Exchange also visit the high school to teach sexual and health education classes. Busing and desegregation Charlestown High School received considerable national attention in the 1975-1976 school year when court-mandated forced busing brought African-American children to what was at that time a predominantly white high school in an Irish neighborhood of Boston. Forced busing initially brought great discord and resulted in fights and arrests. There were also enduring images such as the famous photograph of a black and a white student holding hands out the window of their school bus (see the NPR article in the external links below). Contributing to the discord was the infamous September 28, 1979 school shooting of Darryl K. Williams, an African-American football player for Jamaica Plain High School, at Charlestown High School during a football game. Three Irish Americans, at least one of whom had dropped out of Charlestown High School, shot Williams at halftime on the field from a building rooftop while his team was huddled for a pep talk. (See List of school shootings in the United States). Williams was permanently paralyzed below the neck. The shooting was initially considered racially motivated, and a race riot was barely averted. However, a large rally in support of the shooting victim was held at City Hall Plaza in Boston for Williams. Also, for security reasons Charlestown High School did not play home football games for nine years. Sports success The Charletown High school boys basketball team is in the Boston City League. The Basketball team won the State Championship for four straight years, in 1999-2003. The team won the Division 2 State Championshion again in 2005. In the 2004-2005 season the team record was 26 and 1. For all these years, the head coach was Jack O'Brien and his assistant coaches were Zach Zegarowski, Steve Cassidy and Hugh Coleman. University of Connecticut and NBA Orlando Magic guard Shabazz Napier is a former player of the Charlestown basketball team, and his jersey was retired by the high school in January 2014. Notable alumni Mary Edna Hill Gray Dow (1848-1914), financier and journalist Bob Giggie (1959-1962), major league baseball pitcher from 1959-1962. Tony Lee (born 1986), basketball player who played professionally in Poland and Austria Shabazz Napier (born 1991), basketball player who played in the NBA from 2014-2020. Florence Cushman (1860-1940), astronomer at the Harvard College Observatory who worked on the Henry Draper Catalogue. References External