Bridgewater-Raritan High School - History and Symbols

History and Symbols

Until the 1950s, high school students from the Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District attended Somerville High School. In the late 1950s, Bridgewater-Raritan High School was constructed as Dr. Norman A. Gathany, the first principal, prepared the school for its first students. Increasing enrollments in the early 1960s led to the construction of a second high school, which was named Bridgewater-Raritan High School East (The Minutemen), while the original high school was renamed Bridgewater-Raritan High School West (The Golden Falcons). The schools operated separately until the early 1990s, when a downward cycle in enrollments led to their consolidation into a single high school. High School West was expanded and updated over a period of several years, during which all of the district's high school students attended what had been High School East. In 1995, the former High School West reopened as the new consolidated Bridgewater-Raritan High School, and High School East became the district's Middle School.

The mascot of BRHS is the panther. BRHS's school colors are black and silver, with red serving as an accent color. Recently there has been much debate over this matter among the student body and sports fans. The red in uniforms of the past has been mostly replaced by black, white and silver. The football, baseball, boys lacrosse, girls basketball, and various other teams have eliminated red from their uniforms. A minority of teams, including boys basketball and boys cross country, have continued use of red as an accent color. The uniforms for the marching band are black and red with silver buttons and helmets.

The high school's football field is named "Basilone Field", named for John Basilone, a World War II recipient of the Medal of Honor who grew up in Raritan. On the wall of the field house next to the field is a mural honoring Basilone.

The high school offers classes ranging from AP European History to Introduction to Culinary Arts.

In December 2009, two minors, a 16-year-old Bridgewater-Raritan student and a 17-year-old student from nearby Immaculata High School, were arrested in connection with an alleged Columbine-like plan to attack the school.