Adams Middle School

I don’t know what made me look this place up, really don’t. I went to school here in 94 – 96 and in hindsight this place wasn’t in great shape, the academic curriculum was not engaging or challenging at all, I remember doing the mid-​90s version of copy and paste and getting A’s.
What I learned there was outside of the classroom, my friends were bused up from «lower» Richmond, I learned: diversity (being one of the few asian kids back than and my friends were everything but), take a punch/​get in fights, street smarts via hanging out with my friends in the not so nice parts of Richmond and generally how to be anti-​social at times. These traits helped me well in adult years, 13+ years in the military and 25+ countries traveling solo, still alive.

I also went there Ted C. but I was just after you 79 – 80 and my memories are fond of that school when it was a great school to attend. I remember my pleasant walk to school everyday which was probably ¾ of a mile. I remember smelling those pine trees right now just thinking of it and the smell of the snack bar cookies and other goods. That was when schools still had resources to have a snack bar, drivers ed., p. e classes, arts, music, etc. The age of innocence and care free times. It was sad that junior high was only two years. Seemed like a lifetime ago… shouts to Carol Y. and Chris F.

Are you kidding me? Gang fights at every lunch period. Missing doors and missing walls between bathroom stalls we coined «the loveseat». No resources. 1993 – 1995 were spent trying to stay out of the way and disappear. Ms. Floe (RIP) and Mrs. Bruns were the only shining stars in that school. Kudos to them for sticking it out in a depressed environment. My favorite moment had to be when Mrs. Rentschler, with glasses taped to her forehead, started wailing at the intercom button with a hammer. «Our children is learning» — G.W. Bush

I attended Adams when it was called «junior high» back in 1978 – 79 and have some fond memories. I was looking up some teachers I had that shaped my life at that age. Sherry Matsubara taught English and recently died in 2009. While she was a toughie, she was one of my best teachers, and whipped me into shape learning parts of speech! Ms. Pappas, who taught science, was another wonderful teacher and person and I remember she died very young just a few years after I left. Mr. Slater was also a terrific history teacher and wonder what became of him. I only have vague memories of other teachers from that era. I remember the library, and learning the Dewey decimal system back then. And presenting my science fair project there in 1978 which I look to the SF Bay Area fair and won grand prize. I remember a lot of girl chasing and being chased there :-) It’s sad to discover it has shut down. I’ll bet it is creepy to walk around.

Ok so this wasn’t the best middle school around but it was better than a lot of middle schools around the area at the time. While I was going to school, the area was a nice area, many families lived close by. The school was already old — so we couldn’t expect much. The school is built down a hill so the 3^rd floor was on top. The 1^st floor was the gym locker rooms, access to the main gym and other classrooms. The 2^nd floor was mainly science and English classes, also the cafeteria was on this floor. The 3^rd floor had the main office, counseled office, library, math classes, history classes and computer classes.
This school was always dirty no matter how much they cleaned it. The lockers were in decent shape. Cafeteria food wasn’t have bad either. The staff — well there was some good and bad. There will be those well remembered teachers.
The school now is closed :(I have managed to break in and walk around — really creepy and eerie feeling but still good, perfect place to film a horror movie of some sort! Sad this place is closed down, would have loved to see this still operating.