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Tamalpais High School

Tamalpais High School (often abbreviated as Tam) is a public secondary school located in Mill Valley, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is named after nearby Mount Tamalpais, which rises almost 2,500 feet (760 m) above Mill Valley.

Tamalpais High School

1908

Liz Seabury (interim, 2023) [1]

81[2]

9–12

1,540 (2022–23)[3]

Suburban

Southern Marin County

      Red, Royal Blue & White

Hawks

Tamalpais High School is the original campus of the Tamalpais Union High School District and the second public high school in Marin County. As of 2007, Tam's attendance area includes the cities of Mill Valley and Sausalito, the nearby unincorporated areas of Marin City, Strawberry and Tamalpais-Homestead Valley, and the West Marin communities of Muir Beach, Bolinas and Stinson Beach.[4] Mill Valley School District is the largest feeder for Tam, followed by the Sausalito Marin City School District and the Bolinas-Stinson Union School District.

On February 27, 1967, after a year of increased racial tension and disturbances, regular classes were canceled for "Breakthrough Day," a student-initiated teach-in on race relations. All students and faculty met in Mead Theater and then broke out into discussion groups around campus. The event was widely covered by local and national media.

[12]

In 1981, Antenna Theater premiered Chris Hardman's High School at Tam during the fourth Bay Area Playwrights Festival. The work introduced Hardman's concept, "Walkmanology," with Sony Walkmans providing the narration to audience members as they walked the Tam campus observing the story.[13] In 1982, Antenna presented the Pink Prom at Tam. In this play, unrehearsed student actors wore the Walkmans, which provided their stage direction, while the audience interacted with the actors and each other.[14] Antenna Theater later spun off its Walkmanology concept to Antenna Audio, which has become a leading international producer of audio tours for museums and other attractions.

performance art

In the 1989–1990 school year, members of the student body petitioned to formally remove the school's original mascot "" at the interdiction of Sacheen Littlefeather, a pretendian Marin County resident and activist for Native American causes. The original mascot had been chosen to recognize the area's indigenous inhabitants, the Miwoks, and was represented by illustrations (both dignified and caricature), costumed performers, and, beginning in the 1960s, a wooden sculpture named Charlie.[15][16] Sports teams were identified only as "Tam" for the fall and winter seasons of that school year. A schoolwide contest was held, and the Red Tailed Hawks was chosen as the winner, beating out other entries such as Mountaineers and Locomotives. The Red Tailed Hawk logo and mascot was adopted beginning in the 1990–1991 school year. Tam High was one of the first American institutions to remove a "politically incorrect" Native American moniker.[6][a]

Indians

On May 9, 1990, following the death of history teacher Charles Smith due to complications from AIDS, Principal Barbara Galyen announced that students had persuaded the administration to allow the school nurse to distribute free condoms. Tam would have been the first high school in California to dispense prophylactics without parent approval, were it not for the immediate uproar. The controversial plan was objected to by several parents, as well as San Francisco Archbishop John R. Quinn, all calling for it to be rescinded.[18] The following week, after the parents of one student threatened to sue, the district postponed the program indefinitely.[19] In June, Sausalito pharmacist Fred Mayer, originator of "Condom Week" in 1979, announced that he would give free condoms to high school students that summer.[20] Despite the program being deferred, a suit was filed in June. On August 1, the Marin County Superior Court denied the request for an injunction, since the district had not approved the program.[21] About 1990, Tam initiated the Condom Availability Program, which provides free condoms to students who have received parental permission and completed a training session.[22]

[17]

In 1997, Tam sophomore Ari Hoffman won a Marin County science fair, showing that fruit flies exposed to different doses of radiation had increased mutation rates and reduced fertility in proportion to the dose. He was subsequently disqualified from the Bay Area Science Fair when officials ruled that his experiment, which resulted in the premature death of 35 of the 200 , had violated rules on the use of live animals.[23] After widespread news coverage, Hoffman was contacted by Nobel laureate Edward B. Lewis, a geneticist who had begun his own work with fruit flies while in high school. Lewis congratulated Hoffman for his work and sent him a check.[24] The science fair prize was reinstated. (As of 2009, after graduating from Stanford University and completing classwork at the University of California San Francisco Medical School, Hoffman is a predoctoral fellow in bioethics in the Clinical Research Training Program at the intramural campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.[25][26])

drosophila

Parents of four African-American students from Tam filed a class-action lawsuit against the Novato Unified School District and administrators at over racial slurs made by San Marin students at a basketball game in 1998, charging that a "climate of intolerance" was allowed at San Marin. The Marin County Athletic League put San Marin on probation for a year because of racial insensitivity.[27][28][29][30]

San Marin High School

In 2001, students from Tam and other high schools in the TUHSD formed Marin Students for Liberating Education to discuss the number of prerequisite classes and level of testing. Large numbers of grade 9, 10, and 11 students at Tam and Drake High School boycotted the Stanford-9 achievement tests required by the State's STAR Program after their parents signed waivers. The boycott had been endorsed by school board member Richard Raznikov. Since more than 10% of the students missed the test (22% at Tam and 35% at Drake), the two schools were not given Academic Performance Index (API) rankings, making the schools ineligible for the funds distributed by the State to high-scoring schools. (The three comprehensive high schools in the District, Tam, Drake, and Redwood, received approximately $750,000 in 2000, including individual $1000 scholarships awarded to 339 high-scoring students).[32] Raznikov resigned from the board of trustees in 2002, citing the testing controversy among the reasons.[33]

[31]

Tam was the subject of local controversy during the 2004–2005 school year when several anti-gay crimes, targeting a 17-year-old female student wrestler, received coverage in the and the local newspapers.[34] When the police investigation suggested the "crimes" were staged, they confronted the "victim" with the evidence causing the student to confess to the hoax. Subsequent coverage of the hoax received even greater attention in the media and blogosphere.[35][36][37][38]

Associated Press

On January 4, 2006, the former president of Tam's Associated Student Body, Nima Shaterian, took his own life. A citywide memorial was held in Mill Valley.[40] In January 2007, junior Clive Barry also committed suicide.[41]

[39]

In May 2006, controversy over use of a rifle in a physics class demonstration received national coverage. Teacher David Lapp, a military veteran and avid hunter, had fired his into a wooden block in his physics classes almost every year since 1992 to allow his students to calculate the muzzle velocity of the bullet based on conservation of momentum. After an anonymous complaint from a parent, local police and the district attorney investigated, found no illegality and dropped the case. The experiment had been authorized by the school administration, but the administration responded to pressure by banning the experiment.[42][43]

M1 carbine

Campus[edit]

Initially consisting of only a couple of tents on a shore front campus that allowed students to take their boats to school, the Tamalpais campus was fully developed over the years, but has seen its share of wear and tear. Following a 2004 bond measure, the campus underwent renovations to some of its nearly century-old buildings. The oldest building, Wood Hall, reopened in late August 2005. Wood Hall houses the school's administrative offices.[51]


The 2005–2006 academic year was delayed by five days when unhealthy levels of mold were discovered in the walls of Keyser Hall. The building was closed, and portable classrooms were used instead of Keyser's 17 classrooms. The mold grew due to runoff from the hillside the building was situated on. Keyser Hall was demolished during the summer of 2006; a state-of-the-art replacement structure, also named Keyser Hall, was opened in January 2009. School administrators are consulting with architects about the construction of a handicapped elevator in front of the school's most recognizable building, Wood Hall. Architects unveiled a plan for a four-story elevator tower in front of the school's signature archway, complete with a bridge to take handicapped students into the building. Staff were shocked at the drastic proposal, which would be costly and would have an extensive impact on many of the campus' most well-known architectural features. An elevator of some sort may be necessary to comply with handicapped accessibility laws. Administrators have formed a committee to look into alternative ways to provide that accessibility.

Statistics[edit]

Demographics[edit]

2014–2015[52]

Baseball – NCS Champions, 1929, 2014 (Division III); NCS second-place, 1920, 1928, and 2012[61][62]

[60]

Basketball, Boys – NCS Division IV and State Champions, 2000

[63]

Cross Country, Boys – NCS Division IV Team Champions, 2008

[64]

Cross Country, Girls – NCS Meet of Champions, 1975; NCS Class A Champions, 1977

[65]

Golf, Boys – NCS Co-Champions, 1980

[66]

Soccer, Boys – NCS Champions, 2000, 2012

[67]

Soccer, Girls – NCS Champions, 2008, 2009, 2014, 2020[69][70][71]

[68]

Softball, Girls – North Coast Section Champions, 2014

[72]

Tennis, Boys –

Track, Boys – NCS Redwood Empire Champions, 2006; Redwood Empire Division III Champions, 1971

[73]

Water Polo, Boys – North Coast Section Champions, 1994, 2016

[74]

Water Polo, Girls – North Coast Section Champions, 2018, 2019; NorCal Champions 2019

[75]

Awards and recognition[edit]

Tamalpais High School was a recipient of the California Distinguished School Award in 1999, 2005, and 2009.[136] The school has been ranked in the top five percent of American high schools since 2005, based on a system devised by Dave Matthews of the Washington Post and reported by Newsweek. Tam ranked the highest of all Marin County high schools each year, at 428 in 2005, 425 in 2006, 410 in 2007, and 979 in 2008.[137]

1911 – attorney; civil rights pioneer

William L. Patterson

c. 1923‡ – attorney; general counsel, U.S. Department of Defense, 1952–53; Democratic Party campaign manager and State chair[139]

Roger Kent

(Eunice Quedens) 1926* – Oscar-nominated actress, Mildred Pierce, Anatomy of a Murder, Grease, star of TV series Our Miss Brooks

Eve Arden

1926* – saxophonist, big band leader

Freddy Nagel

c. 1926 – pitcher MLB, Philadelphia Athletics and Cincinnati Reds, member of Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame[140]

Antonio "Tony" Freitas

1929 - director and documentarian

Larry Lansburgh

1934‡ – athlete (high school and college star, California Golden Bears; MLB's Philadelphia Athletics and Cleveland Indians)

Sam Chapman

1943 – MLB pitcher: Yankees (1953 World Series), Orioles[141][142]

Art Schallock

1945† – statesman, actor, comedian (Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour)

Pat Paulsen

1946‡ – MLB shortstop: A's, St. Louis Browns, Chicago White Sox, Yankees, 1957 All Star, 1960 World Series

Joe DeMaestri

(Howard Stanton Levey) ~1947 – founder of Church of Satan[6][143]

Anton Szandor LaVey

1948* – MLB outfielder: Red Sox, Senators, Tigers

Karl Olson

1951† – athlete (linebacker, NFL San Francisco 49ers, 1963 and 1965 Pro Bowls)[144]

Matt Hazeltine

1952‡ – actor; drama teacher (Daniel Caldwell Performing Arts Center opened in 2006 at Tam High)

Daniel Caldwell

1954* – radio sports announcer; "Voice of the Seahawks"

Pete Gross

1955† – entertainment critic and columnist with San Francisco Chronicle from 1964 until his death in 1979; he referred to "the Frats and the Hoods" at Tam in his review of Grease[145]

John L. Wasserman

1957 – football player

Willie Hector

1957‡ – actor and director, 9 @ Night Films (On the Edge; first American director to win both the Prix de la Caméra d'Or (Best First Film) at Cannes (for Northern Lights in 1979) and the Grand Jury Prize-Dramatic at the Sundance Film Festival (in 1988 for Heat and Sunlight))[146][147][148][149]

Rob Nilsson

1962 – actress and singer

Sally Champlin

1962‡ – athlete (lineman, NFL San Francisco 49ers, Baltimore Colts)[150]

Elmer Collett

1962 – professor

John A. Meacham

1963 – jazz pianist

George Duke

1963‡ – roadie (Sons of Champlin); Mountain Bike Hall of Fame

Charlie Kelly

1964* – musician (Quicksilver Messenger Service)

John Cipollina

1965* – musician (Sons of Champlin, Chicago)

Bill Champlin

1966‡ – athlete (University of the Pacific, NFL)[151]

Honor Jackson

1967* – mountain bike pioneer (Mountain Bike Hall of Fame first year inductee, 1988)

Charlie Cunningham

1971‡ – writer (Rolling Stone, Addicted to Noise)

Michael Goldberg

1971‡ – artist, author, African historian and educator[152]

Tom Killion

1972‡ – mountain bike inventor (Mountain Bike Hall of Fame 1988, founder of Breezer Bikes)[153]

Joe Breeze

1972* – musician (Huey Lewis and the News)

Mario Cipollina

1972‡ – Oscar-nominated actress (American Graffiti, Apollo 13, The Doors, Breach)

Kathleen Quinlan

(Cassandra Politzer) 1976‡ – actress (Starship, Sons and Daughters)

Cassandra Webb

1977* – actor (Square Pegs, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)

Merritt Butrick

1977‡ – mathematician

Peter Shor

1978‡ – model, actress (The Young and the Restless, Guiding Light)

Signy Coleman

1979 – award-winning sportswriter and New York Times best-selling author; columnist for San Francisco Chronicle[154]

Ann Killion

1980‡ – pitcher drafted by (California Angels), MLB pitching coach (Seattle Mariners, Arizona Diamondbacks), manager (Cincinnati Reds)[155]

Bryan Price

1981‡ – NASA engineer at JPL; phase lead and development manager for EDL (Entry, Descent and Landing) of Curiosity rover lander, which successfully landed on Mars on August 5, 2012[156][157]

Adam Steltzner

1984 – anthropologist, defense analyst

Montgomery McFate

1984 – writer

Cintra Wilson

1985* – actress (Melrose Place, Ally McBeal, According to Jim)

Courtney Thorne-Smith

1987* – United States District Judge

Vince Chhabria

1988* – musician (Jane's Addiction, The Panic Channel)

Chris Chaney

1989* – NFL (Cleveland Browns; Washington Redskins); NCAA football coach (Colorado Buffaloes)[158]

Romeo Bandison

1989† – rapper, actor

Tupac Shakur

c. 1990 – musician[159]

Snatam Kaur

c. 1997 – MLB outfielder (Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Nationals, Milwaukee Brewers)[160]

Nyjer Morgan

2004 – Manhattan-based Internet personality, founder of Pop17[161]

Sarah Austin (journalist)

2007 - actress [162]

Monica Barbaro

and Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth, convicted murderers (2019 murder of police officer Mario Cerciello Rega)

Finnegan Lee Elder

c. 2013 – Major League Baseball pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels

Kenny Rosenberg

2017 – singer

Salem Ilese

As part of its celebration of its 144th year, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a series in June 2009 listing 144 famous Bay Area high school alumni in a "roll call of fame". Tam alumni listed included Tupac Shakur, George Duke, Pat Paulsen, William L. Patterson, John Cipollina, Serge Levin and Courtney Thorne-Smith.[138]


The people listed here graduated from or attended Tam. The year shown is the year of graduation for the class that they entered with, unless they are known to have graduated with or identify with a different class.


* Alumni listed in the 2002 Alumni Directory, address unconfirmed
† Alumni listed as "reported deceased" in the 2002 Alumni Directory
‡ Alumni listed in the Biographical Section of the 2002 Alumni Directory

coached the Tamalpais High School football team in 1934 and recruited Sam Chapman to play for UC Berkeley[163]

Roy "Wrongway" Riegels

founder, Ensemble Theatre Company[164]

Dan Caldwell

American football player

Willie Hector

former NFL linebacker and author of Out of Their League, was the head football coach in 1981 while teaching part-time at Stanford

Dave Meggyesy

Several students and faculty had credited and cameo parts in the 1968 film Bullitt

Steve McQueen

The Tamalpais appeared in the 1969 Woody Allen film Take the Money and Run, while Tam teachers Dan Caldwell and Don Michaelian had small roles as a prison guard and a prisoner[165]

Marching Band

Since the late 1960s, the school hosted many live concerts during lunch breaks, after school and on Saturday nights, with performances by local bands such as ,Clover, Michael Bloomfield, Cold Blood, Pablo Cruise, and Jefferson Starship

Sons of Champlin

's song, "Tamalpais High (At About 3)", refers to when Tam classes end for the day, and was conceived while the musician passed the school on the way to recording sessions in neighboring Sausalito, reportedly at The Plant Studios. It was recorded in February 1971 (though The Plant Studios is said to have opened in 1972). David Crosby – guitar, vocals; Jerry Garcia – guitar; Jorma Kaukonen – guitar; Phil Lesh – bass; Bill Kreutzmann – drums[166]

David Crosby

The "Sock hop" dance in (1973) was filmed in the Boys (now Gustafson) Gymnasium. Tam graduate Kathleen Quinlan appears in dance and bathroom scenes, as was current Tam High French teacher Brian Zailian (then a 15-year-old Redwood High student), who is dancing in the crowd

American Graffiti

The cover photograph for the 1986 album by Huey Lewis and the News was taken at Tam High.[167] Three members of the band - Bill Gibson, Sean Hopper, and Mario Cipollina - had previously attended the school

Fore!

, (Davida Wills Hurwin, 1995, Little Brown & Co, ISBN 0-316-38351-1) is set partly in Mill Valley and at Tam, which Julianna and Samantha, the main characters, attend; the movie based on the book was shot in 2000, with limited distribution in Europe, and was released in the United States in 2004[168][169]

A Time for Dancing

Cluff, Susan (May 2, 2008). . Mill Valley Herald. Archived from the original on March 30, 2009. Retrieved May 3, 2008.

"Tam High: Eight who made a difference"

Greenwood, Robert (2003). . p. xii, 114 pp. Archived from the original on December 31, 2004.

Tamalpais High School: A Remembered History, 1961 to 2000

Oldenburg, Chuck (April 27, 2008). . Mill Valley Herald. Archived from the original on May 28, 2007. Retrieved May 3, 2008.

"A look back at Tam High's rich history"

Stump, Vera (1961). The Tamalpais Story: 1906–1960. Sausalito, California: Graphic Arts of Marin. p. 104 pp.

Tam Alumni Association (2007). . Chesapeake, Virginia: Harris Connect. p. xv, 410 pp.

Tamalpais High School Alumni: Today

Tam Alumni Association (2002). Tamalpais High School Alumni Directory. Purchase, New York: Bernard C. Harris. xviii, 333 pp.

Official Tamalpais High School website

2D campus map

– student newspaper

The Tam News

– non-profit fund raiser

Tam High Foundation

working on restoration of three WPA Federal Art Project pieces at Tam

Tam Art Restoration Project

Video

Art For Tam

(formerly Ensemble Theatre Company)

Conservatory Theatre Ensemble

Tam High Mountain Bike Team

Tam Alumni and Reunion Websites

Celebrities who attended Tamalpais High School