Briarcliff High School (DeKalb County, Georgia)

Briarcliff High School was a public high school opened by the DeKalb County School System in 1958 in order to relieve overcrowding at Druid Hills High School. Throughout the history of the school, Druid Hills was viewed as its "arch rival," and, with the closing of Briarcliff, the remaining students, and all the trophies, and other relics of the history of the school other than the buildings transferred to Druid Hills, where they remain today.The first classes were held in what was known only as "B" Hall (the front section of the school), and its only students were in the 8th and 9th grades. In the 1961-1962 school year, the school building existed much as it does today, without the temporary buildings.In 1961, playing on the field at the newly constructed Adams Memorial Stadium, Briarcliff won only three football games, but, significantly, defeated Druid Hills 13-0.On June 12, 1962, the first class graduated at commencement exercises held next to the school at Adams Memorial Stadium. The first three "honor" graduates of Briarcliff, James M. "Jim" Veazey, Sharon L. Sullivan and James E. "Jimmy" Massey, spoke respectively of the past, present future of Briarcliff and its students. Veazey was officially identified as the first person to graduate from Briarcliff by the Briarcliff yearbook which is titled "The Shield."The school's colors were silver and blue, and its mascot was the Baron.The DeKalb County School System closed Briarcliff at the end of the 1986-1987 school year, due to a population shift. In 1986, when Superintendent Robert Freeman recommended that the school be closed, he projected that in the 1987-1988 school year, there would be only about 500 students enrolled in the whole school, with around 40 students in the 8th grade. At its height, in the mid-1960s, the graduating classes routinely numbered around 500.