441 Fairview Ave #3
Arcadia, CA 91007

Arcadia high school is a relatively good public school with an adequate amount of resources that prepares high school students for college. However, there seems to be this toxic culture in this school. As someone who moved to Arcadia from China (which is normal due to high amount of Asian population in this community), I felt like I was never able to mix in this school. Half of school population is either Chinese or Taiwanese descendants, but apparently these Asian American students looked down on students like me who are recent immigrants and speak English with an unavoidable accent. Arcadia is a community that receives a vast amount of immigration due to its location in Los Angeles. However, I never felt welcomed in this school. I rarely met anyone who is willing to my friend or listen to my stories. High school students create hierarchical social ladders in their community, and I was unwillingly dumped at the bottom of the food chain. This puts me to disadvantage in club activities and extracurriculars (which are important for college application) because people don't even bother to socialize with me. I eventually made some friends after reinventing myself, which was a complete blood bath. Arcadia High school is a place that someone people went for 4 years and felt like they never belonged. I believe a lot of alums share the same feelings as me. Their microagressive condescendence to recent immigrants from China stems from school to the town itself. This unwelcoming culture to outsiders is truly suffocating!

this school is honestly horrible. it’s so strict that it’s almost impossible for neurodivergent people to learn anything. i faced horrible fatphobia from the kids and the staff would do nothing about it. many teachers have obvious favorites and the workload is huge. i hated this school so so much when i attended and i hope i never set foot in it again

Two major problems with this school, the slow pace of academics and underwhelming staff reaction to bullying. The amount of academics learned in one 6 hour day of school could be done in 30-60 mins at home. Then there is so much review at the beginning of each school year. They’re doing the the previous grade level until Halloween. Next is the bullying. I have seen and heard about several bullies int eh school from friends and as I volunteer at Holly, but no plan of action was called on the bully or to the parents of the bully. The bullies continued to bully since there were no consequences from the school or their parents. In a couple of occasions the bullies parents weren’t even notified even though the victims parents wanted an apology or some kind of commitment that this would not happen again. Seeing and hearing all this happen made me feel unsafe and worried to send my kids to Holly knowing little was done to keep them safe from aggressive peers.