SLA Media

SLAMedia is a publication of the news for the Science Leadership Academy community. Writers come from the student body in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. We work in unison to create a functioning paper with biweekly postings on a variety of events.

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Dealing with St. Patty’s Day Isabella Aznar

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It’s that time of year again, where some Philadelphians take shelter in their homes, while others roam around pretending they are all Irish. It’s St. Pattys Day.

In a big city, you now that the most annoying holidays can be New Years, St. Pattys Day, and Independence Day. One each one of those days the same thing happens. A good portion of the city is drunk while the others have to deal with all of them.

It’s like a zombie apocalypse of all drunk people. You just can’t avoid them no matter where you do. If you are like SLA students and have to be outside of your home on this day here is a list of what not to do.

1. Don’t stay outside late– They will find you and try to talk with you.

2. Don’t go on major streets– Avoid Broad St. and South St. at all costs!

3. Don’t get distracted on septa- There are a lot of people roaming around with no inhibitions and they could always steal something.

Those are the top three things not to do but the one thing to remember to bring are a pair of headphones. Good luck out there.

PYPM Returns!

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By Melissa Alvarez

Staff Writer

It’s that time of year again! The Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement slam league season has begun. The kickoff slam took place at the Franklin Institute on February 21st.

From March 7th until the season’s end in June, the slams will be at the Freedom Theater every friday.

So far SLA Center City has won a round after performing a group poem composed of sophomores Soledad Alfaro, Mali Fenning, and Jasmin Gilliam. The 3 girls wrote a poem together about being sensitive.

https://vimeo.com/89013288

Soledad told SLAMedia “It’s a poem about dealing with your emotions and trying to get people to understand who you are. I am super excited for slam league this year, we’re at the freedom theatre and everyone is so talented. It’s gonna be really rad!”

Rad indeed. Students are often known leave slams with a whole new outlook on their surroundings. The poems that students share with the audience can jump from the topic of hair to gang violence.

An inviting part about the poetry movement is the all around positivity. Being an attendee of multiple slams, it’s not uncommon to see students forget their lines because they’re nervous, or some cry from the overwhelming emotion brought up from what they’re sharing, but they are always immediately lifted back up from the snaps of the crowd,

Sophomore Mali Fenning is enjoying her first year in PYPM. She told SLAMedia “The slams are very lively, fun, and not only will you have fun but you’ll learn a lot about culture.”

More and more of Philadelphia’s youth are finding their voices through poetry.

For more information on the Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement, go to http://pypm215.org/

Locker Talk: What is Your Favorite Memory with an SLA Staff Member?

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Crazy Weather Causes Big Problems

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Crazy Weather Causes Big Problems

by Jesse Shuter

Staff Writer

 

Photo Courtesy of http://articles.philly.com/2014-02-15/entertainment/47339484_1_septa-broad-street-subway-bus-riders
Photo Courtesy of http://articles.philly.com/2014-02-15/entertainment/47339484_1_septa-broad-street-subway-bus-riders

The winter of 2014 has been one of the snowiest winters that I can remember. The interesting things is not just the frequency of the snow, but the pattern of the weather that we are receiving. Take this past week for example. On March twelfth the temperature had a high of around 68 degrees fahrenheit. The following day, March thirteenth, the high temperature was 32 degrees, but the temperature felt like 12 degrees.

This is just an example of the up and down temperatures that people living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and even the entire northern United States have been experiencing all through the 2014 winter.

The biggest toll that all of this snow is causing, is on students. There have been seven snow days this winter. SEVEN! That is outrageous, but perhaps what is more outrageous is the Philadelphia school districts lack of preparation for those snow days. The Philadelphia school district had allotted one extra school day, in case of a snow emergency. When the snow days started piling up they were faced with an issue. Where are these extra days of school going to fit in?

Instead of adding the snow days onto the end of the year, and keeping the students in school until July, they opted to take away days from spring break. These days include, April 15th, April 16th, and April 17th. Taking these days away has left many students feeling outraged, disappointed, and even cheated of their break from school. This leads me to wonder, what should the school district have done differently? It also caused me to wonder, assuming next year’s weather follows this year’s pattern, what should the school district do to better prepare for snow?

5 Steps to improve the Philly School District’s Snow Day Policy:

1. Start school earlier! The Philadelphia students started school later than most school this year which meant they’d be in school later than other students. This left little amount of time for the school district to operate with in case of lack of school days.

2. Operate under the assumption that there will be four snow days. Obviously four would not be enough for this year, but even if somehow there is seven or more snow days again next year (which hopefully there won’t be) it is easier to find three extra days than six.

3. Change the system from minimum days of school to minimum hours of school. If you operate using hours instead of days, it becomes easier to find ways to work the school day around so that no extra days need to be added, and the amount of school time is still met.

4. After changing the time system from days to hours (See Number 3),don’t take away spring break or add on school days, make the school day 15-20 minutes longer. Students would barely notice if they stay at stayed at school for an extra 15 minutes. Do you know what they do notice? When their spring break is taken away!

5. Do not announce a snow day the night before. This wasn’t just the school district, the Philadelphia courts also did this. The weather projected twelve inches of snow, and we ended up with barely one inch of snow. Schools that were smart waited until it actually started snowing (which was never) while the Philadelphia school district listened to the forecast and called for no school, despite having no proof. Instead, wait until the morning, yes maybe it will be inconvenient for some people that woke up expecting school and then realized they woke up for no reason, but do you know whats more inconvenient? When their spring break is taken away!

Brewer Vetoes Arizona’s SB-1062

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Jan Brewer, Governor of Arizona vetoed SB-1062 that would allow businesses that assert their religious freedom the right to deny service to  gay and lesbian customers.Screen Shot 2014-03-13 at 10.29.11 AM

This bill was highly controversial from day one and Arizona faced major backlash, including a super bowl bid that was threatened to be withdrawn. In addition, the state began losing business quickly. According to the New York Times “The Hispanic National Bar Association said Wednesday that it had canceled plans to hold its annual convention of 2,000 lawyers here next year, citing the bill and saying in a statement” Even Senator John McCain of Arizona told Brewer to veto the bill.

Governor Brewer said the bill would “Cause more problems than it hopes to solve and divide Arizona in ways we cannot even imagine and no one would ever want.” The executive director for the American Civil LIberties Union, Alessandra Soler, said “We’re grateful that the governor has stopped this disgraceful law from taking effect, and that Arizona will remain open for business to everyone.”