In response to the racially charged incident that took place at Berkeley High School in November, students participated in a “take back the day” event Wednesday.

“Take back the day” is the result of a collaboration between Berkeley High School administrators, faculty, staff and leaders from the high school’s Black Student Union, or BSU.

The day began with a student-led “sankofa” assembly, during which students targeted by the incident came together to discuss their concerns and support each other. The sankofa assembly also included discussions of black history and a celebration of black culture, with participation from black student and community leaders.

The day was not be “business as usual,” as the administration dedicated the entirety of the school day to the discussion of race and race issues through a variety of planned activities, according to Berkeley Unified School District spokesperson Mark Coplan.

In the first class of the day, students screened a video from BSU co-presidents Alecia Harger and Nebeyat Zekaryas, in which they discussed and set up parameters for the day’s discussions. A video message from Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, was also played, in which she expressed solidarity with Berkeley High School students as they “demand justice and respect for all students.”

Students received instruction in their usual classes, but a special curriculum was tailored to address race issues through various subject-specific lenses, such as science lessons on stereotype threat and history lessons on the topic of reparations.

On Wednesday, school officials responded to social media posts that had previously circulated among students, which claimed that Berkeley High had circulated texts to parents concerning a shooting threat planned for Wednesday and permission slips that would allow students to stay home from school Wednesday.

The person responsible for circulating these rumors misstated the facts concerning the permission slips, and Berkeley Police Department found the threat to be unfounded, according to Coplan. In addition, he added that the high school does not communicate with parents through text.

“We want December 9th to be remembered as a day that the whole campus celebrated our unity and demonstrated our support for each other and for the ongoing work for equity,” said Sam Pasarow, principal of Berkeley High, in an email to his students.

The school day ended with a “unity assembly,” where the whole school gathered in the Berkeley Community Theater. The assembly consisted of a question-and-answer session with BSU student leaders, performances and a call to action to end racism on the campus.