Lake Highlands High School

Lake Highlands High School (LHHS) is a secondary school serving grades 9-12 in the Lake Highlands area of northeastern Dallas, Texas, United States, primarily serving the Lake Highlands community. The school is part of the Richardson Independent School District and is in central Lake Highlands near the DART Blue Line. The Lake Highlands Freshman Center (which sits on the same property as LHHS) formerly housed the 9th-grade students, but has recently been integrated into the rest of the school, housing classes for all 9-12 students. The first graduating class of Lake Highlands High School was in 1964. History On May 16, 1983, Lake Highlands High School was the site of a fatal armed robbery when Billy Conn Gardner (1943-1995) entered the school's office, shot and fatally wounded 64-year-old cafeteria supervisor Thelma Row, and stole $1,600 in cash. Gardner was sentenced to death for the crime and was executed by lethal injection in 1995. On May 30, 2021, valedictorian Paxton Smith replaced her approved speech to the graduating class to attack the protection of unborn children in Texas Senate Bill 8 of the 87th legislature, a heartbeat bill signed by the governor earlier that month. Academics In 2002, the school received a Blue Ribbon award from the U.S. Department of Education.