Thomas S. Wootton High School or Wootton High School (WHS) is a public high school in Rockville, Maryland. Its namesake is Thomas S. Wootton, the founder of Montgomery County. The school was founded in 1970 and is part of the Montgomery County Public Schools system.

Academics

In 2019, Newsweek ranked Wootton's STEM program #160 in a nationwide survey of US high schools. In 2022, U.S. News & World Report ranked Wootton #167 nationally amongst high school. As of 2024, Wootton ranks 195th nationally and 4th in Maryland. Wootton students average a score of 1288 on the SAT, with 634 on verbal and 654 on math.

History

In November 2001, President George W. Bush visited Wootton and signed the congressional bill officially recognizing "Veterans Awareness Week", which takes place the week before Veteran's Day. In 2015, school principal Michael Doran was found dead in his Bethesda, Maryland, apartment. A memorial service was held at Wootton two days later. In 2017, a bridge near the high school and its auditorium was named in Doran's honor. On April 18, 2024, an 18-year-old trans student by the name of Andrea Ye was arrested by the Montgomery County Police Department for shooting threats made against the school. The FBI contacted the MCPD, after which they proceeded to obtain a search warrant to investigate her home, where they discovered violent drawings and documents relating to mass violence, including a 129-page long manifesto, containing numerous threats of violence against the student population and staff of Wootton High School. Authorities say that Ye, a local resident at the time, had a difficult past when she was sent to the hospital in December 2022 for similar threats as well as homicidal and suicidal thoughts, but was still preoccupied after being released the following month.

Controversies

On October 9, 2020, former football coach Christopher Papadopolous was sentenced to 18 months in jail with 5 years of probation with his addition to the Maryland sex offender registry. Papadopolous pleaded guilty to one count of sexual abuse of a minor and one count of fourth-degree sex offense. These charges stemmed from his sexual assault of several 17-year-old minors in his home in Gaithersburg. On November 2, 2021, a report of a sexual assault occurring in the school's locker room was received by Montgomery County Police. Members of the school's varsity team were allegedly involved in this incident. Several students and staff members were interviewed in an investigation with officers from the police department's Special Victims Investigation Division. However, the investigation yielded no evidence of an occurrence of a sexual assault. Its infrastructure is aging, a cause of concern for many students and teachers alike. It was found to have lead in its water, but those issues have not been fixed as of 2018. However, Montgomery County Public School Student Member of the Board candidates of 2023 are promising to fix this.

Areas served

Most students attending Wootton live in Rockville, with others residing in Gaithersburg, Potomac, Travilah, and North Potomac. Wootton feeds from two middle schools and six elementary schools:

Future boundary changes

Wootton is one of the schools in the scope for the new Crown High School, which has an expected completion date of August 2027.

Demographics

During the 2022–2023 school year, the school's racial composition was 37.3% white, 38.3% Asian, 11.8% Black, and 8.2% Hispanic. Multiracial students made up less than 5% of the student body, as did Native and Pacific Islander American students. The overall size of the student body was 1,911.

Notable alumni

• Utkarsh Ambudkar, actor • Steve Coll, journalist • Daryl Davis, musician and activist • Trevon Diggs, National Football League (NFL) defensive back • Myles Frost, Tony Award-winning actor • Mack Hollins, National Football League (NFL) wide receiver • Timothy Hwang, CEO and co-founder of FiscalNote • Thomas Jane, actor • Chris Lu, politician • Eric Luedtke, member of the Maryland House of Delegates • Richie Moriarty, actor • Mathias Nkwenti, National Football League (NFL) offensive tackle • Krystian Ochman, Polish-American singer • Marc Roberge, Chris Culos, Richard On and Benj Gershman, members of the rock band O.A.R. • Dick Scanlan (1977), actor • Aaron Silverman, chef • Haley Skarupa, Olympic ice hockey player • Scott Weinrich, musician • Frederick Yeh, biologist and animal welfare activist