Forest High School is a high school near Ocala, Florida, United States. It has an EMIT (engineering) program and two magnet programs, College and Career Advanced Placement (CCAP) 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.[1]
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.[2]
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.
Shooting
Deputy Long's body-camera footage of Bouche's arrest
On April 20, 2018, at 8:29 a.m, 19-year-old Sky Bouche (born June 5, 1998); went on school premises armed with a sawed-off16-gaugeWinchester Model 12pump-action shotgun, a black tactical vest, and a blue backpack full of gloves and shotgun shells.[3] Bouche was a former student who dropped out in 2016. Bouche shot once through a classroom door and a piece of the door hit 17-year-old Evan Eckenroth in the ankle, injuring him. Bouche surrendered to a teacher he recognized, Kelly McManis (née Panasuk), out of regret immediately after. McManis allowed Bouche into her classroom, where Marion County Sheriff's Office School Resource Deputy James "Jimmy" Long soon arrested him and took him into custody.[4]SWAT officers swept the school afterwards in search of any weapons or explosives. All students were then taken to the First Baptist Church of Ocala by bus, where their parents gathered to pick them up.[5]
All of the schools in the Marion County School District were scheduled to have gun-reform walkouts later that day. They were all cancelled following the shooting.[6] Four days later, the school board approved $224,000 to pay for 34 new resource officers to protect the schools belonging to the Marion County School District for the remaining four weeks of the school year.[7] On May 21, McManis received the Woman of Courage Award during an event at the College of Central Florida’s Klein Center for how she handled the shooting.[8] On June 20, Deputy Long was labeled "Florida School Resource Officer Of The Year" for his involvement in arresting Bouche.[9]
The shooting occurred only two months after the Parkland high school shooting, only 4 hours from where Ocala was located. After the body-cam footage of the incident was released two months later, the school was met with much criticism for how they handled the shooting, particularly McManis for allowing Bouche into her classroom. A local sheriff stated that since he was still armed with a knife, McManis put all of the students inside the classroom in "extreme danger". The school responded by saying McManis may receive counseling before continuing her job the following school year.[10]
In court, it was revealed that Bouche struggled with mental health issues due to his violent home life, as his entire family suffered from bipolar and schizophrenia. His struggles with his mental health was what led to him dropping out in 2016. Bouche became obsessed with the Columbine High School massacre sometime during his middle school years, and made several posts online supporting the incident in October 2013.[11] His obsession led to him eventually deciding to shoot up his former high school, in order to be recognized.[12] He chose to do it on April 20th since it was the 19th anniversary of the massacre. Bouche also claimed that after he shot through the classroom door and realized he hit a student, he felt remorse as he began to realize the reality of what he was doing, saying it "wasn’t what he truly wanted."
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.[13] After Bouche was sentenced, he claimed that he heavily regretted the incident and that he "deserved to be put away."[14]
On February 8, 2022, Evan Eckenroth, the student injured in the shooting, filed a lawsuit against the Marion County School District, seeking over $30,000 worth of damages.[15] In the suit, Eckenroth claimed that the district "failed to have proper security measures in place to protect students and keep non-students from accessing the school's parking lot and main building during school hours." Eckenroth also claimed to have received permanent scars and mental anguish from the incident.[7] The outcome of the lawsuit remains unknown.
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