Thomas Richard Robinson High School

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Thomas Richard Robinson High School
"Pride Through Excellence"
School type	Public
Principal	Laura Zavatkay
Students	1,270 students
Colors	Black and silver
Mascot	Knight
Location	Tampa, Florida
Website	http://robinsonhs.mysdhc.org/

Thomas Richard Robinson High School was established in 1958 on South Lois Avenue in Tampa, Florida.

The school is named in honor of Thomas Richard Robinson, a lifetime educator in Hillsborough County who began teaching in 1917.

The school's media center was named after former principal, Kevin J. McCarthy on January 19, 2004. McCarthy made many strides to improve the school's literacy levels; which included the application of a grant to update the media center's books and technologies. McCarthy died in November 2003 due to a heart attack; however, the grant from New York Life was obtained by the school around October of the same year.

The school is currently the smallest high school in all of Hillsborough County, despite expansions during the 1960s and 1970s, and numerous renovations.

1 IB Program
2 Notable alumni
3 School controversy
4 Sister School
5 References
6 External links

[edit] IB Program

The school is the third Hillsborough County high school to have a International Baccalaureate Program. The program was established in 2006 and is currently offering Pre-IB curriculum. The program is currently applying to become a full-fledged IB diploma school. The current goal is to become certified by the 2008-2009 school year.

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- The current IB Faculty are:

- - Kellie M. Norton : IB Coordinator/Assistant Principal

- - Elizabeth Arizu : IB Guidance Counselor

- - Valerie Fuchs-Tatum : Spanish and French

- - Matthew Ketchum : Inquiry Skills

- - Donald Pippin : American Government & World History

- - Keith Prokopp : Biology

- - Steven Smith : Algebra II Honors

- - Barbara Verde : English

A Fundraiser is being held to raise money for the non-profit organization, Adopt-A-Minefield. It is being organized by several IB students.

[edit] Notable alumni

Terry Bollea, professional wrestler who used the alias "Hulk Hogan".

Stevan Evarts, drafted by the Atlanta Braves and is now in their minor leagues system.

[edit] School controversy

In recent years, Robinson High has suffered a number of tragic deaths.

First was a recent student Andrew J. Aviles was killed in Iraq two weeks before his 19th birthday. Aviles was an 18 year-old former cheerleader, student body president, and honor student died April 7. He was a Marines Reservist but he wanted to start classes toward a business degree at Florida State University. He was killed in Iraq when enemy fire hit his vehicle as it crossed a bridge.

In 2003, the school's then principal, Dr. Kevin McCarthy, died from a heart attack while he drove his family to church. McCarthy was most notable for his efforts to combat low literacy rates at Robinson and for starting the "Robinson Reads" program at the school. He also began efforts for the recent New York Life grant, mentioned above.

Kwane Doster was shot and killed in 2004. He was a former standout runningback at Robinson High and was the SEC rookie of the year in 2003. He played for Vanderbilt University where he was a star running back. His brother Jermaine is a standout running back at Robinson and will attend Vanderbilt University to follow in his brother's footsteps.

Another tragic death came 2 days after the death of Doster in Johnathon Simmons. He was shot and killed also. Simmons, a freshman, was only 15 at the time and a budding star on the basketball team.

Another death also occurred in the end of February 2007 where Chris Anderson died in a motorcycle accident.

In October 2003, PFC Derek Bennett died from unexplained circumstances in his barracks while serving in the US Army at Fort Huachuca, AZ. While at Robinson, Derek played soccer and was the ROTC Battalion Commander. He graduated in 1999.

[edit] Sister School

Robinson's campus design was used on King High School in northeast Tampa. Though the two schools opened within two years of each other the layout and size of King are different than Robinson's. This is especially true being that King is a much larger high school than Robinson.