On page 14 of Berkeley High School’s 2025-26 student-run yearbook an image was printed of a student protester holding a sign that reads “Oct. 7th was a response, not an attack. Do your f------ HW.” The image was included on a two-page spread dedicated to student activism under a “social justice” banner, alongside a Palestinian flag shaped like a map of Israel and the West Bank.
The sign references the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, in which Hamas and other groups from Gaza invaded Israel, killing around 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, including 50 children, and kidnapping 251 people.
After the release of the yearbook, a group of Jewish parents, alumni, and other community members came together to demand that the Berkeley Unified School District take accountability for justifying the actions pertaining to the Oct. 7 attack. Some responses to the situation were taken to social media, including a video posted on the Jewish News of Northern America (J.) Instagram that led to a highly divided comment section.
According to the J., nearly 300 people, most of them Jewish, signed a June 15, 2026 letter to school administrators arguing that the sign’s message minimizes or rationalizes violence against civilians by characterizing the attack as something other than an attack. The letter calls for the school to recall the yearbooks, issue a public apology, review the yearbook’s editorial process, and set content guidelines going forward.
In response, the yearbook editorial board pointed to its editorial policy, stating that the board “retains its right to free speech under the First Amendment” and that students “make the final decision on all content” without prior administrative review. The statement adds that opinions expressed by students “don’t necessarily reflect the opinions of the yearbook staff, editors, or school.”
The parents’ complaint has since triggered a formal investigation by BUSD’s office of civil rights, expected to conclude in mid-August, 60 days after the district received the complaint on June 17, 2026.