Berkeley High Jacket
Encyclopedia
The Jacket is the student newspaper serving the roughly three thousand students of Berkeley High School, California. The paper is published every other Friday and is usually sixteen pages long. There are five sections in the paper: news, opinion, features, entertainment, and sports. The staff of the Jacket includes more than one hundred student editors, reporters, photographers, and videographers as well as one faculty adviser. The Jacket's editorial board is composed of about twenty five students who are elected by the previous year's senior editors. The name is taken from the mascot of Berkeley High School, the Yellowjacket. From around the mid-1950s into the early 1960s, the paper was a daily, printed by students in the school's own print shop. Most issues at that time were one-sheets, that is, two-sided, 8½ x 11 inch pages. Friday issues were usually four pages long. You can find the Jacket's website at bhsjacket.com
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 sex slaves after one such woman died of carbon monoxide
poisoning in a Berkeley apartment complex.
In 2000, the Jacket staff was named Journalist of the Year by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists, becoming the first-ever non-professional winner of the SPJ's highest honor http://spj.org/norcal/eijwinners.html.
, "the highest award given to a student publication by the Association." It can be located at www.bhsjacket.com. In 2011, the online portion received the Silver Crown Award from Columbia.
School Colors
In 1994, Frontline (PBS), produced a four-hour documentary about racial politics at Berkeley High School entitled School Colors http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/teach/schoolcolorsguide.html, including a segment about the Jacket. The paper's editorial board was extremely vocal throughout the broadcasting of the program and the internal strife that followed.Journalist of the Year
In the late 1990s, the paper gained widespread prominence after reporters Megan Greenwell and Iliana Montauk broke a story in BerkeleyBerkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
that resulted in criminal prosecution. The Jacket first reported that local business-owner Lakireddy Bali Reddy
Lakireddy Bali Reddy
Lakireddy Bali Reddy is a prominent landlord in Berkeley, California, who was convicted in 2001 for immigration fraud and trafficking minors for illegal sexual activity.-Background:...
and his family were importing young women from India to work as sex slaves after one such woman died of carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide , also called carbonous oxide, is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that is slightly lighter than air. It is highly toxic to humans and animals in higher quantities, although it is also produced in normal animal metabolism in low quantities, and is thought to have some normal...
poisoning in a Berkeley apartment complex.
In 2000, the Jacket staff was named Journalist of the Year by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists, becoming the first-ever non-professional winner of the SPJ's highest honor http://spj.org/norcal/eijwinners.html.
Yellowjackets
In August 2008, Berkeley Repertory Theater kicked off its season with Yellowjackets, a play written by BHS alumnus and former Jacket editor Itamar Moses about life at Berkeley High in the mid 1990s. Directed by Tony Taccone, Yellowjackets focused on many of the events depicted in School Colors, including conflict resulting after the Jacket failed to print two articles about Chicano-Latino student activities at the school.Website
The Jackets website was rebuilt in 2009 by student editors Connor Nielsen and Evan Cohen. It is currently maintained by two additional editors on the newspaper's board who update the site as the newspaper issues are released. The site has unique flash elements and utilizes the Drupal content management system as its backbone. On March 19, 2010 The paper received the Golden Crown Award for the Jacket Online from The Columbia Scholastic Press AssociationColumbia Scholastic Press Association
The Columbia Scholastic Press Association is an international student press association, founded in 1925, whose goal is to unite student journalists and faculty advisers at schools and colleges through educational conferences, idea exchanges, textbooks, critiques and award programs...
, "the highest award given to a student publication by the Association." It can be located at www.bhsjacket.com. In 2011, the online portion received the Silver Crown Award from Columbia.