TAMPA — High school girls screamed when he walked through the hallway. They stretched out their hands toward him, hoping for a quick shake. They took out cell phones and snapped tiny, grainy photos.

Was there a Jonas Brother in the house?

“Hi, I’m Charlie Crist,” the 53-year-old Florida governor said over the crowd’s roar.

During a quick visit to Tampa Bay Technical High School on Monday morning, Crist was scheduled to tour four classrooms, but he only made it to two. When he and his wife, Carole Rome, approached the school’s front office, students just about mobbed him.

One girl shook his hand and then proclaimed to a friend that she’d never wash it. A boy posed for a picture and wondered out loud if he would now be famous.

Crist first popped into a digital commercial art class, where students were designing mock ads and logos. He complimented junior Gabrielle LeGendre’s design on a magazine cover, and she started blushing.

“I can’t think right now,” LeGendre said afterward.

More on the jump, including Crist's reaction to accusations of meanness.

On a brief walk through the cafeteria , cheese sticks and chocolate milks sat in abundance on tables as cell phone cameras clicked away.

Crist asked students their names and what they were studying. They squealed and smiled.

He then went to a practical nursing class, where students practiced finger pricks and taking blood samples.

“Wow — you’re really doing it,” Crist said. The students giggled and gawked.

Before he left, Crist had a few words to say about accusations of meanness in a recent quote about his U.S. Senate rival, Marco Rubio. ("The other guy has been running around the state, he does it all day long. I have no idea how he feeds his family when he does this all day long, but I know how I feed my family, by working for you being your governor," Crist said.)