Gunn High School

Henry M. Gunn Senior High School is one of two public high schools in Palo Alto, California, along with its rival Palo Alto High School.[3]

Henry M. Gunn High School
Address
780 Arastradero Road Palo Alto , California 94306 United States
Coordinates	37°23′56″N 122°07′59″W
Information
School type	Public, high school
Established	1964
School district	Palo Alto Unified School District
Principal	Wendy Stratton[1]
Teaching staff	105.13 (FTE)[2]
Grades	9–12
Enrollment	2,006 (2018–19)[2]
Student to teacher ratio	19.08:1[2]
Area	Northern Santa Clara County
Color(s)	Red and Black
Athletics conference	Santa Clara Valley Athletic League CIF Central Coast Section
Mascot	Timmy the Titan
Nickname	Titans
Accreditation	Western Association of Schools and Colleges
Newspaper	The Oracle
Yearbook	The Olympian
Feeder schools	Greene, JLS, & Fletcher middle schools
Website	gunn.pausd.org

Established in 1964, Gunn High School was named after Henry Martin Gunn, who served as the Palo Alto superintendent from 1950 to 1961. In 1964, the Palo Alto Unified School District announced that it would name the district's third high school after him. The Class of 1966 was the first class to graduate from Gunn High School.[4]

1,993 students attended the school in the 2019–2020 school year.[5] In 1992, the school was honored as a California Distinguished School.

Academics

Gunn offers 22 Advanced Placement (AP) classes and 8 Honors classes which are included in the weighted Grade Point Average (GPA).[6]

In May 2010, 658 students took 1820 AP tests. 93% scored 3 or higher and 54% scored a grade of 5. Gunn no longer ranks students, but ranking was previously recorded by decile.[6]

Hanna Rosin wrote in a 2015 The Atlantic article that due to the emphasis on academics and competition between students, Gunn became "an extreme distillation of what parents in the meritocratic elite expect from a school." Around that time, families clamored to buy houses in Gunn's attendance boundary so their children could attend the school.[7] According to Rosin, after a spate of suicides of Gunn students in the 2010s, parents began to worry about whether the competitive atmosphere was harming students' mental well-being.[8]

PLTW

Gunn is host to Project Lead the Way (PLTW), an organization which promotes STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education. Courses from this program include Digital Electronics and Introduction to Engineering Design, as well as Principles of Engineering.[9]

Statistics

Demographics

2015–2016[10]

• 1,939 students: 1,006 Male (51.9%), 933 Female (48.1%)

Asian	White	Hispanic	Two or more races	African American	Filipino	Pacific Islander	American Indian	Unreported
862	733	173	126	25	14	4	2	0
44.5%	37.8%	8.9%	6.5%	1.3%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%	%

As of 2015, according to Hanna Rosin, 74% of Gunn's student body has one or more parents with a master's degree or higher, or other graduate-level degree.[8]

Standardized testing

SAT Scores for 2014–2015 [11]
	Critical reading average	Math average	Writing average
Gunn High	642	686	646
District	634	671	634
Statewide	489	500	484

2013 Academic Performance Index
2009 Base API [12]	2013 Growth API [13]	Growth in the API from 2009 to 2013
915	917	2

Student groups

Gunn offers over 90 student clubs, teams, and organizations which focus on art, community action, culture, environment, politics, music, dance, journalism, and other avocations.[14]

Spangenberg Theater

Theatre

Gunn students stage three major productions every year (Fall, Spring, and the student-directed "One Acts"), along with occasional staged readings.[15] The Spring show alternates each year between a Shakespearean play and a musical.

Music

The music program consists of several music groups including Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Big Band, Jazz Band II, Orchestra, Concert Band, Concert Choir, and Chamber Singers.[16] Gunn also occasionally hosts California Music Educators Association Festivals at its Spangenberg Theater.[17]

Debate

The debate team at Gunn High School consists of Policy, Parliamentary, and Public Forums, as well as a speech team.[18][19][20]

For the 2017–2018 school year, the club did exceptionally well at the national and state level, with one team entering Tournament of Champions (TOC) octofinals.[21]

Robotics team

The Gunn Robotics Team (GRT), established in 1997, competes at the FIRST Robotics Competition. It is also the only FIRST Robotics team to have won the national animation award more than once, winning in 1997, 2006, and 2012. They also won best models worldwide in their 2010 animation.[22]

In 2012, the Robotics Team won the National FRC Championship Excellence in Design Award (3D Animation) sponsored by Autodesk. GRT is the only team that has won a total of three Animation awards in the history of FIRST.[23][24][25]

Gunn High School football field

Mental health

Gunn High School received national attention in 2009 after four of its students committed suicide over a span of seven months, mainly by walking in front of trains at a nearby crossing.[26][27] Over the period of 2006–2016, the school's suicide rate four to five times higher than the national average.[28] In 2017, a senior student committed suicide.[29]

Attempts have since been made to try to improve the emotional health of students attending the school.[30][8] Titan 101, a program for incoming freshmen aimed at easing the transition into high school, was introduced in 2011. In 2015, the Youth Empowerment Seminar (YES!) program was introduced, aimed at reducing student stress through meditation and controlled breathing techniques.[31] In 2017, Social Emotional Learning and Functionality (SELF) was introduced as a replacement for Titan 101. The four-year program is mandatory for the Class of 2021 and later, but there are opt-in sessions for all classes.[32]

On August 30, 2019, a student from Gunn High School made a public comment online threatening to shoot up the school, and was arrested.[33] On December 12, 2019, another shooting threat was made on a public, anonymous confession page run by Henry M. Gunn students, but police apprehended the suspect before any violence could be carried out.[34]

Notable alumni

• Steve Almond, class of 1984 – writer (The Evil B.B. Chow, Candyfreak)
• Mehdi Ballouchy, class of 2002 – professional soccer player, as of 2020 with the New York Red Bulls
• Matt Flynn, class of 1988 – drummer (The B-52's, Maroon 5)
• Andrew Jacobson, class of 2003 – professional soccer player, as of 2020 with FC Dallas
• Stephan Jenkins, class of 1983 – lead singer for Third Eye Blind
• Stanley Jordan, class of 1977 – jazz guitarist (Magic Touch)
• Ted Kaehler, class of 1968 – computer scientist (Xerox PARC, Apple Computer, Walt Disney Imagineering, others)
• Nina Katchadourian, class of 1985 – conceptual artist
• David Leavitt, class of 1979 – author (The Lost Language of Cranes, The Body of Jonah Boyd)
• Michael Lederer, class of 1974 – author
• Brad Lee, class of 1998 – musician (The Album Leaf, Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects)
• Zoe Lofgren, class of 1966 – U.S. Representative for California's 16th congressional district, 1995 – present
• Matt Marquess, class of 2004 – professional soccer player for the Kansas City Wizards
• Brian Martin, class of 1992 – Olympic medal-winning luger
• Shemar Moore, class of 1988 – actor (Criminal Minds, The Young and the Restless)
• Ann Packer, class of 1977 – author (The Dive from Clausen's Pier)
• George Packer, class of 1978 – journalist (Mother Jones, The New Yorker) and author
• Tom E. Politzer, class of 1976 – saxophonist (Tower of Power)
• Rick Porras, class of 1984 – film producer (co-producer of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Contact)
• Brett Simon, class of 1992 – film director (Assassination of a High School President)
• Akira Tana, class of 1970 – American jazz drummer
• Anne Wojcicki, class of 1991 – biologist, founder of 23andMe and former wife of Google founder Sergey Brin
• Susan Wojcicki, class of 1986 – CEO of YouTube.
• Yiaway Yeh, class of 1996 – Mayor of Palo Alto, 2012
• Jessica Yu, class of 1983 – Oscar-winning documentarian and film director (Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien, Ping Pong Playa)
• Raphael Bob-Waksberg, class of 2002 – comedian, writer, producer, and actor; creator of BoJack Horseman
• Chris Hart (musician), class of 2002 – American-Born Black Japanese Pop Singer/Songwriter/Producer[35]
• Chanel Miller, class of 2010 – artist, public speaker, and author of Know My Name

References

1. Kadvany, Elena. "New principals announced for Gunn and Palo Alto high schools". www.paloaltoonline.com. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
2. "Search for Public Schools - Henry M. Gunn High (062961004587)". National Center for Education Statistics. Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
3. "Henry M. Gunn High School". Retrieved February 28, 2020.
4. "2007 School Profile" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 5, 2008. Retrieved March 22, 2008.
5. "School Profile 2019-2020" (PDF). Henry M. Gunn High School. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
6. "Gunn High School School Profile". Archived from the original on October 27, 2012.
7. Rosin, Hanna (December 2015). "The Silicon Valley Suicides". The Atlantic. Retrieved August 31, 2018. But in the e-mails traded among parents in the weeks after Cameron’s death, the obvious worry surfaced about whether all this emphasis on excellence imposed a cost on the kids[...]
8. Hanna Rosin (November 16, 2015). "The Suicide Clusters at Palo Alto High Schools - The Atlantic". The Atlantic. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
9. "Gunnpltw.com". Archived from the original on January 21, 2016. Retrieved October 18, 2016.
10. "Enrollment by Ethnicity for 2015–16: Henry M. Gunn High School". California Department of Education. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
11. "SAT Report - 2014-15 District Level Scores". California Department of Education. Retrieved September 26, 2016.
12. "2009 Base API School Report – Henry M. Gunn High". California Department of Education Assessment, Accountability and Awards Division.
13. "2013 Growth API School Report – Henry M. Gunn High". California Department of Education Analysis, Measurement, & Accountability Reporting Division.
14. "CLUBS - Gunn High School Student Activities". sites.google.com. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
15. "Program". Gunn Theatre. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
16. "gunnmusic.org". www.gunnmusic.org. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
17. "Superintendent's Board Update - April 19, 2019". Palo Alto Unified School District. April 19, 2019. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
18. "Public Forum". GUNN SPEECH & DEBATE. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
19. "Policy". GUNN SPEECH & DEBATE. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
20. "Speech". GUNN SPEECH & DEBATE. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
21. Epstein, Eric (March 6, 2018). "Debate team dominates regional, league tournaments". The Oracle. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
22. "Gunn Robotics Team – Awards". gunnrobotics.net. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
23. "Awards – GRT". gunnrobotics.com. Archived from the original on January 26, 2013. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
24. "NASA Previews Robotics Engineers of the Future" (Press release). NASA Ames Research Center. March 10, 2006. Retrieved May 22, 2008.
25. Malone, Michael S. (March 25, 2002). "The Fix-It Kids Take Over". Forbes Magazine. Forbes.com Inc. Retrieved May 22, 2008.
26. Samuels, Diana; Fernandez, Lisa (October 21, 2009). "Gunn community reeling after fourth apparent teen suicide in six months". The Mercury News. Retrieved September 6, 2020.
27. Netter, Sarah. "Teen Train Suicide Cluster Shakes Affluent California Town". ABC News. Retrieved September 6, 2020.
28. Lynch, Grace Hwang. "The CDC is investigating a cluster of teen suicides in Palo Alto". The World. Retrieved September 6, 2020.
29. Kadvany, Elena. "Gunn High student dies by suicide". www.paloaltoonline.com. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
30. "After five suicides, Palo Alto high school students change culture through peer support « Culture & Features « Peninsula Press ARCHIVE (2010 – Sept. 2014)". peninsulapress.com. January 4, 2011. Archived from the original on October 10, 2016. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
31. Aspegren, Elinor. "YES! program will implement mental health education". The Oracle. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
32. Satpathy, Sakshi (February 2, 2018). "New SELF program at Gunn builds student connection and support". Palo Alto Pulse. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
33. Bartley, Kaitlyn (2019-08-30). 14-year-old Gunn High student threatens to shoot up school - Police do not believe the student intended to carry out the threat. Mercury News, 30 August 2019. Retrieved from https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/08/30/14-year-old-gunn-high-student-threatens-to-shoot-up-school/
34. Kadvany, Elena. "Gunn High School student taken into custody for alleged online shooting threat". Palo Alto Online. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
35. Kenrick, Chris. "Former student, now pop star in Japan, recounts story". Palo Alto Online. Retrieved September 14, 2020.

External links

• Official website
• The Oracle, student-run newspaper
• Palo Alto Unified School District website