Freedom High School (Oakley, California)


Freedom High School is located in Oakley, California, United States. It opened in 1996 on the grounds of Liberty High School, before moving to the new campus, as a part of the Liberty Union High School District. The current Liberty Union High School District contains Freedom, Liberty, Heritage, and Independence High Schools.

Brief history of Freedom and utilities

Freedom opened in 1996 on Neroly Road in Oakley, California. In 2003, the pool and football stadium were opened up to water polo, football, soccer, track, and swim. The stadium features a synthetic turf field with a rubber track surrounding it. The swimming pool is 10' deep with a part near the diving boards at 13' depth. An area for toddlers and young children to swim in is also featured with a 3' depth, and a 4-5' depth connection between the shallow and deep ends of the pool. The gym features dual-fold out bleachers with a second story on the home side, and a weight room underneath the second story. A new weight room was created in 2004 underneath the home bleachers in the football stadium. Baseball and softball fields still remain, with varsity, junior varsity, and freshman fields.
When the Lou Bronsan Gymnasium opened in August 1997, it boasted a gym floor that cost $1.1 million to build and was of exceptional quality. Many students felt it was ironic when the gymnasium leaked during the El Niño storms of winter 1998. Lime stains were visible on the gymnasium walls through 2001.

Rivalry

Freedom High School’s main rival is Liberty High School, which has intensified after the 1997/1998 year. The community mostly gathers for the football games, with large sell-out crowds.
For tennis, a plaque is awarded to the winner of the last match. In the 2005-2006 tennis season, the boys' team defeated cross town rival school Liberty 7-0 twice in the same season. This was the first time this had happened in school history. Freedom currently has the plaque.
For football, a large bell, the Liberty Bell, is awarded, and the rivalry has been ongoing since the opening of Freedom High. In the first match in 1998, Liberty won 47-0, with its senior team. However, Freedom won four in a row, stretching four seasons from 1999–2002, the longest time holding the bell between the two schools. Then Liberty came into Freedom's new field, and returned the bell to their school, for three years. The average margin of victory from seasons 2003-2004, 2004–2005, and 2005-2006 would be 13 points, with 5 points in the 2005-2006 season and 3 points in the 2004-2005 season. In the 2006-2007 Freedom finally won the bell, 42-28. Football also celebrated its best season, 7-3, but missed playoffs by one game. The rivalry continues to this day.

Sports

Freedom High School competes as a member of the Bay Valley Athletic League, as well as the North Coast Section. The school is represented in baseball; men's, women's, and unified basketball; unified bowling; cheerleading, cross country; football; golf; men's and women's soccer, softball, swimming, track & field; men's and women's tennis; men's and women's volleyball; water polo; and wrestling.

Clubs and extracurricular activities

Many clubs are offered on campus, including STEM, choirs directed under Eli Souza, bands directed under George Chilcott, Aloha Club, Be The Change Club hosted by Jill Johnson, BSU, Latinos Unidos, French Club, German Club, SAGA, Anime Club, FRESHH directed by John Sierra, Sports Medicine, Dance Club, PAWWS, Communications Academy, Italian Club, Computer Science Club, Science Club, and AcaDeca.

Controversy

Controversy surrounded the formation of a Caucasian Club in November 2003 at the school. Freshman Lisa McClelland gathered about 250 signatures from students and adults to start a club that would focus attention on European heritage and history. Other societies already found in the school include the Black Student Union, the Latinos Unidos and the ALOHA club for Asian-American students. Lou Calabro, president of the European-American Issues Forum, became an informal advisor of the club and sent letters to two civil-rights organizations that the school's administration be investigated. However, the Caucasian Club was accused of fueling racial tension, and was forced to disband. McClelland eventually transferred out of the school.

Buildings

Freedom High currently has 4 main, 2-story buildings full of classrooms that feature science labs, and traditional layouts for subjects such as English, Math, and Social Studies. There are also offices in each building on the ground level for the assistant principals, and each has secretaries that help with student related issues. These 4 buildings would be listed as B, C, D, and E. Freedom’s campus also features a building in the front of the school, which currently has the principals office, nurse’s office, and the staff’s room on the ground level. On the second level of this build, there is a Career Center where students can be helped with their career paths. Additionally, the building hold a computer lab for students to use with permission on the second level. This building would be called the A building. Students can also find themselves with classes in the portables, which is at the back of the school. Portable classrooms at Freedom tend to have foreign language teachers and math teachers. Also, Freedom has H, I, and J which houses the extracurricular activities classes. H quad features the speech and theatre classes. I is the main quad for technology and science classes. It also has the leadership classroom where the students help plan future rallies and events for the school. The J quad features the art classrooms. This is where the band room is located at.

Dances

Dances are held occasionally, and the main formal dances are homecoming and prom. To be able to attend, a student must have a 1.5 average and less than three disciplinary referrals. The student may not be on the No Activities List.

"If You Really Knew Me"

Freedom High School was one stop along the way on the 2010 MTV reality show If You Really Knew Me. The show chronicles high schools across the nation undergoing a "challenge day" where students share their stories. The idea of challenge day is to break down cliques within the school, especially those that result from racism. The school now has an on-campus group that holds mini challenge days frequently for classes.

Notable alumni