Listen to the The Buzz: Berkeley’s random acts of kindness
A history of Our Monologues: Shaped by the BHS community
The Jacket’s podcast brings you an episode exploring random acts of kindness within Berkeley, the impact they have, and the Chris Kindness foundation.
In 2019, BHS stopped performing the Vagina Monologues, instead putting on the first production of Our Monologues. Read the story of how and why on PAGE 11
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no. 7
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‘Trans students do not have reliable access to bathrooms at BHS’: Alliance of Gender Expansive Students addresses BUSD School Board BY KIMIA AZADPUR staff writer
On Wednesday Nov. 15, 2023, the Alliance of Gender Expansive Students (AGES) club participated in the Berkeley Unified School District school board meeting to address concerns of limited on-campus resources for transgender students. The meeting emphasized issues regarding bathroom facilities at Berkeley High School. Despite efforts from students and administration to create safe gender-neutral bathrooms, these spaces are often used for inappropriate behaviors including intimate activities, vaping, smoking, and graffiti. Because of this, the school sometimes locks up facilities, and this makes access difficult. “Trans students do not have reliable access to bathrooms at BHS,” said James, a transgender senior at BHS. James asked to be referred to by first name only for privacy reasons. “Multiple times this week, I waited over fifteen minutes to find a bathroom to change my pad in, worried I would bleed through my pants.” PAGE 2
IRIS LE LIBOUX
OPINION
ROBERT GELLNER
A built-in study hall period would help all students at BHS BY PENELOPE PURCHASE staff writer
Kade Goldsmith, a BHS freshman, poses in the hall.
KAI HANSCHEN
ENTERTAINMENT
BHS fashion is a blend of past and present BY AMAR WALKER staff writer
Fashion trends are inherently cyclical. Whether it’s the 90s or the 2000s that are back in style at the
moment, they’ll always come and go. The clothing that students wear at Berkeley High School on a daily basis has endless inspiration from past decades. Sometimes people’s style will directly correlate to a specific
decade, but other times it’s a collage of different trends from a combination of eras. BHS senior Juliette Chung’s dad graduated in the class of ‘71 at BHS, when fashion trends were drastically different.
“According to my dad, there were lots of paisley shirts, bell bottoms that were striped and purple, lots of headbands like Jimi Hendrix style, Army Surplus combat boots, and khaki PAGE 12
A good education is a fundamental right that all students deserve. However, due to differences in race, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES), not all students have access to the resources they need to achieve academic success. Creating a built-in study hall period at Berkeley High School would help make the school system more equitable, and greatly improve student grades and mental health. According to a study conducted by Cantwell Sacred Heart of Mary High School in Montebello, California, a mandatory study hall raises students’ GPAs and increases the number of honor students.
Within a few months of implementing a mandatory study hall, the school found that the overall GPA increased by about half a point, and the number of honor students went from 32 percent to 50 percent. If BHS had a built-in study hall period available to students, these results could be expected to occur at BHS, too. Additionally, a study hall period would help create a more equitable school system. According to the American Psychological Association, children from families with low SES enter high school with literary skills that are five grades below those of high-income students and are 8.8 percent more likely to drop out of school. This is partially because students PAGE 5