La Serna High School was founded in 1961. The school has been a California Distinguished School four times, in 1990, 1996, 2003, and 2009.
Students and student life
At La Serna High School, every senior is required to complete the Senior Project in order to graduate high school.
Link Crew
was a system implemented in 2005 that was aimed at helping incoming freshman students acclimate to the high school environment by having junior and senior peer mentors help them through their first year in the Whittier Union High School District.
Model United Nations was founded in the 2015–2016 school year. The Model United Nation's team attends an annual average of six conferences and one travel conference. In 2016, La Serna's MUN team competed at the UC Berkeley MUN conference.
''The Freelancer''
The Freelancer is the name of La Serna High School's newspaper, which releases one issue each month during the regular school year. The Freelancer is created and written by the students, who also allow feedback mail to which they respond. One teacher oversees the production of each newspaper per year. In 2006, English teacher Holly Vance was demoted from her position as the adviser of the newspaper's production, due to the controversial issue on May 10, 2006, entitled "The 'S' Word", which discussed sex amongst teenagers. Also due to this, the final edition of the year, for the month of June, was banned. The student body was unsuccessful in overturning this decision. The Freelancer was revived during the 2014–2015 school year under the supervision of English teacher Gina Alexander.
''The Pennon''
La Serna High School's yearbook is called The Pennon, which is created by the Annual Staff and a teacher adviser.
Athletics
La Serna High has a large athletics program. Their sports include football, track and field, cross country, soccer, volleyball, baseball, softball, tennis, wrestling, swimming, basketball and Marching Band. Boys' football, boys' and girls' cross country, boys' and girls' marching band, boys' water polo, and girls' volleyball are held in the autumn; boys' and girls' basketball and soccer are held in the winter; and boys' baseball, tennis, and girls' softball, boys' and girls' swimming, and boys' and girls' track and field are held in the spring every school year. The 1967 La Serna Lancer Football team were CIF AAA Champions led by Coach Harry Robinson, beating the heavily favored Temple City Rams 33-7 in the CIF Championship game. The varsity football program were the 2013 CIF Southern Division champions in the southern section, with Frankie Palmer's winning touchdown in a double overtime against Norwalk High School. The Boys' Water Polo program were CIF Division V Southern Section champions in 2010 and Division III champions in 2017.
