Berkeley High School's award-winning print and online newspaper since 1912. The Jacket does not receive funding from and does not reflect the views of BUSD.
05/06/2024
Apply to join The Buzz, The Jacket’s Podcast, and get class credit! We cover stories about Berkeley High culture and events, and the Berkeley community as a whole. We are looking for applicants to join a fun team of audio storytellers who want to put together a bi-monthly podcast. We are also looking for a dedicated audio editor with previous experience with Soundtrap or another editing platform/sound engineering. Applications are due May 24th.
Link in bio.
05/03/2024
Please consider applying!
Link in bio.
05/02/2024
As they won both the Tournament of Champions (TOC) and the California State Championships, the Berkeley High School Speech and Debate club ended the season off strong. Members celebrate their victories.
Photo by Eliot Hertenstein
04/10/2024
Being stereotyped as a club that often lacks diversity, the Robotics club at Berkeley High School seeks to make their space open and welcoming to all students. The club is continuing to make its environment a safe space for all students by first addressing its diversity issues.
Photo by Madeleine Wilson
02/27/2024
From fried chicken, to hot water cornbread and gumbo, Black students at Berkeley High share some of their favorite family recipes.
Photo by Willow Pimadaly
02/26/2024
Through fundraising, the Berkeley High School Jazz program was able to send many students a part of the program to Cuba this past January. Students were able to experience Jazz culture in Cuba, different from what they’re used to here.
Photo by Nolan Whitehill
02/06/2024
Berkeley High staff and students recall their experiences with having tattoos and the meaning behind each of them. From representing a loved one to deciding to change up a look, staff and students reflect on their tattoos.
Photo by Ida Marshall Lappe
02/02/2024
Led by Klea Bajala and Cordelia Millerwhite, the Carpentry class at Berkeley High School offers students a chance to work in the shop. Bajala and Millerwhite hope the class will lead students into majors in mechanical, structural, and electrical engineering, along with construction management and architecture.
Photo by Jahan Ingraham
02/01/2024
If you have any submission email [email protected]. Please consider submitting, we’d love to see what you have!
01/11/2024
The BHS Wellness Center, located in H104, opened on the 2nd of December with the intention of being a space for students to have a place to rest during the school day. Wellness Center supervisor Melissa Virrueta hopes students will get a good use of this new, important part of BHS.
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The Jacket is the award-winning student newspaper of Berkeley High School in California. The paper is published every other Friday, and includes five sections that cover local events at the high school and current issues in the world. The staff of The Jacket includes more than one hundred student editors, reporters, photographers, and columnists, as well as one faculty advisor. The Jacket‘s editorial board is composed of about twenty-five students who are elected by the previous year’s senior editors. Many of the current editorial board are pictured on the Staff page. The name of the paper is taken from Berkeley High School’s mascot, the yellowjacket.
The Jacket is a recipient of numerous awards including ones from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association; They have been awarded a Gold Crown Award in 2010, a Silver Crown Award in 2017 and 2018, and a Gold Medal in 2017. In addition, they were a finalist for the 2018 National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker Award.
In the late 1990s, the paper gained widespread prominence after reporters Megan Greenwell and Iliana Montauk broke a story in Berkeley that resulted in criminal prosecution. The Jacket first reported that local business-owner Lakireddy Bali Reddy and his family were importing young women from India to work as s*x slaves after one such woman died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a Berkeley apartment complex.
When The Jacket first started in 1912, it was called The Berkeley High School Weekly News. The earliest surviving copy of The Weekly News is from October 7, 1912, and can be read online here. Many pre-1950 copies of The Jacket are available at the reference desk of the Downtown Berkeley Public Library.
Edwin Madison Elam, Jr. was The Weekly News‘s founder and first editor in 1912, when he attended Berkeley High School in the class of 1913. He went on to attend the University of California at Berkeley, and graduated in 1917. During his time at UC Berkeley, he worked at The Daily Californian, was a member of the debate club, and on the staff of the Blue & Gold yearbook. Sadly, he was killed in action at the Forest of Argonne during World War I on October 11, 1918. Above are pictures of the 1912-1914 staff of The Weekly News.
