Atholton High School

History

Atholton takes its name from a 600-acre (240 ha) land grant named "Athol" granted from King Charles to James MacGill 17 August 1732. He built a nearby manor house named "Athol" built between 1732 and 1740. The name "Athol" was created to honor MacGill's ancestral home in Scotland. In 1845, Nicolas Worthington freed seventeen of his slaves, and gave them 150 acres (61 ha) of the "Athol enlarged" land which was then called "Freetown". The community was briefly a postal town named Atholton, Maryland. The school sites were later considered part of Simpsonville, Maryland, and later Columbia, Maryland.

The Howard County school system was segregated since the building of the Ellicott City Colored School in 1888. The first Atholton school was a one-room colored school house next to Locust Church given by John R. and Susie Clark in 1885. Students transferred to Guilford in 1939. School property was bought for $200 by the Locust Church. In 1941, an additional acre was not accounted for, then sold on a separate bid for $701 to Herbert M Brown.

Harriet Tubman site

In 1948, a new 10-room high school called Atholton Colored School was ordered. It was designed by Francis Thuman to be built in Simpsonville with a $280,000 budget. The cornerstone was set on September 25, 1948, by the Colored Masonic Lodge. Clarksville students were used to operate the bulldozers used in grading. At the students request, the school was renamed to the Harriet Tubman High School. In 1954, Segregation was outlawed by the supreme court in Brown v. Board of Education. Howard County eliminated one class of segregated students a year, taking 11 years to implement integrated classes. Modern accounts of the development of Columbia note that Rouse Company donated land for public schools, but prior to the requirement, the company sold unusable land from its 1963 purchases to build Columbia back to the school board. The company sold 10 usable acres (4.0 ha), and 10 unbuildable acres adjoining the school, at market rate, to "meet new state standards".

The High School would later be renamed the Harriet Tubman building, to be used by the Board of Education. In 1981 Grassroots Crisis Center operated a homeless shelter from the facility. In 2006, James N. Robey issued $1.6 million in Howard County loans to Grassroots to build an enlarged homeless facility on the Atholton School grounds. Centered around the 50th anniversary of desegregation at the school, The Howard County Center of African American Culture has petitioned to relocate from Oakland Manor to the Harriet Tubman building. The offices used by school system were listed as the top endangered historical site in Howard county by Preservation Howard County in 2015.

Atholton High School

In 1966 a new integrated high school was built alongside the old school taking the name Atholton High School. The school has been renovated and expanded several times. In 2012 a $51.3 million project was started to renovate the school again with students in place. The structure will use temporary classrooms in its expansion from 206,000 square ft to 250,000 sf. During the summer of 2024, a vestibule was added to the school.

Incidents

In early April 2026, Principal Nicholas Novak was put on leave for the remainder of the school year after an altercation with a group of students in the school cafeteria. Novak approached the group and yelled at them after he saw them throwing their food. Novak then used a student's homework to clean up spilled milk on one of the cafeteria tables and threw it into the group of students before sending them to his office. The altercation was recorded by a nearby student.

Students

Atholton's student population has been in flux over the past 15 years. As of April 2024, Atholton is designed for 1,530 students with a current enrollment of 1,498 students, making Atholton a 3A school.

The student population as of September 2023 is ≤5% Native American or Alaskan, 18.5% Asian, 31.4% Black or African American, ≤5% Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 13.5% Hispanic or Latino, 28.3% White or Caucasian, and 8.1% Two or more races.

Athletics

Atholton has won the following state championships & athletic accomplishments:

Notable alumni

Sofia Harrison, defender for the Philippines women's national football team, played in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup

Derek Phillips, former footballer for the Trinidad and Tobago national football team, later head coach of the Atholton High School Men's Varsity Soccer, left after 2023–2024 school year.

John H. Brodie, theoretical physicist

Jack Douglass, YouTube celebrity

Gallant, singer-songwriter

Lauren Giddings, graduate of Mercer Law School and murder victim

Greg Hawkes, keyboardist for The Cars

Thomas Hong, short track speed skater

Brendan Iribe, former CEO and co-founder of Oculus Rift

Josh Kelly, actor

Vanessa Atterbeary, Democratic member of the Maryland House of Delegates

Courtney Watson, Democratic member of the Maryland House of Delegates

Allan H. Kittleman, former Howard County Executive, former Maryland State Senator and Minority Leader

Alan Landsman, former vocalist and bass guitarist (member of Poison the Well) and convicted mail fraudster

Steve Lombardozzi Jr., former infielder in the Miami Marlins organization

Special programs

Raider Review (school newspaper)

FIRST Robotics