Kamiak High School is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

Mukilteo Mukilteo ( ) is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is located on the Puget Sound between Edmonds, Washington, Edmonds and Everett, Washington, Everett, approximately north of Seattle. The city had a population of 20,254 ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, United States. It was the second high school in the

Mukilteo School District Mukilteo School District No. 6 is a public school district that mainly serves Mukilteo, Washington. The Mukilteo School District includes all of the city, but also a portion of south Everett, Lynnwood, and Edmonds. The district had more than 1 ...

when it opened on September 8, 1993. The first and only high school within Mukilteo city limits, it was built to accommodate overflow population from the overcrowded Mariner High School in the neighboring city of Everett. Kamiak's campus features over 40

classroom A classroom or schoolroom is a learning space in which both children and adults learn. Classrooms are found in educational institutions of all kinds, ranging from preschools to universities, and may also be found in other places where education ...

s, a physical education complex with two separate gymnasiums and a weight room, a half-Olympic sized swimming pool complex, a

Performing Arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...

Center (known as "The PAC"), a number of portables, six

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

courts, a

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

field, baseball field,

soccer field A football pitch (also known as soccer field) is the playing surface for the game of association football. Its dimensions and markings are defined by Law 1 of the Laws of the Game, "The Field of Play". The pitch is typically made of natural tu ...

, football field,

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

facilities, and the school's East Campus, which houses science and math rooms as well as a third gymnasium (Multi-Purpose room) used as a secondary cafeteria.

History

When Mariner High School opened on January 10, 1971, it was the only high school serving the

. While the district waited for 84 years before opening Mariner, it dealt with substantial growth in enrollment between the openings of Mariner and Kamiak; from 1982 to 1992, the district student count had grown by 84 percent, with the district building one school per year from 1984 onward. With the growth far outstripping available capacity at Mariner, it was apparent that an additional high school was needed to handle future secondary students. Construction of Kamiak was initially funded via a $66.7 million levy approved by voters in 1989; an additional $89.5 million was approved in 1992. The cost of construction was projected at $32 million, with another $13 million dedicated to the construction of the adjacent Harbour Pointe Middle School. The opening of both schools was threatened by contract negotiations between the district and its teachers, but a potential strike was averted when both sides agreed to a three-year contract; both schools opened as planned on September 8, 1993. Kamiak opened without a senior class for the 1993–94 school year.

Firecrackers

On November 23, 2015, Kamiak was involved in a

school shooting A school shooting is an attack at an educational institution, such as a primary school, secondary school, high school or university, involving the use of firearms. Many school shootings are also categorized as mass shootings due to multiple c ...

scare when it was put under lockdown after a teacher called

9-1-1 , usually written 911, is an emergency telephone number for the United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Palau, Argentina, Philippines, Jordan, as well as the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), one of eight N11 codes. Like other emergency nu ...

around 9:38 AM, reporting that she heard gunshots near her third-floor classroom. Neighboring schools Columbia Elementary and Harbour Pointe Middle were also placed under lockdown as a precaution. Mukilteo police responded to the scene with assistance from multiple law enforcement agencies, which included the

Washington State Patrol The Washington State Patrol (WSP) is the state patrol agency for the U.S. state of Washington. Organized as the Washington State Highway Patrol in 1921, it was renamed and reconstituted in 1933. The agency is charged with the protection of the Gov ...

and the

Snohomish County Snohomish County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. With a population of 827,957 as of the 2020 census, it is the third-most populous county in Washington, after nearby King and Pierce counties, and the 75th-most populous ...

Sheriff's Office as well as the police departments of

Edmonds Edmonds may refer to: * Edmonds (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the surname) * Edmonds, Washington, a city in Washington, US ** Edmonds station (Washington), a passenger train station in Washington, US * Edmonds station (SkyTr ...

, Everett,

Lynnwood Lynnwood is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. The city is part of the Seattle metropolitan area and is located north of Seattle and south of Everett, near the junction of Interstate 5 and Interstate 405. It is the four ...

, and Mill Creek; an Everett officer was involved in a

rear-end collision A rear-end collision (often called simply rear-end or in the UK a shunt) occurs when a vehicle crashes into the one in front of it. Common factors contributing to rear-end collisions include driver inattention or distraction, tailgating, panic ...

with another driver on SR 526 at its eastern terminus while responding to the incident. Officers at the scene found residue from two

firecrackers A firecracker (cracker, noise maker, banger) is a small explosive device primarily designed to produce a large amount of noise, especially in the form of a loud bang, usually for celebration or entertainment; any visual effect is incidental to ...

in a stairwell between the second and third floors, conducting a full sweep of the campus after the discovery. The lockdown was lifted around 1:10 PM, lasting more than three hours in duration.

Joshua O'Connor

Just more than two years later, Kamiak was involved in another shooting scare when former student Joshua Alexander O'Connor was arrested on February 13, 2018, in connection with a plot to shoot up ACES Alternative High, his then-current school. O'Connor's initial target in the plot was Kamiak, where he was suspended twice while attending there; he later switched his target to ACES after conducting a

coin flip Coin flipping, coin tossing, or heads or tails is the practice of throwing a coin in the air and checking which side is showing when it lands, in order to choose between two alternatives, heads or tails, sometimes used to resolve a dispute betwe ...

to decide between the two schools. O'Connor was ultimately thwarted when his grandmother discovered the plot while going through his journal and called 9-1-1 to report it; he pled guilty to all charges brought against him on December 7 and was subsequently sentenced to 22½ years in prison on February 28, 2019.

Notable alumni

* Jean-Luc Baker (2012), ice dancer and Olympian *

Sean Beighton Sean Beighton (born November 22, 1988) is an American curler from Seattle, Washington. Career During his years of junior eligibility, Beighton was active as a skip. He won the national junior championship in 2010, which gave him the opportunity ...

(2007), Olympic curling coach and former curler *

Ron Watkins Ronald Watkins, also known by his online pseudonym CodeMonkeyZ, (born April 18, 1987) is an American Conspiracy theory, conspiracy theorist and site administrator of the imageboard website 8kun (formerly known as 8chan). He has played a major r ...

(2005), conspiracy theorist, former

8chan 8kun, previously called 8chan, Infinitechan or Infinitychan (stylized as ∞chan), is an imageboard website composed of user-created message boards. An owner moderates each board, with minimal interaction from site administration. The site ha ...

administrator, and alleged author of

QAnon QAnon ( , ) is an American political conspiracy theory and political movement. It originated in the American far-right political sphere in 2017. QAnon centers on fabricated claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals known as "Q". ...

posts *

Andrew Forsman Andrew Clark Forsman is an American drummer and percussionist from Mukilteo, Washington, known as one of the founding members of the Seattle-based progressive rock band The Fall of Troy. Early life and youth career Forsman grew up in Mukilteo, ...

(2004), drummer and percussionist for the progressive rock band The Fall of Troy *

Thomas Erak Thomas Joseph Erak is an American singer, songwriter, and musician from Mukilteo, Washington, best known as a founding member of the Seattle-based progressive mathcore band, The Fall of Troy and as a member of the band Just Like Vinyl; as well ...

(2003), lead vocalist, guitarist, and keyboardist for the band

The Fall of Troy The Fall of Troy is an American rock band from Mukilteo, Washington. The band is a trio consisting of Thomas Erak (guitars, vocals, keyboards), Andrew Forsman (drums, percussion) and Tim Ward (bass, screamed vocals) who was later replaced by Fr ...

, which formed during their time at Kamiak * Tim Ward (2003), bass guitarist and screamed vocalist for the progressive rock band The Fall of Troy, which produced a single for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock *

Marko Liias Marko Sakari Liias (born July 17, 1981) is an American politician serving as a member of the Washington State Senate, representing the 21st district since 2014. The district, located entirely within Snohomish County, includes portions of Lynnwoo ...

(1999), Democratic member of the

Washington State Senate The Washington State Senate is the upper house of the Washington State Legislature. The body consists of 49 members, each representing a district with a population of nearly 160,000. The State Senate meets at the Legislative Building in Olympi ...

, representing the 21st legislative district

Notable faculty

* Chance McKinney (until 2010), Country musician and winner of CMT's Music City Madness Competition

Academics

The school offers 22 Advanced Placement courses: Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Statistics, English Language and Composition, English Literature and Composition, Computer Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics C: Mechanics, Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism, European History, Human Geography, US Government and Politics, World History, US History, Spanish Language and Culture, French Language and Culture, German Language and Culture, Japanese Language and Culture, Music Theory, Studio Art: 2D Design Portfolio, and Studio Art: Drawing Portfolio, as well as a number of honors courses.

Athletics

The school is part of District One of the

Washington Interscholastic Activities Association The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) is the governing body of athletics and activities for secondary education schools in the state of Washington. As of February 2011, the private, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization consists ...

(WIAA). With over 2,000 students enrolled, Kamiak is classified as a Wesco 4A member under WIAA guidelines. Their main rival in athletics is Mariner High School, the other high school in the Mukilteo School District. Sports offered include: * Freshmen and Varsity Football * Girls' JV and Varsity Soccer * Girls' Swim * Girls' Dive * Girls' Freshmen, JV, and Varsity Volleyball * Cross Country * Boys' JV and Varsity Tennis * Boys' Freshmen, JV, and Varsity Basketball * Girls' Freshmen, JV, and Varsity Basketball * Wrestling * Boys' Swim * Boys' Dive * Boys' JV and Varsity Baseball * Girls' JV and Varsity Softball * Boys' and Girls' Track * Girls' JV and Varsity Tennis * Boys' JV and Varsity Soccer * Boys' Varsity Golf * Girls' JV and Varsity Golf * Flag Football * Dance * Cheerleading * Hip Hop * Boys' and Girls' Lacrosse JV & Varsity lub sport*Marching/Show Band

Clubs and activities

*Art *Tri-M *Asian *Newspaper (The Kamiak Gauntlet) *Spanish *Knights in Action *Leadership *Chess *German *Debate *Fashion *Robotics *DECA *Korean *Drama *Marching/Show Band *Winter Percussion *Color Guard *Winter Guard

References

External links

* {{authority control 1993 establishments in Washington (state) Educational institutions established in 1993 High schools in Snohomish County, Washington Public high schools in Washington (state)