at least 3 to 4 hours of homework every day. Parents and students have repeatedly addressed this issue to the school, but always fall on deaf ears. Adults use the excuse that students aren’t working hard enough. Furthermore, the school has mislabeled some students as having learning disabilities and inappropriately placed them in special education or the 504 Plan. Students in these programs who do need assistance receive little to no support from the school.Bullying is also widespread in this school. Over the past several years, ORHS has seen a major increase in bullying incidents that have resulted in endangerment or students getting severely injured. These incidents all could have been prevented had the administration been responsible. Bomb threat cases in ORHS have risen throughout the years as well.Not only are the administrators irresponsible in dealing with this critical problem, but they brazenly play favorites as well. Some students get away with breaking things or causing harm or injury to others, while the victims of the bullies are often unnecessarily punished. The administration has also managed to cover up many bullying incidents or issues to protect their reputation. Many of the adults may not appreciate you no matter how good of a student you are or how well you behave.
Submitted by parent on December 18, 2021

I have lived in Durham for 23 years and raised 2 children. There is not a better school system in the country. I can live anywhere I want but chose this cute little town for its schools.
Submitted by student on January 07, 2021

The teachers themselves are very good, but they alone can only do so much. Unless you're the student that shows the most potential, you're put on the back burner, and coming from experience, its a very very tough ride. I was placed on the state's 504 Program, and received none of the schools support throughout the 4 years I've attended. It was very obvious which teachers went above and beyond to help me as a student, and which ones followed the basic standards set by the school. In the handful of times I reached out for help when I was truly struggling, I was always made out to seem as the bad guy. "More effort into work is needed" was the common excuse, as though 40 hours a week of school work wasn't enough. I had to cut back hours on my winter job, so I could spend more time trying to manage the mountain of school work I was consistently assigned.
Submitted by parent on December 10, 2019

ORHS does an amazing job at transitioning Freshman into their freshman year. Staff, Administration and Faculty genuinely care about the students. Complaints I have heard are usually isolated incidents that are blown out of proportion, it's HS - it happens. Severe issues are dealt with swiftly and confidentially. Communication is strong point from the administration. Parents know what is going on, if they read their email and stay involved. This is a public school and you get out of it what you put into it. Students are treated with respect and given independence. Parents shouldn't move to Oyster River and expect the school to raise your children - if you are looking for that - go to a private school.
Submitted by other on December 10, 2016

Are the academics at this school some of the best? yes. However a lot of kids at Oyster River can be judgmental to those who aren't "the perfect Oyster River type". Since Oyster River is known to be one of the top ranked schools in the state, there is a pressure within the school (from administration too) for kids to always be perfect and to go off to college after graduation. While I myself did decide to go to college, something that I hated about this school was how people pretended to be accepting and diversity just to make them look good, only to be extremely judgmental. Oyster River cares more about its reputation than how all its students are treated. More than once I witnessed the school trying to cover up problems within the school for their image.
Submitted by parent on March 13, 2014

This is a great school. The teachers are very nice. In 2013, some students were admitted by MIT, Princeton, Cal Tech, Cornell, UC Berkeley.