Pinellas Park High School

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Location
Pinellas Park High School
Largo, Florida, USA
Information
Principal	John Johnston
Type	Public
Grades	9-12
Mascot	Patriot
Established	1976
Homepage	http://www.pp-hs.pinellas.k12.fl.us/

Pinellas Park High School is a public secondary school in Pinellas Park, Florida, USA. It opened in the fall of 1976. The school mascot is the Patriot, and the school colors are red, white and blue. The school newspaper is called the Powder Horn Press and the yearbook is called Occurrences. The school is home to the Criminal Justice Academy magnet program.

1 History
2 Student demographics
3 Criminal Justice Academy
- 3.1 Admissions
- 3.2 Building
4 Notable incidents
5 Notable alumni
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

Pinellas Park High School, located in Pinellas Park, Florida, opened its doors in August of 1976. Because of the 200th birthday of the US, it became known as "The Patriots" and chose red and blue as its school colors. In 2001, the school received a $500,000 grant to develop smaller learning communities. Five SLCs comprising the entire school population exist today: Freshman Forum (for incoming freshmen); Arts & Humanities; Environmental, Medical and Biological Alliance; Sophomore Seminar, and Business Design Technologies. The ESOL program helps foreign-language speakers and GOALS acts as a drop-out prevention program. Finally, as a result of the Pinellas county introduction of Choice schools, 80% of the school's students come from throughout the county.

[edit] Student demographics

The total student population of approximately 2,300 students comprises 70.3% Caucasians, 12.7% African-Americans, 9.5% Hispanics, 5.9% Asians, .2% American Indian, and 1.4% Other. The student attendance rate is 92.7%. Pinellas Park High School is one of the most ethnically-diverse schools of the country, comprising a large number of students from Latin and Asian countries. ESOL students form 6% of the total school population, and special education students make up 17% of the student body. PPHS is one of the district centers for special education students.

[edit] Criminal Justice Academy

The Criminal Justice Academy is a four-year magnet program at Pinellas Park High School that teaches students about the American legal system and the careers found in that system.

[edit] Admissions

Students must apply and be accepted into the Criminal Justice Academy. Eighth grade applicants must have stanines of 5 or higher on standardized tests, GPA of 2.3 or higher for all work in sixth and seventh grades, 2 positive academic teacher recommendations, and good discipline and attendance records. ^[1]

[edit] Building

The main building has over 40,000 sq. ft. of space and was built in 1976. The building includes a gymnasium and auditorium as well as a media center and library, several computer labs, a well furnished weight room, a complete autobody shop and a complete printing shop. The CJA building was built between 1996-1998 and opened to students in the fall of 1998. The building has 8,496 sq. ft. of space, including several classrooms, administration offices, a mock courtroom, and an apartment used as a mock crime scene.

[edit] Notable incidents

[edit] School shooting

The school made news on February 11, 1988, when two young male students brought stolen guns to the school, which escalated into a series of tragic events. The end result was the death of assistant principal Richard Allen and injured assistant principal Nancy Blackwelder and an assistant physical education teacher who was interning from USF. Jason Harless was sentenced to 17 years in adult prison. Jason McCoy was sentenced to six years in adult prison, but served his time in a “youthful offenders” prison.

[edit] Taser incident

The school again made national news in 2005 when police officers used a Taser three times on a student, Doug Walker, who was struggling with them.^[2] This incident is often cited in the debate about how much force is excessive in schools. ^[3]

[edit] Teacher scandal

In 2005 a CJA teacher faced 47 felony charges alleging that he enticed several female high school students to email him nude pictures of themselves and give him "intimate apparel". He resigned in November after the allegations surfaced. The teacher pled no contest to 15 combined charges and was sentenced to nearly 8 years in prison on October 18, 2006.