Forest High School (Florida)


Forest High School is a high school near Ocala, Florida, United States. It has an EMIT program and two magnet programs, College and Career Advanced Placement and the Entrepreneurship Program. The school's colors are green and gold and the school mascot is the Wildcat. It is in the Marion County School District.
The student population as of the 2023-2024 school year is 2,383 students.

History

Forest High School moved to its current location on Maricamp Road, southeast of the city limits of Ocala, in 2005. The school was originally on Fort King Street in Ocala, at the 1959 campus of Ocala High School. Prior to 1965, the school was for white students only. In 1965, a group of 34 students from the nearby black school, Howard High School began attending. In 1969, the courts mandated the schools became fully integrated and Howard was closed. Vanguard High School was opened the same year, and the Marion County School Board put to rest the name Ocala High School.

2018 shooting

On April 20, 2018, at 8:29 a.m, 19-year-old Sky Bouche, a former student of the school, went on school premises armed with a sawed-off 16-gauge Winchester Model 12 pump-action shotgun and wearing a black tactical vest. He shot once through a classroom door and a piece of the door hit one student in his ankle, injuring him. Feeling immediate regret, Bouche surrendered to the school staff. He was soon arrested and taken into custody.
Bouche was charged with Terrorism, Aggravated Assault with a Firearm, Culpable Negligence, Carrying a Concealed Firearm, Possession of a Firearm on School Property, Possession of a Short-Barreled Shotgun, Interference in a School Function, and Armed Trespassing on School Property. In 2021, Bouche was sentenced to 30years imprisonment, with the possibility of parole only after 25years, followed by an additional 30years of probationary release. After Bouche was sentenced, he claimed that he heavily regretted the incident and that he "deserved to be put away."

Programs

Engineering and Manufacturing Institute of Technology (EMIT)

EMIT is a four-year magnet engineering program at Forest High School. EMIT aims to teach its students engineering fundamentals to prepare them for postsecondary colleges or universities in engineering. The curriculum is heavily project-based that often includes problem-solving tasks which must be built and later presented to teachers. These projects typically cover the basics of many engineering disciplines, including civil engineering, aerospace engineering, and more.
EMIT was created from a $1.2 million Florida Department of Education grant in 1994. An application is required to be considered for admission.

Notable alumni