Avi Cantor

How Philadelphia Schools entertain Students for the Last Two Weeks of School

May 29, 2018 by Avi Cantor Leave a Comment

Eric Valenti

Staff Writer

Photo Courtesy of Horace Howard Furness High School Student Sadie Squillaciotti

SLA’s end of year programming starts soon, with Week Without Walls starting June 4rd and Field Day the next week, on Monday, June 11th. Both of these activities take a lot of planning from the faculty and staff of SLA Center City, and The students appreciate the grand gesture of planning something for the community to enjoy. Most schools don’t devote a week of spectacular activities for students, or at least that’s what most think.

Junior Ashley DeLaCruz appreciates the alternative programming.

“Once the classes are over some people don’t have things to do so it helps students hang out with their friends. Others just want to leave for vacation but they feel compelled to stay.”

Week Without Walls appears to be a time where students can connect with their friends and perform team building activities while having fun. Sessions this year include “Hikey, Hikey”, where students hike, write on, where students write creatively and no walls, where students walk with dogs. SLA, however, is not the only school who has special programming like this.

Central High school does something quite similar to Week Without Walls, Symposiums. Junior Andre Pak attends Central and explained the program to SLAMedia.

“After finals, the schools hold Symposiums for two days, where students are free to explore their interests by participating in these fun activities in place of classes. They can range from rock climbing, learning sign language, or petting dogs.”

It was interesting to discover that the infamous Central High school knows how to have fun and do things that are not only entertaining but informative as well, especially by the end of the year.

Junior Sadie Squillaciotti attends Furness High School and shared their own special programming.

“Well at the end of the year everything starts to wind down a little, we have our annual Multicultural Fair which is always fun. Our school is very diverse, so everybody brings food from their culture, and the school makes an entire day of everybody eating and doing activities. And when grades actually close we play games and watch movies.” Squillaciotti stated.

The cultural fest seems like a unique and new experience for students to learn and immerse themselves in new and appreciative cultures.

DeLaCruz stated, “We should have possibly a cooking class or maybe go to a Phillies game. I would like to see SLA do something out of their comfort zone.

Season 2 of ’13 Reasons Why’ Review

May 29, 2018 by Avi Cantor Leave a Comment

Autumn Lor

Staff Writer

The story that started as just a girl who committed suicide is now transitioned to a trial to see who is to blame for the decision of taking her life. The trial starts on episode two and ends on episode 12. As viewers, we’re able to see the different points of view because the story is told her different people when the characters are giving their testimony. Although most of the story is told from Clay’s point of view. Clay feels the most guilty because he thought that he could do more to save Hannah, the main character. Hannah committed suicide during her sophomore year due to bullying from some of her closest friends. When people on the stand told their point of view, Clay was the first one to have control on how to think, he listened to what he wanted to hear. He only sees the good in Hanna and doesn’t believe that Hannah could ever do inappropriate.

This show has changed the way many people think about the lives of high schoolers. People know that teenagers are sexually active and tend to do drugs but people don’t typically talk about rape. This show also shows that rape can be multiple things. In the first season, viewers knew about two of Bryce’s victims. In season 2, we learn all new things about him. After seeing him in season one, you wouldn’t think that he could do any more things, good or bad- but he did. Bryce is more than just your typical jock.

“Bryce has charismatic social life, people never distanced themselves from him. After all the bad things he did, everyone still wanted to be his friend,” said Science Leadership Academy Junior, James Klenk.

The trial revealed a lot more about Hannah than we knew. Zack’s Hannah’s friend who is a jock, testimony really shows people how Hannah felt when it came to relationships. Zack is the person that is friends with everyone, but he’s also the person that wants to fit in. After his testimony, he was able to become his real self. It’s unbelieve to think that it takes a trail for the real story to come out. “Hannah and Zack are OTP!” Klenk said with excitement.

In season one, the story ends with Alex get shot. SLA Sophomore Chandrea Lack thought that is was Tyler who did it turns out it was more than down. She stated, “Tyler isn’t the person who I thought he was. His personality changed about 3 times this season, but there wasn’t one that I liked.” Even though Tyler wasn’t the most liked person at their school, he was the only one who told the truth.

13 Reasons Why showed people what the truth can really do to people. Jessica didn’t tell her truth and the trail become longer than it needed. Lack stated, “Jessica made me feel pissed because she didn’t protect anyone when going on the stand, she could have helped herself and her friends.

This show isn’t something for everyone to watch. It’s a serious topic that everyone should talk about but not to watch. The ending of season two is something that the public has been talking about in the past couple of years. Gun violence can not be taken lightly and the ending of the show really shocked a lot of people.

Ramadan at SLA

May 29, 2018 by Avi Cantor Leave a Comment

Amelia Benamara

Staff Writer

Ramadan is a sacred month of fasting, thoughtfulness, and supplication for Muslims in the Islamic religion. Fasting is one of the five central standards of Islam. Every day amid Ramadan, Muslims don’t eat or drink from dawn to nightfall — in other words from Fajr to Maghrib. Fast is broken by imparting suppers to family and companions, and the finish of Ramadan is praised with a three-day celebration known as Eid al-Fitr, one of Islam’s major occasions.

This time around is an opportunity to hone poise and self-reflection. Fasting is viewed as an approach to purify the spirit and have compassion for those on the planet who are unfortunately ravenous and less blessed. Muslims, including myself, go to work and school and deal with their typical exercises amid Ramadan; in any case, some read the whole Quran, say exceptional petitions and go to mosques all the more often times during this time.

Zakat is one of the most important duties in Ramadan, the giving of donations or any funding to those who need it near you. Usually, each country has a certain amount of money a family should donate. Originally, it is an obligation to pay 2.5 percent of the wealth you have made after a full lunar year. Farmers who own their own land and harvest their own crops are required to pay 5 or 10 percent of their harvest’s worth, depending on the type of irrigation.

The Quran, the holy book Islam follows, specifically states “Zakat is for the poor, and the needy and those who are employed to administer and collect it, and the new converts, and for those who are in bondage, and in debt and service of the cause of Allah, and for the wayfarers, a duty ordained by Allah, and Allah is the All-Knowing, the Wise.”

I began fasting for Ramadan when I was eleven years old, due to the clash of puberty which is the traditional point in life when one should start fasting. Of course, like everybody else, that first was a very hard experience. It is normal to have a few days where you have to break your fast whether it is from hunger or eating by accident — these struggles I have been through my first year, but I have learned from it the best way I could. However, six years later it’s very easy for me to complete the entire 30 days due to the amount of experience.

What I love about Ramadan is not just that it’s the month of forgiveness but also a time to grow closer to family all around. I usually join my mother in the kitchen for hours to assist in preparing traditional meals for Iftar. This has allowed me to grow closer not only to the origins of the religion itself but also to my Algerian culture.

The way others around me react to this Islamic holiday is very different all around in my life so far. In middle school, I kept quiet about the fact that I was fasting. So few students participated, and many questions were asked that led to judgment by others; which is understandable because everyone was very young in age to understand fully, including me.

When I entered High School, I felt less different from others because compared to my Middle School there is a large population of Muslims at Science Leadership Academy. I find it so powerful that many do not ask relevant questions just to get laughter out of it. I do not blame anyone for this because they simply do not know the importance of this holiday and that is okay.

SLA even has a dedicated a room for prayers to be completed during school hours which I think is incredibly generous. Even the comments of “Do you want me to move?” when someone eats in front of me means a lot because it shows a simple act of care. I only hope to have similar experiences that put me at ease during this time I the future when I make it to college and have to introduce a new environment for my people to practice.

Norwegian Hit TV Show “SKAM” is making International Waves

May 25, 2018 by Avi Cantor Leave a Comment

Lauren Nicolella

Staff Writer

The Norwegian teen-drama show SKAM has now produced recent reboot in different places all around the world, such as Italy, France, and in the United States. Each contains the same main characters, but with different people and variation in names and genders.

If you’re unfamiliar with season one of SKAM, it is focused on Eva, a red-headed girl who has boyfriend issues revolving around suspicion relating to her ex-best friend. Each of the shows has their variations of who plays main iconic characters such as Eva, Nora, Jonas, and many others apart from the main crew who appear later in the season.

In the first couple episodes, the main focus is Eva going to an Easter party, and the dialogue for one of the confrontation scenes is pretty much identical to the original in each of the remakes. It is interesting to see how the new actors and actresses take on these characters as their own, especially since the original cast each created a classic look for themselves, especially Nora and her fashion.

Some who have already watched the original SKAM seasons were asked about how the new shows, and if they would be able to top the way the Norwegians were able to deliver it.

Junior Charlotte Kaplan from Friends Select School has closely followed along with the show and was very excited to see the announcement of new shows.

“I really like the new versions! They’re kinda like the original versions, but nothing will ever top regular SKAM. It’s definitely the best one,” Kaplan explained.

Junior Taylor Green has watched all of the SKAM shows, except for the one based in Austin, Texas. She initially noticed how each of them had very specific similarities and noticeable differences.

“In the one episode of the Italian one it was Eva on the phone and she was talking about how a girls’ septum piercing looked bad, but in the French one, the conversation was switched to be about fake eyelashes instead. Little changes like that make it unique and I’m interested to see how else they change up other characters and pieces of the show,” Green explained.

Green also spoke about how she loves SKAM specifically because of all the fashion, music, and mainly the way the actors are real teenagers. All of that stuck for the remakes, the main priority is to have real teenagers play their appropriate parts.

“I feel like that’s very rare for teen dramas, and made it much more relatable to watch,” says Taylor. “Seeing how some of the characters dressed inspired me to dress more aesthetically appealing. I also loved the music they used. They used music from a lot of artists I love, like Lana Del Rey, Wu-Tang Clan and Die Antwoord,” Green stated.

The seasons of both the original Norwegian SKAM and remakes are available on a website called Dailymotion, with English subtitles included. It is a good show to watch if you are looking for a more real and diverse drama show. You get to compare and contrast the new aspects and the way other countries may interpret or change up the show and casting.

Spotify Takes a Stand against Accused Abusers

May 25, 2018 by Avi Cantor Leave a Comment

Brendan Hall

Staff Writer

On May 10, 2018, a major music streaming service, Spotify, made a controversial decision to remove artists XXXTentacion and R. Kelly from the staff made playlists. To clarify, Staff that worked at Spotify would arrange playlists on the platform that would be promoted on their site. Furthermore, those playlists created exposure for artists to reach new fans they previously may not have reached.

Despite R. Kelly and XXXTentacion not being entirely banned from Spotify it still was able to ruffle some feathers within the music industry. One notable protester of the ban was 50 Cent who tweeted, “Spotify is wrong for what they’re doing to artist like R Kelly and XXXtentacion. There not even convicted of anything.”XXXTentacion’s management also responded in an email by questioning what other artists would be held accountable for their legal troubles. Artists that came into question included a wide range from Chris Brown to Gene Simmons of Kiss who was accused of sexual misconduct.

The response from the general public in this decision was not entirely in favor of the decision. Most people seemed to have mixed towards the situation. While they appreciated the fact Spotify was showing sympathy towards victims it also came across as hypocritical since there have been many artists accused or convicted of abuse that have yet to be punished. When interviewing Messele Asfaw he stated, “It should be all or nothing, Spotify shouldn’t just pick and choose who they like and don’t like. Because there are artists who have been convicted of things they were accused of and nothing has been done.”

As for the artists involved they were affected in surprisingly opposite ways after the decision. R. Kelly actually had a slight increase in weekly streams after the Spotify playlist ban. The streams went up from 6,584,000 weekly streams to 6,676,000 within that time. While R. Kelly experienced an unexpected success XXXTentacion was losing close to 20% of his original streams per day. It was reported that if a loss this severe were to continue he would lose about $60,000 per year. The loss XXXTentacion received is likely due to him having to rely on Spotify exposing him to a new audience since he is much more inexperienced than someone like R. Kelly.

While the decision to exclude these artists may have been noble in the intention it may have been also inefficient. R. Kelly and XXXTentacion are both accused of gruesome and violent actions, however it is difficult to make moral judgements based solely off accusations. It could possibly lead to other artist’s career being ruined by false accusations. For instance, iconic rapper Snoop Dogg was on trial for murder that was proven to be false in 1996. If Spotify were to use the same logic for him as R. Kelly and XXXTentacion they would ban him as well, despite the fact there is no evidence Snoop ever committed these crimes. This attempt to exclude problematic people may seemed to be wholesome, but it ultimately creates career’s to be put on the line over “he said she said” situations.