История школы Briarcrest: от сегрегации к современности.

Briarcrest Christian School (BCS) is a private, coeducational, Christian school in Eads, an unincorporated area of Shelby County, Tennessee. The school was founded as a segregation academy during the racial integration of public schools in Memphis, Tennessee. Today, it serves students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The school also offers "early school" for ages 2 4.

In 1970, the leaders and members of East Park Baptist Church began to plan a collection of segregation academies — schools that would allow white parents to avoid having their children in desegregated public schools — in anticipation of the court ordered racial integration of Memphis City Schools. That order arrived in 1972, and on March 15, 1973, the church incorporated the Briarcrest Baptist School System. Briarcrest's initial faculty consisted of teachers who left public schools after desegregation. Principal Joseph A. Clayton said he and others wanted to be "back among their own" with "less fear, less culture shock" and more "cultural homogeneity". As part of the effort, the administration screened prospective teachers to ensure that all staff members believed in creationism and that no teacher would teach the theory of evolution. Tuition and fees were $650 per student (about $ today), with $100 discounts for siblings. despite the ostensibly open admissions policy. In 1979, six years after Briarcrest began operation, about 2,000 students attended classes in the churches, and another 1,800 students attended the high school. Tuition in the lower grades was still $650; for high schoolers it was $1,100. Memphis NAACP chair Maxine Smith described the school as a "bastion of white segregation in a city with a 40% black population". Allen said the school's attempts at outreach were foiled by the black community, whose children were "pressured into staying away, feeling they'd be Uncle Toms if they came." Afterward, Allen said he was glad the tax code could not be "used as a weapon" by those who disagreed with the school's "policies or politics". By 1988, the school's enrollment had dwindled to 1,473 students and the school was in a precarious financial situation. School leaders feared the school would not have funds to reopen after the 1988–89 Christmas break, but a combination of teacher layoffs, staff pay cuts, and emergency fundraising allowed the school to continue classes. In 1989, the school split from the founding church and re chartered as an independent school under the name Briarcrest Christian School.

The school and its history of racial segregation were portrayed in the 2009 film The Blind Side, though it was called "Wingate Christian School". Briarcrest officials said they did not permit the use of the school's real name because they felt that the script took excessive artistic license. By 2010, the school had grown to 1,600 students and spent $43 million to build its campus. In 2012, the school sold its Memphis campus to a church that had been a tenant there, though it continued to "lease space in the building for 200 students ranging from 2 year olds to fifth graders", the Memphis Business Journal reported. In 2021, the school attracted controversy by inviting parents to a seminar on how to "respond biblically" to "the craziness" of children coming out or embracing an alternative gender identity. Shelby County commissioner Tami Sawyer said the school's anti LGBT rhetoric ("hateful drivel") should be viewed in light of the school's history of racial segregation. Several alumni said that the school's homophobic teachings led them to consider suicide during their attendance.

Briarcrest is a non denominational Christian school. All students attend weekly chapel services, study the Bible, and are encouraged to have what evangelical Christians describe as "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ". The school professes to teach Christian values and biblical morals; citing biblical verses, it forbids students to make statements in support of abortion, sexual promiscuity, homosexuality, same sex attraction, and alternate gender identity. Briarcrest offers honors, advanced placement, and dual enrollment classes. Fine arts programs begin in preschool and continue through grade 12 in visual arts, choral music, instrumental music, general music, and theater arts.

The school has dual accreditation from the Southern Association of Independent Schools and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Briarcrest is also a member of the Association of Christian Schools International, Tennessee Association of Independent Schools, Memphis Association of Independent Schools, and the College Board.

Briarcrest offers athletic programs including football, baseball, basketball, wrestling, cross country, golf, bowling, swimming, trap shooting, softball, lacrosse, soccer, volleyball, track, tennis, and cheerleading. The school participates in Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) Division II West AA for large schools, competing with both private and public schools in the region. Since 1998, Briarcrest has won nine state championships. Two of the football titles and four in girls' basketball were won by teams coached by Hugh Freeze, who left in 2004 and went on to become head football coach at the University of Mississippi. In 2017, Freeze resigned abruptly from Ole Miss after he was found to have made more than a dozen calls to escort services on a university cellphone. Soon thereafter, some female former Briarcrest students alleged that Freeze had engaged in inappropriate conduct with them at the school. A Briarcrest spokeswoman said, "We are totally unaware of any allegations against Coach Freeze regarding any kind of inappropriate personal conduct while he was here at Briarcrest.”