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School Store Food Options: Going Bananas

October 26, 2015 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

One can find the school store open for business almost 4 days a week, selling Cup Noodles (One of the most popular items) to Twizzlers, and everything in between. On a recent school day, Items were flying out off shelves during X lunch. Freshmen, Seniors, even Shadows were willing to buy something that would fit their palate.

There was however, one noticeable difference from last year’s set up. When I was working behind the counter, yogurt, raisins, fruit cups and Granola bars filled the the stores choices right alongside the Famous Amos’ and Cracker Packs. Why though, had those items magically disappeared?

Home and School Association President and SLA Parent Zee Driggers explained. “Last year we had fruit, yogurt, well we had fruit, we tried raisins and we had Kind bars.”

“Nowadays we can’t sell any of those things anymore, we try to bring in cost effective food, we’re not getting paid (a reference to all the other parents who work at the store) it’s all for you guys. If we sell things that don’t make a lot of money, even lose money, that does not help.”

Each year the school store makes enough money to pay for field trips and pay for sports uniforms but Ms. Kim was not sure of how much the store actually made.

If money were no object, Driggers said the situation would be different. .

“I would stock what we did last year, fruit, juice, Kind bars, Yogurt and so forth.”

Finally, someone asked about the yogurts They wanted to know about what happened to them but did not want to say anything about their feelings of the topic.

Junior Aaron Watson-Sharer summed the typical teenage feelings about the school store quite well: “There are a lot of unhealthy options, that’s the point. Kids want something they can get from a 7 Eleven or some place like that.”

Senior Micah Henry who was nearby said Aaron summed up the school store well enough. It looked like kids only cared what was offered and that suited them fine.

In the end, the people most interested with this issue were the people running the school store. Parents it seemed had the more balanced view in mind, they were OK with kids buying what would satisfy their salt craving but wanted to see something that was not pure sugar or salt. The reality is that the school regulations and reality of teenagers would not work well with healthy food options. Students seemed to only care what color Gatorade there was and how much things cost, nothing more.

The teenage reality is that if you are given a choice between Doritos or a Banana, teenagers will pick the Doritos more than three quarters of the time, just like options at the school store. By selling Doritos over bananas the school store is able to keep up the profit and support us with our school activities. If more of us were willing to pay slightly more for healthier options than the store could make even more profit and help us even more.

Da Vinci’s Demons: AKA Let’s Go Crazy With History

October 23, 2015 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Sean Morris

Staff Writer

Shows about the lives of famous and infamous characters in history can often be well and entertaining — think of “The Borgias and Narcos ” — but can just as often be dulled or limited by how they tell it- think “Reign” I am happy to report that this is not the case with Da Vinci’s Demons. The show manages tell actual historical events while also creating original content and incorporates several fantasy elements that give the series a unique and vastly interesting edge.

The series follows a young Leonardo Da Vinci as the genius vastly ahead of his time when he is entangled in the political mechanisms of Renaissance Italy with the Medici and Pazzi clans, and especially the Church of Rome lead by the sinister Pope Sixtus IV. Leonardo also discovers a cult known as the “Sons of Mithras” who send him on the path to find an object known as “The book of Leaves”: a mystical object said to contain a wealth of hidden knowledge.

While this could come off as cheesy, it does for the better part able to keep it genuinely interesting and fascinating- especially how they are able to mix in the actual historical events during this exciting time. For example how they include the assassination attempt on the Medici family, the mad King Ferdinand of Naples’ museum of mummies, the Ottoman Invasion of Otranto, and is able to make detours off the historical map like when Leonardo and company take an expedition to South America (actually) to Machu Picchu and more: but I won’t be revealing much more as it would spoil some interesting surprises.

Aside from Leonardo, there are a wealth of interesting historical figures from patron of the arts Lorenzo de medici, the right hand of the pope and essentially the Darth Vader (black cloak and all) for the Catholic church: the hoarse count Riario, the man who became the namesake of America: Amerigo Vespucci to Vlad the Impaler aka Dracula himself, who steals the show in one of the series’s best episodes –and looks set to return for its final season.

As fun and cool I find the show, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t mention my gripes with the show as well. One of which is the character of Niccolo Machiavelli, who in his late teens seems to have been made to be one of the least interesting characters of the show when he was one of the most interesting men of not only his time but all time. Unfortunately, He is a thoroughly un-Machiavellian Machiavelli, while some could chalk that up to his youth, it still would have been satisfying to see seeds of his nature and the origins of that. I felt that Eros Vlahos was a miscast in the role, and should have been taken by someone who could tap into the darker and more ruthless side that someone can take, rather than both looking, acting and being used as a sort of damsel of distress, which was as far from what the historical character could be.

Additionally- and this is one of my biggest critics of the show is on the subject of Leonardo Da Vinci’s sexuality. In the show his main love interest is a woman, and suppose to be attracted to women, while in history it’s quite clear that he was gay. While they do mention and show that he is attracted to men as well (such as having him arrested on charges on sodomey like in history) it’s played VERY second base to his relationships to women. For example in the show his main love interest (although the show does not center on this) is Lucrezia donati and they have sex like three times, later marries the Incan priestess has sex with her, but hey he gets one guy kiss on screen. This bothers me a lot since there isn’t any hour dramas–at least that I can think of–that are lead by a gay man; and this becomes a thoroughly missed opportunity that should have been clear as day for them to do.

Despite my critiques, I do, on the whole, enjoy the show. It’s cast is the rare combination of being both eye candy and good at their jobs- especially the energy from Leonardo and the menacing whispers from count Riario. The costumes are wonderfully designed, the sets are craftily made, the score is beautiful and its opening credits sequence is one of the best I’ve ever seen. They do an excellent job at bending the reality of history sometimes straight up breaking it but ultimately incorporate multiple elements from history and work with them to create one of the best and most interesting not only historical shows, but of all shows that I’ve seen in a long time.

The final and 3rd season premiere is this Saturday the 24th on Starz, but feel free to catch up by viewing the first two seasons on demand or through Starz online episodes.

When Does Freedom of Expression Cross the Line? SLA’s Dress Code Controversy

October 19, 2015 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Michaela Peterson

Staff Writer

Stories of schools banning yoga pants, leggings, even tank tops and shorts, are becoming more and more common. There are stories about girls being sent home for wearing leggings.

By contrast, SLA’s dress code has always been vague. If fact, SLA doesn’t have a written dress code; but according to the code of conduct, students must follow these three guideline “1: Respect and care about yourself. 2: Respect and care about the community and its members. 3: Respect and care that this is a place of learning.”

This vagueness, while intentional, is more than a little confusing. It hard to determine what is appropriate and what is not, especially if you are unused to such freedom. A lot of the schools that SLA’s students come from have very strict dress codes. Some schools, like my own, even had uniforms. So what is it like to transition to a more open culture? I interviewed two juniors, Kwame Johnson and Sherell Messing, what their thoughts were on dress codes.

When asked if he had ever been distracted by a girl in yoga pants or leggings, Johnson’s response was an automatic and vehement “No! Never.” Later, on the same issue, he said:
I don’t care what I woman wears; it’s not affecting me any other way.” He’s response was even more passionate when I asked him if he thought dress codes enforced the stereotype that a woman’s body is an inherently sexual thing.

“I feel like that mindset came from back in the day where women were not considered equal… Their lives revolved around what men thought and what men told them to do. And I feel like we just haven’t caught up with the times.”

When I asked Messing what her thoughts were, she brought up the issue of crop tops, which several girls at SLA have gotten scolded for.

“I don’t think looking at someone’s belly button is going to make your GPA go down,” she said. As for inappropriate pants or shorts “I don’t think that somebody is going to stare at a girl’s pants for a whole class, a whole hour.”

She also brought up the issue of content over coverage. She mentioned seeing boys wear distracting shirts that could be considered offensive, and no one said anything.

“If you have a picture that is going to sexualize women on your shirt, and you’re wearing it in school, that’s a problem,” she said. “Not like you’re wearing yoga pants in school.”

How do they feel about SLA’s dress code? Johnson said he loved it, and the freedom it provided. Messing, on the other hand, had an issue with the vagueness of the policy.

“They tell that us we can wear we want, but when we wear certain things, they tell us we can’t be wearing that,” she said.

This is an issue that many girls at school have faced. Certain teachers will pull us aside and tell us that we can’t wear a certain shirt or pair of shorts again, because they are distracting. Yet other teachers will have no issue with the same articles of clothing. The inconsistency of this policy is confusing and difficult to understand.

I decided to ask Principal Aaron Gerwer about the policy’s vagueness. “I think really- it’s about what’s appropriate for a learning environment. So, if you wear a shirt that’s advertising drugs, or it’s degrading to women in anyway, personally that’s something I’ll call people on. But, to that’s the extent of my concern– except for somebody who wears something that just reveals too much body, than that becomes a distraction, too.

“We want to it keep so people feel free to express themselves, but also so that expression doesn’t lead to making other people feel offended or overly distracted.” It seemed pretty clear that he believed that the dress code was up to the interpretation of each student, teacher, and administrator.
We need to remember that SLA is a place of respect– and that includes respecting other people’s sense of self and style. I believe that Kwame put it best when he said, “It’s our body, and we have the say on what we want to wear, and what we don’t want to wear.”

Welcome Home

October 14, 2015 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

All the buzz for the 2015-16 school year seems to revolve around the new advisory houses. Stemming from a little Harry Potter inspiration, advisory houses are focussed around the idea of raising school spirit. These houses will also be used to incorporate more activities and experiences of a “normal” high school.

So, the plan is that each house will pose as a team, containing a freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior advisory. Throughout the year, different events and competitions will take place in which each house will compete for, winning all sorts of different prizes. Points can be gained for students in different categories, academic aspects, school spirit, and just general acts of kindness. Things such as helping to prevent interims within your advisory or supporting your friends at their sports games is enough to gain some points for your team. There will be a final competition at the end of the year to see which house has the overall most amount of points. The goal is to raise school spirit while encouraging students to not only do their best academically, but as individuals in the school community as well.

“This has the potential to be very powerful.”, states senior advisor, Mark Bey. The key word here is potential. The idea of these houses and all they stand for is a great one, but nothing great will come of any of this unless all students, of all different grades, get involved. “Freshmen love incentives.”, says Freshman Ariana Floores, and that is exactly what is planned. Work for a pizza party, or a surprise as such, within your advisory by limiting interims. All it takes is some participation throughout the school to create traditions that can shape our school as a community.

Ultimately, though, students should want to participate. A complaint heard throughout the school from all different grades is that SLA doesn’t provide a “normal” high school experience, but this is what advisory houses are attempting to fix. “We are a building that doesn’t contain many traditional high school aspects and this is a way of building a culture.”, says senior advisor, Pia Martin. Understandably, this school will never be normal, but this is all an attempt to create our own high school experience with our own culture and traditions.

In the end it is up to all of us students to allow these advisory houses to live up to their potential and expectations and to allow them to be as successful as they possibly can. The first house meetings were a success, so continue to make the most out of this experience and participate in all you can! Also, check in for more updates on advisory houses and all the competitions throughout the school year.

Rentboy Raid brings to Question of the Laws Towards Prostitution and Sex Workers Rights

October 10, 2015 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Sean Morris

Staff Writer

Like smoking, drinking and gambling, it seems as if we as a society cannot come to a clear consensus upon our vices, for better or worse. Among the most controversial topics even among the most liberal is prostitution, an industry so laced with negativity that its very name brings thoughts of crime and scandal. However, is every form of prostitution necessarily bad?

For the sake of this discussion, allow me to clarify: I am not at all referring to forced prostitution, in which unconsenting men, women and even children are forced into a life that they didn’t seek by an cruel and human force. I am talking about the adult men and women who have, for the most part, willingly chosen to go into the sex industry for whatever reason concerns the individual: maybe they enjoyed it, wanted it, acting didn’t work out and it was a secondary form of making money whatever it was, they are in it. Now these men and women face the dilemma that their industry and the ways it is promoted are illegal.

First there’s the question: who does voluntary prostitution harm? On the website procon.org in a section about the issue of legalizing prostitution or not, Cronell law professor Sherry F. Colby’s (JD, or Juris doctor) paper he wrote: ““Prostitution should not be a crime. Prostitutes are not committing an inherently harmful act. While the spread of disease and other detriments are possible in the practice of prostitution, criminalization is a sure way of exacerbating rather than addressing such effects. We saw this quite clearly in the time of alcohol prohibition in this country.” With prohibition: the illegilization of alcohol led to various crime and violence. Today, while alcohol is legal, there are still legal protections and laws regarding it, like most things, to prevent abuse. This is what should happen here with prostitution: laws and protections would prevent the spread of diseases and abuses.

Second question: What does more damage to a person’s life: working as a prostitute, or being busted for it? I was inspired to explore this topic after a raid by the NYPD on the offices of a gay sex worker website called “rentboy.com.” The NYPD arrested 6 employees and seized millions of dollars in assets.

Third question: Was this raid necessary? The Young turks, a series of online liberal based news videos, reported that these 6 were arrested on only a suspicion that they were selecting prostitution, they also noted the inessentialness of going after “gay people who are prostituting themselves” when “there’s a mass shooting everyday in America”. And criticized the department of homeland security for exercising “civil forfeiture” in the segment of the company’s moneys and the employees homes and property, calling it a “bullshit investigation that don’t keep any of us safe, and just meddling in the personal life of other people”. Additionally a male escort interviewed said the site offered “protection” for male escorts in comparision to others like Craigslist, and the site even had a 1,500 scholarship for escorts advertising on the website.

When I was researching this article, I honestly didn’t know what to expect. But now reading and watching the coverage of the Rentboy case, I strongly believe it is time to legalize prostitution in the United States. In areas, like Germany and New Zealand who have legalized it, it was found that prostitutes experienced less violence including rape and physical harm (presumably now that they had the option to go to the police, and some brothels even have a panic button in rooms) and it cuts down on trafficking. The benefits to the United States would be substantial.

My position may sound extreme, but I’m not the only one who believes this. Many, many reputable organizations from the World Health Organization to UN Women, The Global Commission for HIV and the Law, Human Rights Watch, Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women, Transgender law center, GLAD, National Center for Trans Equality, Anti Slavery International, and more all support decriminalization. Even a self proclaimed “conservative catholic” on Red State.com wrote “I am opposed to laws criminalizing prostitution. These laws have done little to nothing to reduce the number of people in the sex trade but they have made prostitutes vulnerable to coercion and abuse by criminals and, more importantly, by law enforcement.” And frankly regardless of whether or not prostitution remains illegal or not; it will continue. But at least if it is legal then there can be laws made and protections insured that allow for a much safer and productive society than persecuting those that harm, quite literally no one, can ever do.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Rentboy case and other reasons behind the legalization of Prostitution, here are a few links providing background information: