Cosumnes Oaks High School


Cosumnes Oaks High School, or COHS, is a preparatory four-year public high school in Elk Grove, California. It is the youngest high school of the Elk Grove Unified School District, opening in 2008 with the Class of 2011 being its first class of graduating seniors. In 2012 Cosumnes Oaks was officially accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
The school is named after Cosumnes River and the many oak trees in the area, creating a strong link between the school and the Cosumnes River Preserve.

On campus

Cosumnes Oaks is built using the same blueprint as Franklin High School, Monterey Trail High School & Pleasant Grove High School.

Stadium

The Cosumnes Oaks-Franklin Community Stadium is a multi-use outdoor stadium used by Cosumnes Oaks High School during their home games. It used as the home stadium for the Franklin and Cosumnes Oaks football teams as well as the Cosumnes Oaks soccer teams. The stadium is also shared by Franklin High School.

Sexual abuse crisis

Cosumnes Oaks Geography teacher Monte Antonio Reed, who was also a freshman football and basketball coach, was convicted of child sexual abuse of three Cosumnes Oaks students, a 15 year old student who was enrolled in his honors class and her younger sister and cousin. The abuse happened in 2016 and 2017. The teacher was convicted of 2 counts of sexual intercourse with a minor under 16 years of age, 3 counts of oral copulation of a person under 16, 1 count of anal penetration by a foreign object on a person under 16, 2 counts of molestation of a person under 18, and 2 counts of lewd act upon a child. He was sentenced to 9 years in prison in September 2019. The case was one of a number of cases of sexual abuse of students by Elk Grove Unified teachers and resulted in accusations that the district did not take student seriously and did not have proper training and policies to prevent sexual abuse of students.

Controversy

In 2016, Cosumnes Oaks wasl in the news after school officials had an African-American student removed from his graduation ceremony by Sacramento County Sheriff's Department officers because he refused to take off a kente cloth representing his Ghanaian heritage. The student also stated in another article that he knew he was breaking the rules by wearing the cloth since the cloth was not approved by the district. Only items issued or approved by the district were allowed to be worn during the graduation ceremony.