After graduating from Diamond Bar High School in 1984 as the first student body president, Randy Thomas returned to the school that he grew up in a few years later to start a different chapter of his life, one of a teacher and later a Technology Coordinator than that of a student.

Thomas attended Walnut High School as a freshman in 1980, but a year later became a part of a planning committee that would help students transition into a new school, Diamond Bar High School. The planning committee was in charge of tasks such as voting for the new school’s mascot and colors as well as voting Thomas to be the first ASB president of DBHS.

Looking back to when the school first opened in 1982, Thomas describes the campus to have had fewer buildings, a smaller staff, and a student population of only 1100 student. The first year the school opened, it didn’t even have a senior class.

“We had to start all the traditions; [DBHS] was a brand new place,” stated Thomas.

Despite having to adjust to a new school, Thomas engaged himself in as much as he could possibly handle. On top of fulfilling his tasks a president, he was also involved with Chamber singers, Key Club, California Scholarship Federation, badminton, and his church’s youth group.

After high school, Thomas was accepted into Stanford University, where he started out as an international relations major and then changed to a political science major. A few years later, he received his bachelor’s degree in political science and his master’s degree in education.

At the age of 23, he was offered the position of a French teacher at DBHS while still in his master program for education. However, since Thomas preferred being a history teacher, he declined the job offer, but doors opened when Jon Goode, current GLC but a social studies teacher at that time, transferred to WHS to become a basketball coach. This allowed Thomas to fill the position of history teacher, teaching two classes, U.S. History and Government, for 11 years.

“I was nervous because I was coming back, and I was with the teachers I left. It was only five years [since I left], so all the teachers were here, and now I was acting as if I was their equal, so that was what made me nervous,” explained Thomas.

In 2000, a good amount of money was set aside for buying the school new computers, so a new position arose as a result of this for Thomas. He had already been doing some technology work for the school on the side, so this opened up his ability to take the new position of Technology Coordinator, which has now extended to include Web Administrator as well.

Thomas’s legacy carries on as both his former student teacher Patrick Murphy and former student Lindsey Arnold are now history teachers at DBHS. Thomas enjoys witnessing the development of DBHS and has seen tremendous growth from its start in 1982.

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