public high school
State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools (Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary schools that educate all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in pa ...
in
Troutdale, Oregon
Troutdale is a city in Multnomah County, Oregon, United States, immediately north of Gresham and east of Wood Village. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 15,962. The city serves as the western gateway to the Historic Columbia River ...
, United States, in the northeastern part of the
Portland metropolitan area
The Portland metropolitan area is a metro area in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington centered on the principal city of Portland, Oregon. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) identifies it as the Portland–Vancouver–Hillsboro, ...
The school takes its name from the school district, which was named for the
Reynolds Aluminum
Reynolds Group Holdings is a New Zealand based packaging company with roots in the former Reynolds Metals Company, which was the second-largest aluminum company in the United States, and the third-largest in the world. Reynolds Metals was acquire ...
plant in the city that closed in 2000.
On May 29, 1979, a three-alarm fire injured three students and damaged the gym and theater.
Reynolds High School merged with Columbia High School in 1989. Columbia High School is now the site of Reynolds High School, and the former Reynolds High School is now one of three middle schools in the district, Reynolds Middle School.
2014 shooting
On June 10, 2014, an
active shooter
Active shooter or active killer describes the perpetrator of a type of mass murder marked by rapidity, scale, randomness, and often suicide. The United States Department of Homeland Security defines an ''active shooter'' as "an individual acti ...
situation occurred at the school during morning period. One student, 14-year-old freshman Emilio Hoffman, was killed. A physical education teacher suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The shooter, 15-year-old Jared Michael Padgett, who was using an
AR-15
An AR-15-style rifle is any lightweight semi-automatic rifle based on the Colt AR-15 design. The original ArmaLite AR-15 is a scaled-down derivative of Eugene Stoner's ArmaLite AR-10 design. The then Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporatio ...
and also equipped with a
handgun
A handgun is a short- barrelled gun, typically a firearm, that is designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun (i.e. rifle, shotgun or machine gun, etc.), which needs to be held by both hands and also braced ...
and a knife, engaged a responding officer in a gunfight before retreating inside a school bathroom, where he fatally shot himself.
SWAT
In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...
and
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
agents secured the school. The students were evacuated and were released to their parents at a nearby Fred Meyer store. The shooting occurred on the second-to-last day of the school year.
During the evacuation, a second gun, which was unrelated to the shooting, was found at the scene and one person, who did not have a permit to carry a concealed firearm, was taken into custody. The individual confessed to bringing the gun to the school to protect his sister, a freshman at the school."Affidavit: Man came to school with gun to 'protect' sister" /ref>
Padgett had planned to pursue a career in the
United States Armed Forces
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...
. He was a member of the
Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps
The Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC -- commonly pronounced "JAY-rotsee") is a Federal government of the United States, federal program sponsored by the United States Armed Forces in high schools and also in some middle schools acr ...
program, and his oldest brother served in the military in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
. Padgett had managed to acquire his weapons from a secured area in the family home.
This was the first fatal
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 ...
in Oregon since the 1998
Thurston High School shooting
The Thurston High School shooting occurred on May 21, 1998, at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon. 15-year-old freshman student Kipland Kinkel, who had been scheduled to appear at an expulsion (education), expulsion hearing the day prio ...
, which left two students and the shooter's parents dead and another 25 wounded.
Oregon Governor
The governor of Oregon is the head of government of Oregon and serves as the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The title of governor was also applied to the office of Oregon's chief executive during the provisional and U.S. ter ...
John Kitzhaber
John Albert Kitzhaber (born March 5, 1947) is an American former politician who served as the 35th governor of Oregon from 1995 to 2003, and as the 37th governor of Oregon from 2011 until his resignation in 2015. A member of the Democratic Part ...
attended a community vigil in Troutdale that evening; he called the shooting "a senseless act of violence".
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
, speaking at a
Tumblr
Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...
-sponsored question-and-answer session the day of the shooting, declared, "We're the only developed country on earth where this happens." Obama further stated that only a massive shift in
public opinion
Public opinion is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to a society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them.
Etymology
The term "public opinion" was derived from the French ', which was first use ...
could sway
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
to act in favor of greater
gun control
Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians.
Most countries have a restrictive firearm guiding policy, with on ...
measures.
In 2015, a bond resolution was proposed, which would grant the district $125,000,000 to help replace, and renovate several schools in the district, and install security upgrades in every school in the district. A portion of this sum of money was used to remodel the northern portion of the main establishment. This specifically includes remodeled science, functional life-skills, culinary, and early childhood education classrooms, cafeteria area, and kitchen. Relocation of the main office and counseling office by the new and more secure main entry. And all buildings that make up the campus internally connected. Construction was started spring of 2017, and is projected to be complete fall of 2018.
Academics
In 2008, 64% of the school's seniors received a
high school diploma
A high school diploma or high school degree is a North American academic school leaving qualification awarded upon high school graduation. The high school diploma is typically obtained after a course of study lasting four years, from grade 9 to gra ...
. Of 611 students, 388 graduated, 130 dropped out, 39 received a modified diploma, and 54 were still in high school the following year.
In 2009, there were nearly 900 freshmen in the incoming class, a record for the school. This was combined with a 25% layoff of teachers, over 40 teachers at the school. This caused class sizes to increase.