News

SLA Responds to Community Concerns Surrounding Move

May 23, 2019 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Sukainah Hasan

Staff Writer

Starting in September 2019, SLA Center City will be located in the Ben Franklin High School Building at Broad and Spring Garden.

With this move come many questions, about academics, facilities, and the adjustment to the new space. More specifically, many parents and students have concerns about the safety issues with the two schools combining. A commonly stated concern is the quesitons of how the students will interact with each other. Since this is the case, some parents have decided to transfer their child out of SLA, since they don’t know what to expect with this upcoming move.

Freshman Khaliq Wilks is one of the students who is considering a transfer.

“When I first came to SLA, I felt safe coming into the building knowing that only the students that actually goes to SLA are in the building,” he explained. “There might be drama between Ben Franklin and SLA because we don’t know them and they don’t know us.”

Freshman Imajay Harvey has no plans to transfer, but she does have safety concerns.

“One thing that I’m concerned about is the violence that can possibly occur between the students,” he stated. “You never know what’s going to happen between the two schools being together, which makes me a little worried.”

According to Dashboards, a website that the philadelphia school district has to get track of climate, it says that the number of serious incidents reported to district police the year of 2017-2018 106. In 2015-2016, it was 125, and in 2016-2017 there were 134 incidents reported. This shows that from the year of 2016-2017 and 2017-2018, the number of serious incidents reported to district police has decreased. By contrast, at SLA there were only 18 serious incidents reported to district police the year of 2017-2018.

SLA staff is aware of these concerns from students, and are there are a few plans in place to help students navigate the new environment.

“To resolve students from having conflict with each other, there should be communication and transparency,” SLA counselor Zoe Siswick explained.

Since there will be lot of physical crossovers between students, the two schools have to learn how to get along. However, there will be help with this process.

“Something that the School District has allowed us to do is hire a Climate Manager, which is basically someone as a disciplinarian,” Ms. Siswick stated. “We are going to use this person to work with Mr. Lehman and Ms. Leanness to avoid issues between SLA and Ben Franklin students.” The schools are also planning a series of Outward Bound trips for the underclassmen from each school to get to know each other in a neutral venue outside of the building.

SLA staff will continue to work to resolve any future problems that can possibly occur. with sharing both schools.

SLA Plans, Prepares for Facility Upgrades at Ben Franklin

May 23, 2019 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Zoe Kwasnicki

Staff Writer

Starting next school year, Science Leadership Academy Center City will no longer be located at 22nd and Arch. Instead, our new campus will be located within Ben Franklin High School – or at least half of it.

But that is all the majority of the student body knows – excluding sketches of floor plans and photos of construction hung up in the hallways. The more intimate details of our new home is largely unknown which has resulted in jittery sophomores and confused freshmen – terrified that their first day at school will be spent wandering aimlessly between classrooms. Not to mention the potentially awkward social interactions between SLA and Ben Franklin students.

Sophomore Lily Bromley expressed worry that the Ben Franklin students will be annoyed that it’s through the addition of SLA that the quality of the building will be improved.

“I’m excited in some ways – like I’m excited to have a nicer building but there are some things I’m worried about. Like that there might be some inequality between our school and their school… now that we’re coming in they’re getting all this stuff.”

The school is designed to prevent more division between the schools however because while the majority of the building will be split down the middle, the first floor will be shared by both SLA CC and Ben Franklin students although the main entrances will be different. SLA CC students will enter on Green St. and into a common area while Ben Franklin students will enter on Broad St. and into the main hallway.

Also on the first floor will be the auditorium and the gym – two building features never before enjoyed by SLA CC students. The cafeteria is moving from its original space on the 6th floor to the first floor as well.

In the cafeterias there will be one kitchen, but two separate serving and seating areas. The SLA CC cafe will be outfitted with “Starbucks-style” seating in the words of Principal Chris Lehmann, with low seating and high seating mixed throughout the space.

From there the second, third, fourth and fifth floors will be divided and designated for classrooms with the sixth floor featuring both CTE rooms, the art room, and – a new addition to SLA – a terrace!

Classrooms will be outfitted with a variety of furniture similar to the mix we currently have at SLA. Teachers were able to choose between single or table seating for their rooms although all seating will remain consistent in classrooms, with a style similar to the current classroom furniture.

However, there will be some more unique chairs known as the Ruckus in the cafe and the Study Skills lab.

But besides classrooms and bathrooms, the second through fifth floors will also have small “collaboration” rooms/areas throughout the school along with a “Living Room” on the second floor which will be spaces in which students can work on their ongoing projects or simply relax.

All of these changes are backed enthusiastically by Mr. Lehmann, who emphasises the fact that every single alteration was due to the unique wants and needs of SLA’s community:

“I think the general goal is this: I think SLA has a unique culture and I think we all enjoy that. And I think [what we are doing is] figuring out what that culture looks like in a new space and figuring out how to continue to involve and develop and enrich the culture…in a new space.”

And amid the apprehension of a new location and new neighbors, students are still optimistic.

“It’s going to be weird, but I think we’ll figure out,” stated Sophomore Mo Kelly.

Why Don’t Men at SLA want to Talk about Street Harassment?

May 20, 2019 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Lily Bromley and Faryn Heffner

Staff Writers

Imagine yourself walking down the street. You’re going to school or to your house. How do you feel? Are you alone or with a group of people?

Most of all: do you feel safe?

For many SLA students, especially female students, this is a loaded question.

As two young women commuting around Philadelphia, we have both had to deal with street harassment many times. Most of the times we have tried to communicate what our commutes are like to men, they have belittled our experience or called us paranoid.

As a result of our experiences, we decided that it would be interesting to explore how students of SLA have experienced street harassment, as well as what they imagine commutes are like for people of other genders. We sent out a survey in the advisory memo, as well as interviewed students individually. Ten students answered the survey and of that group, there was only one male-identifying respondent. We later individually interviewed male students to get a better view of their opinions.

Street harassment is can be a complicated concept to define. The best working definition we could find comes from “Stop Street Harassment”, an organization focused on ending street harassment: “Unwanted comments, gestures, and actions forced on a stranger in a public place without their consent and is directed at them because of their actual or perceived sex, gender, gender expression, or sexual orientation.”

The definitions provided by SLA students included mention of what the harasser was seeking to get out of the experience.

“Street harassment is any verbal or physical interaction with another person, most often a stranger, with the objective to objectify,” wrote Sophmore Caleb McCreary.

“Street harassment is any interaction that crosses a universal boundary, as the use of suggestive language to a stranger without them requesting it, or touching a person without them requesting it, especially in interactions where the action is only meant to benefit the harasser,” another respondent wrote.

Through the survey we conducted, most students remarked that they would rate their overall feeling of safety during their commute as a 3 or 4 (with 1 being extremely unsafe and 5 being completely safe).

It is important to point out that it’s not only women that can fall victim to street harassment.

“I have been called racial slurs on the way to school” Sophomore Kofi Kohl explained.

Kohl’s experiences confirm that street harassment isn’t always sexual harassment. As women, we have mostly faced street harassment based on our perceived gender, so Kohl’s experiences remind us that anyone can be street harassed.

Many female students expressed that during the summer and spring when people start wearing warm weather appropriate clothing, they feel more uncomfortable on their commute.

“In the winter I feel less watched, but now wearing like skirts home because it’s warm I’m more afraid of being confronted,” Senior Sofia Powers explained.

Other students brought up reasons why the warmer months can mean more harassment, for instance, when it is colder out people tend to be on the move, instead of staying outside.

We spoke to two other students and asked them what their definition of street harassment is. Junior Olufemi Beatty said: “I feel that street harassment is any sort of unwanted attention/gestures, usually, the acts are demeaning”.

We also spoke to sophomore Fionn Hyland, and his definition is very similar to Beatty’s, but Hyland pointed out that usually if a man compliments a woman and even though the woman shows clear signs of not wanting the attention the man will continue to harass the woman.

Junior Juliana Long said “When I commute alone, I often feel unsafe either because of potentially getting things stolen from me since I’ve gotten my phone stolen while commuting before or being put in a situation with a man making advances on me when I’m not comfortable with it because rejecting men’s advances is potentially really dangerous.”

These sort of things are feelings that women have to deal with every day.

We set out to write this article to highlight the blind spots that anyone who has never experienced street harassment (mainly men) might have. As mentioned before, only one male student answered the survey that we put in the advisory memo. Do SLA boys not care about women’s issues?

Sophomore Mo Kelly presented a possible theory:, “Some boys get uncomfortable talking about issues pertaining to women because a lot of times it’s men that cause the issue and they don’t like to think of it.”

The idea is that instead of facing that street harassment is an issue that women face, usually at the hands of men, it is easier to push it aside and not talk about it.

Does SLA have a Bias Against Community College?

May 16, 2019 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Brendan Hall

Staff Writer

High schoolers around the country get the same message starting freshman year: the paths they choose after they graduate are crucial The seniors at SLA are no exception and prepare to make a life-defining commitment to a post-graduate program.

Aside from programs, location, and cost another important part of making the college decision is the type of college/university to attend. Varieties of these include private colleges, public colleges, trade schools, or community college. Knowing how to decipher between these types for the best possible result may be more difficult than it appears due to the benefits and shortcomings of each type of schools.

As a citywide admissions school, SLA prides itself on helping students get into elite schools with competitive admissions. But does this focus overlook the value of less prestigious, but more affordable schools?

“SLA college counselors and other teachers recommended me liberal arts school and I think that’s because a liberal arts school is most similar to SLA,” Senior Messele Asfaw said in response to what types of post high school education SLA recommended.

Asfaw furthered this claim by saying he believes those who chose a liberal arts school did it because they wanted a similar learning environment to SLA. In a follow up he believed that a problem could occur from a formulaic recommendation.

“There’s a stigma against community college that certain students and faculty members have against it despite that option being a reasonable choice for certain people,” Asfaw critiqued about the college counseling students receive. In the end, Asfaw decided to attend SUNY Stony Brook because of the quality of its engineering and film program.

Another student confirmed Asfaw’s perception.

“In general I think SLA gives recommendations based on types of schools that resemble [where the teachers went],” Senior Majd Bostani stated. Bostani believes school faculty do this to inform students about an opportunity to learn in a manner that replicates project-based material. However he also expressed there was an inconvenience with this method because they tend to favor institutions which mirror SLA’s style.

“A student looking for guidance would likely find conflict with the type of schools recommended because it’s rare for them to recommend schools outside of a university,” Bostani claimed.

“I knew where I wanted to go based on my own research and parental guidance,” Sean DeSilva explained. DeSilva progressed his statement and said this tactic allowed to look aside from educational institutions which mirrored SLA’s ideals. DeSilva furthered this implying SLA had bias towards certain types of colleges.

“I think that looking over community colleges could potentially waste a reliable option due to the stigma around it,” DeSilva stated. In the end, DeSilva decided to attend LaSalle.

Another anonymous student described a past incident where her brother had an unpleasant confrontation about his choice to attend Community College of Philadelphia. This incident lead to her deciding to not ask the college counselor for guidance because of how attending community college was taboo for her brother.

Some seniors at SLA believe Community College is looked down upon by faculty members, and even their own peers. This could result in a lack of motivation for students who know they cannot attend a university due to cost or other factors.

“My job is to let students know about a wide range of schools,” Mrs. Hirschfield the college counselor asserted. She also explained that despite the stigma against community college a significant portion of SLA students have attended each of the past 4 years (10%).

“I think that there is a stigma, but I don’t think it’s exclusive to SLA,” she stated. This point was proceeded with her opinion, which is people do this because selective schools are valued more in a professional setting. For instance, a Bachelor’s degree is more prestigious than an associate’s degree, but applicants overlook the option of transferring to a university.

Furthermore, she stated this stigma could result in a negative college experience for future students due to chasing prestigious validations. However, Ms. Hirschfield countered the claim that SLA has a practice of automatically overlooking community options.

“If a student said they wanted to go to CCP I’d support the choice, it’s just I want students to be aware of all their options…maybe that’s where the misunderstanding comes from,” she addressed when asked about a student not coming to college counseling.

Open Campus Privilege at SLA

May 9, 2019 by Jayla Wright Leave a Comment

Opinion Editor

Amelia Benamara

As the fourth quarter school year continues, the seniors at SLA Center CIty made it their goal to bring back the infamous open campus during lunch bands.

Throughout the school year, rumors have circulated that the open campus policy was not to take place this year due to multiple reasons.

Although nothing was confirmed, many students went around saying that the School faculty had decided to put a stop to the plan because of many times students were caught sneaking out of the building during lunch hours. Another rumor suggested that it was the senior class from last year who had ruined this year’s class’ chance for the privilege of leaving school during lunch.

The answer was much simpler.

“Somebody asked either Mr. Lehmann or Jeremy, and one of them responded ‘that’s not a thing anymore, we aren’t doing that’, whatever we felt like saying at the time — but it wasn’t true.” health teacher SLA’s principle, Ms. Lennese states.

In reality, open campus was something that faculty would wait for students to bring forth, and then decide to make it happen or not,rather than something that automatically happens every year.

The offer is not automatic, because it also hasn’t been entirely successful.

“There is no senior class that has maintained it for the whole fourth quarter,” Ms. Martin mentioned about the seniors in the past years. “That doesn’t mean I do not have hope that this year’s senior class will make it further, long as they follow the rules.”

This year, the issue was brought to school administrators by multiple senior students like Kyianna Thomas as one of the members of SLA’s Black Student Union as well as Bronwyn Goldschneider.

“After talking with a group of seniors, I emailed Ms. Martin about open campus. She then told me to meet her after school to talk about a potential plan. Later on, I met with her again to discuss the finalized proposal.” Goldschneider continued to explain, “After a good proposal was drafted up, I was told it would have to be approved by Ms. Leanness/Mr. Lehmann. The plan must have seemed fair because it was approved fairly quickly.”

Then, on April 6th, the senior advisories had an advisory meeting in the cafe where advisors validated the open campus for the quarter. Permission slips with the rules that needed to be followed On April 11th, students had the opportunity to go out for lunch for the first time.

According to the seniors who took advantage of the privilege, the first day of open campus went really well. They enjoyed the change to get fresh air even if it’s just for a couple minutes especially when students are stuck in a building for 7 hours straight.

“It felt very good to just be out of the building and to be able to sit down and talk with two of my friends at Arch Gourmet.” Eric Valenti confessed, “Even towards the end of lunch, I saw a number of my peers rushing to make it back in time — and I think this shows the dedication and care they have towards following all of the rules for open campus.”

Several seniors stated that they deserve to be let out during lunch due to their improved behaviour.

“It isn’t deniable that our past has made a lot of trouble, but we’ve come a long way and our class is definitely way more unified than the other gardes.” Senior Eric Valenti stated.

Now that the door is open, will the senior class maintain the 4th quarter open campus privilege by following all of the rules that apply?

The rules listed on the advisory sheet that students and the faculty have negotiated for include:

You must be on track to graduate to be eligible
No interim report 4th quarter
No school or class cuts from time of announcement
Submit permission slip signed by parents to advisor
Must sign out and in
Can not sign in or out another student
Must not be late to class
Students who receive interims lose off-campus privilege.
Administration has the right to review any students’ privileges.

“We have already lasted longer than some previous classes and as far as I know we haven’t had many if any strikes yet. We’re definitely really close as a class and it will be easier for us to be on top of each other if one of us isn’t following the rules.” Valenti speaks on his hopes for his class.