News

2014 changes of SLA

January 26, 2015 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Angelica Owens

Staff Writer

Within the last year, there has been some changes around the school. Community members outside the school may not be aware that we lost three teachers last year– in the summer Ms. Dunn, the english teacher for freshmen and seniors and Mr. Sherif, the BioChemistry teacher for freshmen and sophomores left to go somewhere else and then Ms. Giknis and Ms. Sessa took their places.

Mr. VK left during the winter break and will not be returning. He went to teach at Drexel. The students that have had VK during their time at this school knows that he loved the school very much and he always spoke to his students in the hallway when he saw them. We never would have thought he would have left us since he lives across the street from the school but he wanted to go and teach people how to teach within the STEM (science technology engineering and math) fields.

To come back in September of 2014 and to not see them was devastating. My personal experience with these teachers since I had both of them freshman year and then had Mr. Sherif again sophomore year is that they were both amazing people. Mr. Sherif called himself “doctor smiley” which made his students get to know that he was very happy to teach his students. Ms. Dunn was such a great teacher as well. Her energy lit up the room and she was very willing to help any student that needed extra help. Not only was Ms. Dunn a phenomenal teacher but she was really good at talking to students on a personal level so that you knew you could trust her with things. I’m sure both of these teachers will be missed by the whole student body.

“I was disappointed to hear Ms. Dunn left. She was an amazing English teacher and adult in the building to talk to. However, I’m really looking forward to having Ms. Giknis as a teacher for Reel Reading. I know she’s going to be a great teacher and make the class really interesting” – Nikki Adeli

However, despite the change, Sessa and Giknis are getting used to their new roles in the school.

“SLA is a bit different from the school I was at before. That school wasn’t labeled a “project-based” school, but science lends itself to projects and experimentations, so in that way it wasn’t that different. Though the content is a bit different, since biology and chemistry weren’t integrated there. I think the biggest change was the use of the laptops (which is awesome!) The teachers here have helped me with utilizing them to make projects.”- Sessa

The school also saw several changes in appearance. The library which used to be painted mint green is now a bright red color, which had the music room there. Also, the study skills class which used to be in room 206 relocated to the library with a lot more space. When study skills moved to the library to get rid of the loud noise of the music room, it moved to the 3rd floor.

The biggest change is one that isn’t definitely happening — the possibility of SLA moving locations to the central office of the School District, at 440 N. Broad Street.

2014: Plane Crashes and Safety

January 21, 2015 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Chiara Nemati

Staff Writer

Many people find themselves afraid of flying, whether it is because they are afraid of crashing, heights, being in small places, or fear of public spaces.

2014 has been a big year for this fear. Malaysia has had an especially tough year in the aviation industry, they have lost three planes in the air and had a lot of struggles finding the planes in the oceans, stirring up conspiracy theories as to where the planes went. The search is still on for AirAsia flight 8501.

On July 17, Malaysian flight MH17 was shot down, whether it was Russia or Ukraine is still unclear, 298 passengers were onboard. All were killed, two-thirds of the passengers were Dutch. Once there was a pause in the fighting between Russia and Ukraine, a Dutch team when down to the crash site, in Ukraine, to look for bodies. This is not the first time a plane has been shot down in Ukraine, however. Many military planes have been shot down by missiles over the past couple of weeks leading up to the crash of flight MH17.

This is not the first Malaysian flight to go down. Earlier in March Malaysian flight 370 lost contact and disappeared, 239 people were on board. The flight departed from Kuala Lumpur and was set to land in Beijing but never made it. Both of these planes were Boeing 777 models. An AirAsia flight containing 162 passengers has gone missing as well. This has proved to be a terrible year for Malaysian aviation.

A lot of the news has been covering the scary truths about flying, but when taking a closer look, you can easily see that planes are actually very safe. The statistics prove it. There are about 42 thousand airports around the world. On average there are 86 plane crashes a year according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). For the millions of flights that take off yearly this is not bad at all.

Planes are built to ensure as much safety as possible for the passenger. In fact, the transportation industry looks at the safety and regulations of planes under a fine-toothed comb. If you fly out of the United States, statistics say that the chance of being in a fatal accident is one in seven million. We tend to think that planes are very unsafe and will try to take another form of transportation to get to our destination if possible. However driving is way more unsafe than taking a commercial flight– a hundred deaths are caused each day auto accidents.

Aviophobia is the fear of flying. Nathan Feiles (a psychologist) digs deeper into this phobia and explains its cause. Many things can lead to the fear of flying such as, lack of control, fear of heights, as well as public fear. Feiles goes on to say “Some people feel if they’re not in control of something that it will go wrong. So if we’re not flying the plane (or don’t understand how the plane or flying works), our feeling is that we will crash. “ Plane crashes may stick in the minds of the general public because of many reasons. One reason is also the overactive imagination some people have. Overactive imagination causes the brain to create scenarios that may actually never happen. However they implement fear. Another factor is the fact that the media knows how well a news piece that engages fear, sells.

Despite all these setbacks and scares you may have heard on the media, planes are actually very safe. These incidents will just increase safety regulations more than what they were these past few years.

Teachers, Students React to New Relations with Cuba

January 8, 2015 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Benjamin Simon

Staff Writer

Screenshot 2015-01-08 at 12.30.48 PM — Image courtesy of: http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/

The conflict between the United States and Cuba goes back to 1959. The problems began when the Cuban Revolution occurred, which brought Former President Fidel Castro to power. Shortly after this, America decided to cut ties with Cuba. Until now.

In 2009, Mr. Alan Gross was arrested in Cuba. The American born employee of the U.S Agency for Development was in Cuba trying to improve the communication network for Jewish Neighborhoods. As he continued to provide sources of technology intelligence for these citizens, he was detained. After Mr. Gross was accused of “Acts against the Independence and Territorial Integrity of the State” in 2011, he was sentenced to a grueling fifteen years. With his mental and physical health slowly deteriorating by 2014, his family wondered how much longer he could live.

For the past years, President Barack Obama has made it a priority to bring home Mr. Gross. However, he knew it would not be an easy task to negotiate the return of a prisoner with a country that America has not been able to cooperate with for tens of years. President Obama started by releasing two members of the Cuban Five, a group of men who were thought of conspiracy and espionage, in 2013.

Still, Cuba refused to allow Mr. Gross to return home. Amidst almost ten meetings in Vatican City and over the phone, the foggy details began to clear between President Obama and President Raúl Castro.

Alan Gross 140412-alan-gross-mn-1200_9d76532e0413553f774fae120c0cdbb9 — **Alan Gross**
Image courtesy of: 140412-alan-gross-mn-1200_9d76532e0413553f774fae120c0cdbb9

Many months later, the other three members of the Cuban Five were released and Mr. Gross was set to return home. On December 17, 2014, Mr. Gross stepped on American soil for the first time in almost half of a decade.

This swap was a great step in President Obama’s intentions to resume diplomatic relations with Cuba. Since their refusal to talk decades ago, Cuba’s economy has had some troubles. The losing one of its largest suppliers and buyers has provided its toll. This exchange of prisoners has raised many eyebrows. Should America make strides to better their relationship with Cuba? Can America really call them allies? Isn’t it a huge problem if America has such a bad relationship with Cuba that people cannot fly from here to Cuba?

“I think normalizing relations with Cuba, and other ‘enemies’ like Iran are necessary for diplomacy to be possible,” said Mr. Herman, the digital video and photography teacher at Science Leadership Academy, who visited Cuba in 2008.

His visit showed him that many of the pre conceived ideas about Cuba as a pessimistic and terrible country are not always true.

“And yet, with all of the daily struggle Cuba is a very happy, excited, energetic and optimistic place,” explained Mr. Herman. “Simply stating ‘Soy de los estados unidos’ was normally met with a huge smile and a big conversation as if we had been friends for years.”

His experiences there have convinced him that open diplomatic relations are best.

“Without such measures it feels impossible for our societies to work together to avoid deeper, more damaging conflicts,” he said, “Opening channels of communication is critical to moving forward. Simply put, It’s about time!”

Arsenio Gomez, a sophomore at SLA, added a different perspective.

“America is going to be in a worse situation,” he said. “We need to worry about ourselves before we try and save the world. [America is] trying to expand too fast and be friends with everyone.” He also noted that America has its own gaping problems that need to be fixed before we worry about the relationship with Cuba.

“Obama’s executive decision to re-establish an embassy and an official ambassador in Cuba is an important step in the right direction,” added Mr. Herman in the interview with SLAMedia, “If anything, this will hopefully lead to an easing of restrictions on Cubans traveling back and forth so they can be reunited with family members they haven’t been able to see in years.”

Like it or not, America and Cuba are taking giant strides in resuming of diplomatic relations.

SLA Students Participate in City-wide “Die-in”

December 16, 2014 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Photo courtesy of Kimberly Paynter, WHYY

Leah Kelly

Staff Writer

On Friday, December 5, approximately 100 SLA students participated in “die-in” at 11:43 am in the second floor ballroom. The students laid or sat on the ground for four and a half minutes to represent the four and a half hours that Michael Brown’s body was left on the street.

Seniors Ruby Anderson and Nomi Martin-Brouillette brought the event to SLA after the Philadelphia Student Union, which recently began a chapter at SLA, had the idea.

“On Thursday morning, Ruby texted me that Masterman and Central were having a die-in on Friday and she suggested that SLA do it too,” Nomi Martin-Brouillette said. “I thought it was a good idea too, and we set up a Facebook event for it.”

Many students agreed that the “die-in” was for a great cause and would raise awareness, but some were wary about the message that would be sent by the fact that black students were asked to lay down while white students were asked to only sit down.

“I support what the die-in represents,” non-protester Aaron Block said, “but I felt that the idea that we divide ourselves based on race with black students lying down and white students sitting down was not compatible with the message I wanted to send and the way I wanted to protest.”

Similarly, Junior Sean Morris was unhappy with the guidelines.

“I felt as though it greatly diminished the message they were trying to send,” he said. “It sends a message that this only happens to black people when police brutality, excessive force and prejudice from an authoritative force can really happen to anyone.” He cited the different instances of police brutality against non-African Americans, and said that he was uncertain about participating in the next protest due to what he thought was an ineffective strategy.

Senior Ruby Anderson, one of the organizers of this event at SLA, disagreed with the criticism of other students.

“We do not feel that it would be appropriate for non-black people to mimic dead black bodies,” she said, “so we asked for allies to sit as a way of recognizing their privilege.”

Students from SLA, Masterman and Central had die-ins on the same day, but that wasn’t the end of student-organized die-ins, as they are planning a larger citywide die-in.

“We define violence as power that hurts one’s chances of survival,” the Facebook event page reads. “We see this type of violence interpersonally, in thousands of instances of police brutality, and institutionally, in a school district that systematically denies young people of color the resources that we need to succeed.”

This Thursday, December 17, at 4:30pm at the School District Building there is a mass Student Die-In, which already has lots of popularity on the Facebook page. It is unclear whether or not all students will be laying down or if only black students will be.

The Facebook event page ends with a powerful charge: “We have nothing to lose but our chains!”

Pedestrian Hit Outside of SLA

December 11, 2014 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Benjamin Simon

Staff Writer

Pedestrian gets hit by car outside SLA

At approximately 7:45 AM Thursday morning, a young woman was hit by a car while attempting to cross Arch street towards the school.

“I got off the bus and then there was a loud crash” said Sophomore Chhievling Seng. “I saw a [woman] laying there in the street.” Seng is referring to the accident that occurred this morning on Thursday December 11th.

As the city was rising, snow lightly falling on the ground, a young lady ran across the street. The woman, who Seng thought was in her early twenties, was running from the corner parallel to the side of SLA, to catch the bus that was pulling up. Seng and fellow Sophomore Tahmidul Bhuiyan were on that bus and were getting off when the crash occurred.

In order to catch the bus, the woman felt it was necessary to run against the light. As she crossed, she was struck by a “big, black car”, says Bhuiyan.

The two students did not see the crash, but they saw the lady lying in the middle of the street and instantly notified School Officer Cynthia Byrd. She checked to make sure no students or staff of SLA were injured, and fortunately, none were.

The woman was taken to in Hahnemann hospital on Broad Street. Her status is unknown.