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.
Established in, 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.
1,993 students attended the school in the 2019-2020 school year. In 1992, the school was honored as a California Distinguished School.

Academics

Gunn offers 22 Advanced Placement classes and 8 Honors classes which are included in the weighted Grade Point Average.
In May 2010, 657 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.
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. 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.

PLTW

Gunn is host to Project Lead the Way, an organization which promotes STEM education. Courses from this program include Digital Electronics and Introduction to Engineering Design, as well as Principles of Engineering.

Statistics

Demographics

2015–2016
AsianWhiteHispanicTwo or more racesAfrican AmericanFilipinoPacific IslanderAmerican IndianUneported
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%%%%%%%%%

, 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.

Standardized testing

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.

Theatre

Gunn students stage three major productions every year, along with occasional staged readings. 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. Gunn also occasionally hosts California Music Educators Association Festivals at its Spangenberg Theater.

Debate

The debate team at Gunn High School consists of Policy, Parliamentary, and Public Forums, as well as a speech team.
For the 2017-2018 school year, the club did exceptionally well at the national and state level, with one team entering Tournament of Champions octofinals.

Robotics team

The Gunn Robotics Team, 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.
In 2012, the Robotics Team won the National FRC Championship Excellence in Design Award sponsored by Autodesk. GRT is the only team that has won a total of three Animation awards in the history of FIRST.

Mental health

Gunn High School received national attention in 2009 after five of its students committed suicide over a span of nine months, mainly by walking in front of trains at a nearby crossing. In 2017, a senior student committed suicide.
Attempts have since been made to try to improve the emotional health of students attending the school. 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 program was introduced, aimed at reducing student stress through meditation and controlled breathing techniques. In 2017, Social Emotional Learning and Functionality 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.
On August 30, 2019, a student from Gunn High School made a public comment online threatening to shoot up the school, and was arrested.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.

Notable alumni