Mt Diablo High School

As a worker here, I heard all the bad stories that come with mounts name. Let me be the first to tell you that the stories that come with mount are not true. I know many kids that have came through mount and have had nothing but good experiences here.

I was a student here from 2005 to 2009.
One star reviews are really disappointing. I was from a low income student while going there. I witnessed the fights and got in some. Im also from bay point. Does that mean Im a «stupid no good fucc»?! Yes i had to go to two schools to graduate. Olympic and Mt Diablo High. Mt. Diablo high is a school that I find more peaceful than other schools because I know what I had to do.
Richard A., you ditched on lunch to get food. Don’t think you did things that weren’t allowed and against school policy? Rethink things before posting it up.

I am saddened to read the one star reviews. I’m certain that those feelings are at least in part a result of the ongoing and tragic drop in support for public education, including absurdly low teacher salaries, which has been taking place in California, and nationally, for at least 20 years.
When I attended public schools in Concord, from 1953 until 1966, beginning at Crawford Village Elementary, continuuing at Loma Vista Intermediate, and Mt Diablo, I feel sure they were among the best in the country.
Looking at my 1963, 64, 65, and 66 Diablo yearbooks, fully one-​third of the teachers were UC Berkeley grads. Teaching attracted many of the best college graduates from the best universities. That is far less true today and we are all diminished because of it. Nothing is more important than great public schools. At their best, they are the equalizer, the institution that can provide every child with the opportunity to improve their lot in life.
We should end the «war on drugs» — several trillion dollars spent over the last 40 years without success, and try something else, *anything* else, and if that doesn’t work we can always go back to what hasn’t worked for five decades; cut defense spending in half; restore taxes on capital gains and dividend income to the same level as earned income (money made from wealth is taxed at a maximum of 15%; income from labor is taxed as high as 35%); and use the money to make American public education the best the world has ever seen; to stimulate the economy by putting people to work rebuilding our disintegrating infrastructure; to fully fund national healthcare with a single payer, Medicare-​type system, and to reduce the Bush budget deficits.
I digress.
Mt. Diablo was the first high school in Contra Costa County and most students embraced the Diablo spirit and traditions. The most famous grad, then, and now, was pianist Dave Brubeck, who was on the cover of Time magazine in 1954 for his role in popularizing jazz music. His album, «Time Out,» (1959), which included the song Take Five, is considered an all-​time classic.
[
]. Mr. Brubeck was a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2009 along with actor Robert De Niro, comedian/​auteur Mel Brooks, opera star Grace Bumbry, and songwriter/​performer Bruce Springsteen.
I was a mediocre student, but was given wonderful opportunites and encouragement, and shown enormous kindness, nonetheless. To be happy in life you have to get three things right: career, partner, and hobby/​obssessions. My experiences at Mt Diablo laid the foundation for pretty much nailing all three.
John Hocking
Mt Diablo High, 1966

high school was fun. came back here recently for the homecoming game. the school still looks the same. all i can think about is getting my hands on a cheese zombie… i’m still waiting!

MDHS ain’t that bad. Lots of bad press about this school. Today’s media is quick to point out failures and flaws. Yes, MDHS has its share of gang activity, but that’s pretty much par for the course for the area. Their are many surround high school that face the same problems. What the media doesn’t point out is all of the outstanding programs that students have the opportunity to take advantage of. Opportunities that offer real life/​job experience.
MDHS has great hospitality academies. They have a restaurant that severs the community, and teaches students culinary skills. The food they produce is delicious. This isn’t your typical Home Economics class. This is the read deal «I want to be a chef» education.
They also have child care class, but I don’t remember what it’s actually called. They offer child day care. The students learn the fundamentals of child care and education.
Then there is my favorite. The Digital Safari Multimedia Academy. (
) I’m a graduate of this program. Here I learned out to be a graphic designer, website designer, and programmer. Straight out of high school I was able to get a 40K a year job because of this program doing web and graphic design.
As a student if you want a great education you can get one here. You just have to have the drive to push yourself.
Class of ’99. Go Red Devils!

This school is a Ghetto ass school, and the worse place to get an education.
I attended this school from 2001 to 2006.
Each time I tried learning something from this school, there is always some stupid no good fucks trying to ruin your education.
As this is more catered to the Bay Point Community, and Low Income families, there are regular daily fights at this campus.
The worst fight I heard was very bloody, and caused our school to go into a lock down. The reason, A very bloody gang fight that involved pupils outside of the school, and nearly killed this young man.
Another incident happened was when I was a Sophomore at this school, when some stupid no good fucks let the English Building on fire causing a full campus evacuation, disturbing education, and having the fire department put out the fire.
If you go to you tube, you can see some gang fights posted by students.
The only positive part of this school is that it is wide open, (but can also be a negative because it invites people that do not attend Mt. Diablo High) and the very close proximity to the Downtown Concord Salvio Street.
For lunch, as you all know schools don’t have alot of money to spend on food so the lunches are really not all that appetizing. So on my Senior year, I sneak out of campus to go to the Hospital café where they serve delicious meals on a daily basis.

Mt. Diablo High has a fascinating history. Over 100 years old, it was the first high school erected in Concord, CA. When the owner died, his will specified the land be used only for a high school called Mt. Diablo High.
With that in mind, no matter how much the state or the district hates it, and though our English books were from the ’20’s and crumbled in our hands, nobody can get rid of it and few appear willing to improve it.
Vilified for its more ghetto characteristics and for the sub-​par education (it was seized by the state last year), Mt. Diablo High has among the best Digital Safari courses in the nation and a bangin’ color guard (which the student body actually didn’t realize, because they wouldn’t perform for an audience that threw batteries and rocks). It also has its own student-​run gourmet restaurant, called Serendipity, where many an aimless transient or former gangster came to discover his future in crème-​puffs.
I didn’t learn very much, granted, but Mt. Diablo served a more important purpose — it taught its student body that if you don’t sort out your priorities, nobody’s going to create them for you. It taught its student body how to negotiate space with multiple races, loose cannons and a vibrant underground economy. It taught its student body that peers matter, maybe even more than American history. Mt. Diablo showed us what life was.
I wouldn’t trade it for a different high school education.