Thomas Jefferson High School officially opened on September 11, 1916 with 24 faculty members and Theodore Fulton as the school's first principal. Originally the campus was structured to have a total of six buildings but at the time it opened only two were complete. Green and gold are the official school colors and their mascot the Democrat is nicknamed the Demos. Jefferson, a public school that is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, is now the fourth oldest high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
On March 10, 1933, an earthquake in the city of Long Beach reached a 6.4 magnitude and destroyed the infrastructure of the six buildings that were supposed to make up the Jefferson campus. From March 10 to April 6 the campus closed so school board officials could address the situation. Classes were shortened to half day and tent bungalows were set up on the football fields. In 1933 architect Stiles O. Clements, a key figure in the 1930's Streamline Modern style movement in Los Angles, was hired to build Jefferson. The 45-unit campus had a budget of $353,000 dollars and was completed in 1935. Some other famous works Clements created were the El Capitan Theatre Building in Hollywood and the Mayan Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles. Clements was also a key figure in the 1920 Art Deco architectural movement.
In 1937 California native Ross Dickinson painted the "History of the Recorded Word" in the Jefferson Library. Funded by the Federal Art Project Dickinson painted four 11ft. by 5.5 ft panels that depict the history of printing. Dickinson researched for six months and painted the mural in five weeks. Aside from painting Dickinson also served as a teacher in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. One of Dickinson's most notable artworks, Valley Farms (1934), is still on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Jefferson made news headlines when police stepped in to break up multiple days of riots that overtook the school. Beginning in April of 2005 two brawls broke out in one week. In May, another riot broke out making it the third one in six weeks. Los Angeles School Police Department officers used pepper spray and batons to stop the May 2005 fight which involved about 200 Latino and black students. More than 20 students were detained; three students were arrested and the Jefferson campus went on lockdown. The Los Angeles Times reported, "that students say was fueled by racial tension." Previous Jefferson Principal Norm Morrow denied that race played any role. Reports say the incident allegedly began over two students arguing about a cellphone which then escalated to larger fights between black and Latino students. After the riots mediators from the Department of Justice stepped in to help black and Latino students resolve their issues. Former Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, put much of the blame of Jefferson's issues on Morrow. Villaraigosa voiced that he thought the school was out of control. Morrow reacted by stating he wasn't the only one at fault, and that the school had numerous issues such as overcrowding. In an NPR interview Morrow explained that the school was built for 1,500 students but at the time of the riots is had 3,800. In 2006 Morrow ended his 39-year career in education.
In August 2014 hundreds of students at Jefferson protested outside of campus by staging a walk out because of scheduling conflicts. Students claimed they weren't getting the classes they needed, and often ended up waiting on campus for hours with no classes. Many students in feared they wouldn't get the classes they needed to graduate on time. School district officials issued a statement saying: "We absolutely agree that Jefferson Senior High School students deserve a quality education, which is why we have made extra investments to hire more teachers, counselors and other staff to support students to graduate," signed by Dr. Tommy Chang, LAUSD. A United Teachers Los Angeles spokeswomen stated that a new districtwide student information software system called MiSIS was the issue of the scheduling conflict. However, a district spokeswomen for Los Angeles Unified stated that the error was not from the new system but a "human error." Although, LA Unified addressed that the MiSIS system did have problems they didn't attribute Jefferson's issues stemming from system difficulties only. In October of 2014 the Los Angeles Board of Education, "approved a $1.1-million plan to provide a longer school day, additional classes and tutoring to Jefferson High students who lost instructional time as a result of widespread scheduling problems this semester."
Singer-songwriter Bebe Rexha surprised Jefferson students in February with a gift of $80,000 from the nonprofit Mr. Hollands Opus Foundation. StubHub teamed up with the nonprofit which had announced it would donate $1 million to help provide musical instruments to schools that were lacking access to art and music classes. Jefferson has a history of producing notable musical talent with alumni that includes singer Etta James and Jazz saxophonist Dexter Gordon.
A snapshot into Thomas Jefferson Senior High School this year. Jefferson's graduation rate is 98% which is an at an all-time high for the school. In 2018: 9 students will be attending private universities, 13 will be attending UC's (University of California schools), 5 students will be attending UCLA, 43 students will be attending CSU's (California State University schools), and 47 students will be attending community colleges.