Southland Academy is a private, co-educational, non-sectarian Christian college preparatory day school in Americus, Georgia, United States. It enrolls over 600 students in grades K through 12, covering ages 4 through 19. It was founded in 1967 as a segregation academy.
History
Southland Academy was founded in 1966 as a private school in response to the desegregation of Georgia public schools. In 1979 the public school board declared many of the district's buses, books and materials to be "surplus", then sold them to Southland at low prices. The effect of this caused financial hardships for the public schools, thereby promoting the academy. The first classes began in the old Anthony School building on Anthony Drive. In 1970, Southland moved to its current location at 123 Southland Road. It was reported in 1979 that most white parents in the area sent their children to Southland rather than the local public school system, which at the time was 80% black and the subject of boycotts and criticism over alleged neglect and underfunding. One businessman said he would "dig ditches" to earn money to pay tuition at Southland Academy and avoid sending his children to racially integrated public school. As of the mid 1980s, the Sumter County School District board was all white. School superintendent Ronnie Satterfield and several other board members sent their children to Southland Academy instead of the predominantly black public schools.. US president Jimmy Carter referred to the situation as a "disgrace to our state." Melvin T. Kinslow, the school's headmaster from 1971 to 1996, in May 2008 attacked suggestions in the local press that Southland was in any way a "segregated" school, noting that it "has a very diverse population with students attending or having attended from Korea, India, China, Germany and France... Southland has black students who have graduated, and others who will graduate in the near future."
Demographics
In 1985, Sumter County was 43% black, but not a single black student was enrolled in Southland Academy. Southland's racial demographics do not reflect the ethnic makeup of the town of Americus, which is 39.1% White and 58.3% African American, according to the 2000 Census. As of 2006, Southland Academy's student population is 1% African American, 1% Hispanic, 2% American Indian, and 96% Caucasian. In the 2015–16 school year, 3 of 510 students were black.
Campus
The campus comprises. The main buildings are a 4K building and a 5K building; elementary, junior high and high school buildings; the Charles F. Crisp Media and Technology Center; the Jane L. Comer Music Room; the Melvin T. Kinslow gymnatorium; a lower-school gymnasium; an Academic Center; and a cafeteria. The two-story gymnatorium, now renovated, has a performance stage and a new lobby area.
The school states that it aims to provide students with a Christian atmosphere conducive to learning and good citizenship. Activities are said to be designed to enable the student to analyze problems, perform before his peers, and achieve distinction as an individual. Outside the classroom, opportunities are offered in club work, athletics, music, and oratory so as to provide a well-rounded and complete education, according to the school's handbook. A tradition at the school is the annual pageant at which the Miss Southland Academy Raider, better known as Miss SAR, is crowned. The pageant was started in 1989 by "Mothers of Motivated Students," now part of Southland's parent-teacher organization. Its purpose is to generate funds for the Thomas A. Greene Scholarship Fund, which helps Southland students in financial need. Funds also go to the new Madeline Anne Wildes Scholarship Fund. All students must sign the Southland Academy Honor Code against cheating, lying, stealing, and plagiarism. Southland Academy's discipline policy allows corporal punishment by means of paddling for all boys and young men up to and including grade 12, and for girls up to and including grade 5. Either the headmaster or the assistant headmaster is present at all paddlings. The school reserves the right to administer corporal punishment as a first line of punishment for acts of misconduct. In appropriate cases, parents may be notified afterwards. Other discipline management techniques include after-school detention and Saturday work detail. For serious infractions, the student may be suspended. Southland Academy requires students to follow a strict dress code. Random drug testing is carried out on all students in grades 9 through 12.
