Hoke County High

Posted: August 25, 2025

I've attended this school for all 4 years, my experience there was horrible, sometimes teachers wouldn't email me which class we're supposed to be staying in for the day which caused me and other students to be late.

The teachers had to be the worst thing, out of all the classes I've taken, there may have only been 3-4 teachers that I enjoyed. Some teachers taught but didn't seem passionate, and then there's the rest, they do teach, but they verbally abused the students, constant yelling at us for missing days, missing a singular assignment, arriving late due to the bus, etc. There was a time I had a mental breakdown because of them and had to call a parent.

The lunches are also horrible, often ranked below prison food. The entire school is also always filthy, you would find dead roaches anywhere, sometimes a rat. Bathrooms are missing stall doors, one stall would be broken, the toilet paper they offer is also bad, it's like tissue paper.

The only good classes a student could have is an elective, I took choir (beginners through intermediate) and was a really fun class, the teacher was amazing and she understood the students well. I didn't take the class but was part of the theatre club, it was an amazing experience but the school wants to get rid of it, they do not help the theatre teacher one bit, we only had a small stage in a gym. No auditorium like the one at Turlington. Every play and musical we helped funded, we built it all.

Other than that, I'd also like to complain about how bad the students could be, constant fights, there wasn't a day where there wasn't one, on the very first day of school a big fight happened at the end of the school day, a student ended up pulling out a knife, and an officer had to present, I should also say that officers are constantly all around campus, one even almost hit me just to 'play' around. The school is also run like an absolute monarchy.

Posted: August 25, 2025

Posted: August 25, 2025

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Posted: August 25, 2025

Posted: August 25, 2025

Posted: August 25, 2025

Posted: August 25, 2025

I went to this school all four years. I had lots of experiences and graduated last school year. So many fights happened. Bathrooms are horrible cause stall doors break, the locks never work, and you get interrogated or kicked out within 5 minutes of being in there. Which is particularly on the students cause some of them don't know how to act.

Some teachers are great, however most suck because there's so many students to just one teacher. Plus half the teachers I had were just permanent subs who didn't know anything about the subject.

In my opinion CTE courses have the most one on one time with students due to there being smaller classes and more hands on experience. I took barbering, which I enjoyed fully thanks to the teacher there, she's absolutely lovely as long as you follow expectations which isn't hard. She works with you and more often than not will absolutely bend over backwards for everyone.

I rarely ever saw the special education classes but when I did they seemed happy, normally I'd see them during my lunch or when I was running a task for a teacher. They love to wave at everyone and the teachers have lots of patience. But I'm only speaking from the few minutes I'd see.

Transportation is the main issue, no communication was given. Even the stupid bus app rarely worked. There's always been 3-5 busses that never show up on time and it was ridiculous that they expect you to get from across campus and to your bus within 7 minutes. Normally I'd say it's not too difficult but the halls are always crowded, doors rarely open, and sometimes you have to walk around the bus lot, looking between every bus just to see if you can find yours.

Not to mention I've had my morning bus be late several times, which isn't usually a big deal, till it's 2 hours late when it's literally 27°f outside. Or when testing is going on and you absolutely need to be at your class on time or you won't be allowed to take the test. Even if your bus is late and you're lucky enough to have someone who can drive you to school you're screwed because they still will make you tardy or unexcused absence.

Their system is designed for you to fail. If you get sick? Well you better still come to class because a doctors note means nothing. You're literally vomiting everywhere and can barely walk to the bathroom? Welp guess you'll just have to take an absent and take zeros for the assignments you'll inevitably not be able to do because canvas doesn't work on home computers anymore.

Posted: August 25, 2025

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Posted: December 9, 2024

I recently moved here from California, and I was expecting a great highschool that would be much better than the ones in my previous area, but much to my surprise, the place is genuinely awful, dirty classrooms, disruptive environments and constantly I worry for myself here, fights are incredibly common, recently and incident happened where a group of students were pepper sprayed due to one student bringing a small can, a large group of people were harmed and even bystanders were hit by the spray. And I can't even begin in the massive drug problem inside the school, anytime of day you'll see groups of students filling up bathrooms and smoking pen vapes and normal vapes in almost every single bathroom and educators here simply enable this awful behavior by not even caring, sure the place has great programs and whatnot, but it is physically impossible for me to even focus with how disruptive classes are, and educators don't even EDUCATE, they just put an assignment an a computer and you do it, you don't even learn a single thing by the end of the day, its mentally and physically exhausting being at this school, I would do remote learning if I could. TLDR, great programs, awful community and educators, great for neurotypical people, terrible for those with mental disorders such as autism and ADHD

Posted: December 9, 2024

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Posted: December 8, 2022

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Posted: December 8, 2022

Please don't send your child here.
We moved to this district with high hopes after having bad experiences with another NC high school. Hopes were dashed quickly. NC schools, in general, seem to not care about IEPs or 504 plans.
We were told in our meeting with the counselor and only one teacher that since our child was making at least a B in every class that they did not need accommodations!
My child has chronic health conditions that include widespread chronic pain and brain fog and orthostatic intolerance, etc. They sometimes need to use a cane due to joint weakness! They also have mental health conditions brought on due to their chronic health conditions.

This school was a nightmare for my teenager. My teen tried to drop a class that was causing them to feel depressed and they had been having suicidal thoughts because of the stress of the entire experience (between having classes that were spread out across the entire campus that they had almost no time to rush to while using a cane and nearly passing out due to tachycardia, not being able to eat lunch because there are so many students and the line is so long that the lunch break is over before half of them get to get their food every day!, and dealing with one teacher who may as well have been a Confederate soldier who yelled at everyone and another who was putting extreme pressure on them to be his pet artist due to my kid's talent).
The last straw was when we got called to pick my teen up because they were a "suicide" risk due to looking up ways to AVOID suicide on their Chromebook at school one day. They were told not to come back unless they had a note from a random mental health place that assesses for suicide risk. Even though my child already had a therapist and doctors.

This place is why they dropped out of school.
They are now doing amazing at the end of freshman year at WCU, after getting a high school equivalency diploma. Oh and this high school never even gave me my kid's records when asked.

Posted: October 8, 2021

Posted: October 8, 2021

Posted: October 8, 2021

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Posted: October 8, 2021

Posted: October 8, 2021

Posted: October 8, 2021

CRT is being taught by the staff, I have reported them and investigation will be starting soon. Pay attention to what your kids are being taught!

Posted: September 4, 2019

Posted: September 4, 2019

It honestly depends on the teacher, but overall the teachers hardly do their jobs and instead spend class on their phones while us students watch a video or movie.

Posted: September 4, 2019

If anything, this school makes you insensitve to other people and their issues because you always have to look out for yourself at Hoke.

Posted: September 4, 2019

The leadership at Hoke is somewhat confusing. No teacher/staff member seems to understand where they stand when it comes to leadership.

Posted: September 4, 2019

Posted: September 4, 2019

The administrators seem to turn their heads to the subject of bullying as a whole. I have been to other schools which have often talked about how serious of an issue bullying is, and this school hasn't once discussed it. I see students get bullied daily and no one ever does anything about it whatsoever.

Posted: September 4, 2019

Honestly terrible, no one at this school cares about the well being of the students at all.

Posted: July 24, 2017

Posted: July 24, 2017

Posted: July 24, 2017

Posted: July 24, 2017

Posted: July 24, 2017

Posted: July 24, 2017

Posted: July 24, 2017

ABSOLUTELY AWFUL!! This high school will never change. I don't care how many times they change the staff members. The school is in a bad area as well. I would NOT recommend this school to anyone who actually wants a decent education and can walk outside of class without seeing a fight. Terrible school for violence. This review will not change anything but hopefully it will save someone from attending or letting their children attend.

Posted: June 15, 2017

Posted: June 15, 2017

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Posted: June 15, 2017

Posted: June 15, 2017

Posted: June 15, 2017

I am absolutely appalled at this school. My family and I moved here a year and a half ago from up north. My child had wonderful grades. It took over 4 weeks for the school to review her records and place her in appropriate classes. So, she gets her schedule and not one administrative person offers to show her where her classes are. Never mind the fact that most of the classes she had already taken previously. The teachers were rude and had no problems swearing and putting on movies instead of teaching. Now we are in her second year at this school. Teachers have blatantly refused to help her out with any of the work she doesn't understand. She has complained that many of them say to the students if you don't want to listen then I won't teach you. When she speaks up about this, she gets sent to the office! I have had many conversations with the "drop out prevention specialist" who has demeaned my child numerous times and threatened to have her sent to an alternative school. Then when I demanded a meeting with her and administration I was met with just on of her teachers instead. This school is an absolute joke. The are disorganized and refuse to make any changes with their staff. Oh, and forget parent teacher night. This is a joke as well. I have gone to every single one offered over the last year and a half. I have met only 3 of her teachers in two years. The others were not even there! I am now considering home schooling my daughter for her last year. These should be the best years of my daughters life!

Posted: May 25, 2015

Posted: May 25, 2015

I am a sophomore and were about to move. All I have to say is HALLELUJAH! Do not bring your child here! For starters, the guidance counselors are terrible. High schoolers HAVE drama and they have the nerve to say they don't help kids with drama, so they're pretty much useless. Do you care about your child? Well when there is drama at this school, it causes fights. When people get into fights here, they get sent to jail. So who's supposed to help the children with the drama if the guidance counselors say they dont deal with it. Then the assistant principals, I don't see how they think they are over the actual principal, who is actually one of the only decent administrators at the school. For sports, okay so some of them care about grades, but then there are some who don't seem to look at the rule saying you can't have anyone under a 2.5 GPA on the team because I have seen some people on teams with under 2.0's play. Then the saddest of all, the academics. I have never seen such lazy teachers in my whole life, instead of teaching, they'll show you a video, hand you a worksheet and class is over so you can just use your electronics for the next 45 minutes. Also, I don't see why its necessary to have only 4 classes each semester for 90 minutes, if you talk to a professional, the teenage mind cannot pay attention to one thing for 90 straight minutes. I have a whole lot of reasons this school is not good for other reasons too. Let's say we're at lunch, the fast food restaurants are across the street so for those with cars, they can just easily leave off campus. The assistant principals are in charge of not letting them leave but they obviously dont care. Lets talk about dress code, i understand the rules but it should apply to EVERYONE! If somebody with a kind of short skirt gets sent to ISS, a girl with an even shorter skirt should be sent as well. Its called being fair. Now, here's where things get gross, I have never EVER been in a school that's infested with roaches and mice. There are enough janitors, why is the school so dirty. I've seen wasp nests. When I go to practice, people get stung all the time due to all the wasps. I just really do not recommend this school for anyone who can breath air. You can try to go to Jack Britt High or even home school or online school, just don't come here. You will regret it.

Posted: February 23, 2015

I am currently a sophomore at Hoke County High School. Although the school is very over-populated, I feel that anyone can still get a proper education. Many people look at the negative aspects of our school, but in order to understand what really goes on, you need to experience high school in the conditions that we learn in on a day-to-day basis. Aside from that, there are many excellent extra-curricular activities for everyone to participate in. One of the most well-known activities on campus is the marching band (which I am apart of).

Posted: August 8, 2013

I am a Student at HCHS, I will be a Sophomore when we go Back to school. But, Yes this school is overly populated. I agree with that . They do need to build another high school for Hoke County. It's been up forever. Parents always talking about their kids can't learn because of other people at the school, if you have taught your child to ignore people and know when to be serious about learning , there would be no Problem . And for the parent that called the Sanitation Dept., why you would you do that. Now they could close our school down and then where will we get out education at? I care about my education!! So that was wrong, your child doesn't have to eat in the cafeteria. Tell them to wait until they get home.

Posted: August 7, 2013

I got married and my fiance had a house in Hoke County. I was really frustrated that I had to move my kids to Hoke HS. Yes!!! there is problems in this school and some other schools also have problems, trust me my kids attended one of the "best" high schools in the other county. I dont really love the school but so far the experience is not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Both my kids are in sport now and they both are taking Honors, AP and Community college classes. I am really happy with their counselor. Sadly some student dont care for their future and they dont put the effort and ruin the class for the ones that care but that is every where. I encourage my kids everyday to look forward and move on because once they get to college they are going to encouter other problems too. I teach them that life is not perfect and no school or college is perfect but you can do the best you can with what you have. They make their own path not the school or other student. They are resposible for their future I just can give them the tools, support and the advice the rest is on them.

Posted: August 4, 2013

We came to Hoke County when the military brought us here. I cannot believe the conditions of Hoke County High School. Everyday I wish my child did not attend this school. It seems like no one takes the time to care from the teachers up to the administrators. This school is WAY over populated and incidents involving students is over the top. I know my child cannot get a great education there and it's frustrating to know you can't do anything about it. Most times you can't even get the school to listen to you at all let alone care! I would never, NEVER recommend this high school to any military families moving to this area. I feel sorry for the families who are from Hoke county and have no other school options for any of there children here! I feel so strong about this that I hope my child does not have to spend her senior year there, I hope we have orders.

Posted: July 30, 2013

Hoke County need to concern a new high school instead of building elementary schools and another middle school. . Hoke County school system need to make sure that sanitation regulations are followed and inspections are done more often. My daughter and her friends complainted so much about roaches abd , rat droppings, in the classrooms, bathrooms and cafeterias that i called the Sanitation Department to go out to investiage. ? . You have to have relatives working at the school or friends to get picked for most sports. Some of the coaches don't look at the talent of some students. I wish I could afford to put my child in private school. I do not think that our students show have to study black history for a month. I think if the school systems are going to require recognizing and studying one race all races should be required. Yes, there is a Native American month but how much history does the students study on Native Americans and when are there a white history month. Be fair for all races. This school needs alot of improvement. Where does the school taxes pay for?

Posted: April 13, 2013

My kid has been in many different schools around the world because of my service to this Country. I have never seen a school this disorganized. They wait until the middle of the school year to inform you of the total school fees. Trust me, the $45 posted on their Home page is no where near the actual fee total you will spend for a Senior attending this school. In any other school, these fees would be collected at the beginning of the school year, with all medical, parental permission slips, etc... filled out prior to attending. This school waits and continually nickel and dimes a family to death! Also, the sample school work sent home by one of the teachers has poor grammar and numerous spelling errors, such as the word "was" spelled "wuz". If the teachers do not know proper grammar and spelling, then how can they grade their students? Granted, since I have not dealt personally with every teacher in this school, then maybe some are okay. The ones I have dealt with, I am far from pleased with. Now I know why our Country is falling behind worldwide in education. My advice, if you have a choice of home school or Hoke High School, would be to home school.

Posted: February 17, 2013

I loooooooooove this school. Hoke county is up and coming and I recommend that anyone choose to buy or rent in this area. This school has improved so much over time! Kudos to the principal, teachers, and staff! I am so happy with living here and this wonderful community! What a blessing that I live here!

Posted: October 24, 2011

My son just graduated from this school and I could not have been happier. yes, there are problems on this school just like on every other school as well. There are good teachers and then there are not so good ones. My concern is more the age of this building, possible mold etc setting in but not confirmed. And Hoke county's concern of making sure they keep building more subdivisions but not new schools concerns me. Other than that it is not too bad.

Posted: August 31, 2011

I had 3 graduate from here. I wanted to be out of this county by now, but my youngest is now a Hoke High Freshman. The 3 that have graduated told me to get out before the youngest starts High School. If the older siblings are telling us to get out, what does that tell you? Principal Hagen made some very important changes for the better, but was also one to placate parents and tell them what they wanted to hear and do something entirely different. Hoping for the best with the new Principal we have this year. Hoke County NEEDS another High School due to the population now but Hoke High needs more clubs and organization for the students which in turn will create more pride in their school and themselves. Some of the teachers are just horrible, but others are not only teachers, but friends to the kids, which is what they need. Too many of the teachers here have God complex and treat the pupils like children of a lesser God. Whoever leads the yearbook staff has no business being a teacher. One look at it and you'd think it was done by a 6th grader. Over the top PDA is a serious problem but the dangerous aspect has improved over the past few years. We still want out of this county.