The Indiana General Assembly passed the Indiana School Reorganization Act of 1959, which required school districts with fewer than 2,000 students to consolidate with nearby districts. This resulted in the three Allen Countytownships of Lake, Eel River and Perry combining into Northwest Allen County Schools (NACS). At that time, high schools existed in Arcola and Huntertown. The NACS school board voted to combine the two high schools in 1967 into a single newly built school south of Huntertown.[2] The new high school, which opened in 1969, was named after Carroll Road, a rural arterial road that connects U.S. Route 33 and State Road 3 in northern Allen County.
Farmland to suburban boom
Booming enrollment from the suburban sprawl of nearby Fort Wayne into Perry Township caused NACS to build Carroll Middle School (CMS) adjacent to the main high school in 1984. By the fall of 2004 as enrollment continued to increase, the school district built other middle schools (including a new Carroll Middle School), and the old CMS was absorbed into Carroll High School as its "freshman campus."[2]
Play Cancellation Controversy
In February 2023, Carroll High School administrators approved the teen version of a play titled “Marian, Or The True Tale of Robin Hood” for Carroll High School’s spring play performance.[3] The play, written by playwright Adam Szymkowicz and published in 2017, features a nonbinary character and a gay couple.[4]
On February 24, after two days of auditions, Carroll High School principal Cleve Million canceled the production of the play.[3]
An online petition on Change.org asking for the cancelation to be reversed was started by an anonymous user after the play’s cancellation. The petition originally aimed for 250 signatures but ultimately received 5,613 signatures.[4]
Reasons for the play being canceled vary. The petition alleges that the play was canceled because “some adults and parents within the NACS community caught wind of the play's contents and began calling the administration in protest, some using threatening tones.”[3] The petition also claims that the play was canceled due to "safety concerns for the students involved.”[3]
However, Northwest Allen County Schools superintendent Wayne Barker said in a statement to Playbill.com that Million “was concerned about the disruption that was being caused between students who wanted to participate in the play.”[3] Barker also stated that no “parental complaints or threats” were made against students.[3]
On February 27, at a Northwest Allen County Schools' board meeting, several community members spoke against the play’s cancellation. However, Barker and the Northwest Allen County School Board upheld the decision to cancel the play.[5]
The play was put on independently in partnership with Fort Wayne Pride Inc. after raising almost $85,000 from a GoFundMe campaign that originally asked for $50,000.[4] The play was performed at the Foellinger Theater on May 20 to a sold-out crowd of 1,500 people.[6]
General information
The school opened in 1969 and constructed additions to the facility in 1992 and 1996. A freshman campus was created in 2005.
In June 2022, a student named Owen Scheele was entering his senior year and was poised to play starting quarterback for the football team. Owen endured a brief battle with chronic myeloid leukemia which took his life at the age of 17.[9] The tragedy was adopted into a short film directed by Carroll alumnus Grant Giszewski titled "For Owen: A Football Story," which premiered on November 24, 2023 at Carroll High School and was released publicly on YouTube the following day. The film summarizes the story of his upbringing and the football team's 13-0 run to the state championship in the following season. The team lost to Center Grove High School at Lucas Oil Stadium on November 25, 2022 by a score of 35-9.
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