Published since 1912, the paper gained national attention in 1999 when two student reporters, Megan Greenwell and Iliana Montauk, published an investigative piece that helped lead to the prosecution of local businessman Lakireddy Bali Reddy for sex trafficking and other criminal activities.

[4] The Jacket was founded as the Berkeley High School Weekly News in 1912 by Edwin Elam, Jr. and Arthur Earll.

The staff of the Jacket includes more than one hundred and fifty student editors, reporters, photographers, and videographers as well as one faculty advisor.

[7] In 1999, the paper gained widespread prominence after reporters Megan Greenwell (former editor in chief of Deadspin, now at WIRED) 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 sex slaves after one such woman died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a Berkeley apartment complex.