General William J. Palmer High School, commonly referred to as Palmer High School (PHS), is a public high school in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States. It is the flagship high school of School District 11 and has the oldest International Baccalaureate (IB) program in the area.

History

Palmer High School is located at 301 North Nevada Avenue in Colorado Springs. The present building was built by the Works Progress Administration under Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940. Originally named Colorado Springs High School, Palmer High School was renamed in 1959 after the city's founder, General William Jackson Palmer. At that date, the city had expanded enough to warrant the building of a second high school, Roy J. Wasson High School.

Gender-inclusive bathrooms

In 2016 seniors Park Long and Halle Schall, both genderqueer students, along with others from the school's Gay-Straight-Trans Alliance, lobbied school officials for gender-inclusive bathrooms due to the discrimination experienced by transgender students. Palmer was the first high school in Southern Colorado to have gender-inclusive bathrooms.

Extracurricular activities

Mock Trial

Palmer's Mock Trial program won the Southern Colorado Regional Competition in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2015; the Colorado State Competition in 2009 and 2013; and took 14th place in the National High School Mock Trial Tournament in 2013.

Notable alumni