Patrick Henry High School (California)


Patrick Henry High School is a public high school in San Diego, California, United States. It is part of the San Diego Unified School District. It is attended by students in grades 912 residing in Del Cerro, San Carlos, Allied Gardens, Mission Valley and the College Area.
It is a four-year high school accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The campus includes a counseling center, child development center, computer and science labs, a cafetorium, library and a performing arts theater.
The school participates in the Voluntary Ethnic Enrollment Program whereby approximately 600 students travel daily from a minority community and are regularly enrolled, full-time students. In 2009, the ethnic composition of the school represented more than 20 ethnic groups, PHHS is composed of approximately 64.8% White, 29.4% Hispanic, 2.4% African-American and 3.4% other ethnicities.

History

Patrick Henry High School opened in 1968, and had a grant from the Danforth Foundation as an "experimental" public school. Principal Donald W. Giddings had his pick of any teacher in the San Diego Public School system for his start up campus. The student body in 1968 consisted of juniors and sophomores only, and it became a 3 year high school the following year. Classes were scheduled around a twenty-minute modular system with some "classes" consisting of two "mods" and others were three "mods". In the beginning, most classes were "independent study", and the campus was open, so that students could make use of any community resources to enhance learning. But, most students were in summer school those first 2 years, having spent a lot of independent study time talking to friends in the "quad". The school modified the program, offering learning objectives, learning packs, and the ability to complete coursework at one's own pace. Independent study was still available, but the motivated student needed to petition the independent study "teacher" who then worked with students on curriculum and community resource development. Over time, Patrick Henry became a more and more traditional school. Nonetheless, the early experiment was successful in bringing unusual courses and great flexibility in learning. In 1972, a peer counseling class was instituted. Students accelerated their studies in languages, literature, the sciences, and other areas. Some graduated early as a result, while others chose to become even better prepared for college. By 1973, Patrick Henry had numerous advanced placement classes, including English and Art History, the latter being rather rare at that time.
On January 5, 1984, the San Diego Police Department executed one of the largest and most controversial narcotics raids in the department's history- arresting 63 Patrick Henry High students, who had allegedly sold drugs to an undercover officer posing as a student.
On January 3, 2007 the San Diego Police department again executed a narcotics raid resulting in the arrest of 15 students from Patrick Henry and University High Schools. The students were taken into custody and booked on suspicion of narcotics offenses, including possession for sale. Undercover SDPD officers posed as students and bought narcotics, including marijuana, Ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms and prescription medications.
In the school year of 2011 to 2012, Patrick Henry received local, national, and international media attention for four different occurrences. In October 2011, Patrick Henry elected the nation's first lesbian couple as homecoming king and queen. The story was covered internationally and led to both support and opposition. In late February 2012, a teacher allegedly told a female student who asked to go to the bathroom that she would have to urinate in a bucket in a back room, and the student obliged; the teacher was consequently fired. On March 17, Saint Patrick's Day of 2012, a campus cop who worked at Patrick Henry was arrested on charges of auto theft and driving under the influence, after taking the wheel of a shuttle-bus while intoxicated. On March 22, 2012, three Patrick Henry students organized a protest to defend their teachers who had recently been issued pink slips by the San Diego Unified School District. Students signed a petition during lunch, wrote letters to the Superintendent of the district and other members of the school board. Additionally, over 200 students participated in a walk-out for an hour to show their support for their teachers.

Sports

The mascot of Patrick Henry High School is the Patriot.
In 2017 the school's robotics club, the Patribots, won the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology San Diego Regional and competed at the international championships in Houston.
In 2019 they won the Utah Regional and competed again in the international championships.

International

Twinning arrangements

The high-school has long established exchange partnerships with the Institution Saint Michel located in Solesmes, France. Common projects have been carried out with Saint-Michel for 'Lille World Fora' through delegated cohorts of students who presented their work on water pollution and the environmental impact of pesticides in Lille. They were all convened by Professor Jeanne-Marie DINEUR and had the privilege of being lectured by and dialogue with major international figures such as Muhammad Yunus ; Jeremy Rifkin ; Ellen MacArthur ; Youssou N'Dour ; Wangari Maathai and Shirin Ebadi.Professor Jeanne-Marie DINEUR is knighted under the Order of Academic Palms bestowed by the French Republic for her numerous and distinguished contributions to education and culture.

Notable alumni