Bremerton High School

Bremerton High School is four-year public secondary school in the port city of Bremerton, Washington, west across Puget Sound from Seattle, in the Bremerton School District. Between 1993 and 2007, Bremerton High School contained grades 10–12 for enrolled students, but starting in the 2008 school year, the school facilitates grades 9–12, where grade 9 was previously contained at Bremerton Junior High School. Several changes in the district's grade configuration have meant freshmen have been in and out of the building. In 2015, the school came to national attention following the suspension of football coach Joe Kennedy, who would pray at the 50-yard line of the field after varsity games. In 2022, the resulting lawsuit reached the Supreme Court, where it was decided in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022) that Kennedy's First Amendment rights had been violated by the suspension. History The original Bremerton High School was founded in the 1920s with the first high school building. From at least the 1940s, the school was located in West Bremerton. In 1957 the school was split into West High School (which remained in place) and East High School, located across the Port Washington Narrows in East Bremerton, on Wheaton Way. In 1978, "Bremerton High School" returned when East and West were combined, and its first commencement was held on June 8, 1979. Ronald K. Gillespie, former principal of West High School, was the first principal of the new Bremerton High. For the first few years, BHS occupied the buildings of former East High School. In September 1988, following the completion of a new facility at the original location of Bremerton/West High, the student body was moved back across the water to 1500 13th Street.