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.

Op/Ed

Donald Trump: A Serious Front Runner

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Gabriellie Kreidie

Guest Writer

We are joking no longer. Donald J. Trump is on the verge of possibly becoming the next President of the United States of America. The man that has become comedic gold to our favorite entertainers, the man who everyone has an impression of, the man that went after the 44th President of the United States for his birth certificate. That man has been a head of the polls for nearly the whole election season. The next candidate taking the Republican party by storm is Dr. Ben Carson, a decorated and celebrated neurosurgeon who inspired the African American community. That was until he opened his mouth. Both these candidates have never held public office or had any authority in the political landscape. The latest polls across the nation, show a tie between Trump and Carson. Neither seem to be dying out anytime soon.

 

It’s no longer a strange thought that an outsider could become our president. The latest CNN/ORC poll found that Donald Trump has a 25% support in Iowa. A recent Bloomberg Politics/St. Anselm College poll had Trump at 24% support in New Hampshire. In these polls Dr. Ben Carson is relatively close to Trump’s support (within 10 points of his lead) in the two states. In the Republican party, the outsiders are doing very well and seem to have a great chance of winning the executive branch in the 2016 election. Yet, what we see is a increase in the anti-establishment, anti-Washington, and anti-political correctness from likely voters. What these polls are showing us is that Trump, Carson and Fiorina are increasing the anger of the American people towards the governmental elite.

 

It’s scary that a Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree (Cason) has said publicly, “a lot of people who go in­to pris­on go in­to pris­on straight and when they come out, they’re gay.” Where a CEO who had cut thousands of jobs stated, without understanding the different aspects ethnicities face, “If someone believes they are limited by their gender, race or background, they will become more limited.” Where the possible Presidential nominee has said, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” I’m all for the First Amendment, until the homophobic, non compassionate and racist people of our country start having a great shot at winning the Oval.

School Holidays You Could Have Had Off On.

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A chart showing the holidays the largest school district have off for. (Click the image for a bigger picture)

Dylan McKeon Staff Writer

While there were many days off in September for the Pope’s visit and several religious holidays, many other religious holidays are being forgotten by both Philadelphia and other school districts.

In the first month of school, there was a total of eleven days of school across a period of three and a half months. With all of the holidays and the arrival of the Pope, this September had weekends that anywhere lasted between two to six days. However not all holidays are being recognized by the school district.

Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice is one of the biggest Muslim holidays of the year. This year it was on Thursday, September 24 the same day of the Pope break, meaning that while it wasn’t mentioned we did have off on that day. The same thing happened last year, as the holiday took place on the fourth of October, a day that corresponded with a Saturday. However neither of the dates are listed on the school district calendar, making it quite clear that they are not recognized by the Philadelphia School District.

New York, meanwhile, has decided to close public schools for both Eid al-Adha and Luna New Year which is a major holiday in Chinese and Korean culture. However, New York was unable to add Diwali to the school calendar as they needed 180 days of school.

This shows the biggest problem with implementing religious holidays as their can only be so many days off of school leading to many holidays not being represented. Another problem is that there usually aren’t enough student of the religious background to justify giving the day off.

Some districts have given students permission to miss classes that aren’t represented in order to give them the ability to celebrate the holiday without giving everyone the holiday doesn’t apply to off. This helps but doesn’t make a large enough change given that getting permission to skip school isn’t the same as having off on that day.

In my opinion the best way to ensure that student are able to celebrate their holidays would be to cut some days of summer break off. This would allow for students to celebrate some off the holidays without missing school, give other students an opportunity to learn more about the holiday, and would only be at a cost of a few summer days.

For a clearer picture of who has off when, the hyperlink below has a chart that shows the list of various holidays and which of the 25 largest school districts have off those days.

http://i1.wp.com/fusiondotnet.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/fusion_student-holiday-in-public-school-districts_1b-1.png?resize=1024%2C1833&quality=80&strip=all

 

Sources: http://fusion.net/story/156759/as-public-school-students-get-christmas-break-other-religions-ask-why-not-us/

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2015/0922/Should-public-schools-close-for-Muslim-holidays

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

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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.”

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

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rentboy2

 

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:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Does Cultural Appropriation Cross the Line

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Kali Taylor

Staff Writer 

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Miley Cyrus at VMAs                                             Savannah Manns                         Angelica Owens

Every single young, African-American young female has had at least one moment in life when they hated their natural hair. Whether the self-hatred roots from media, school, or even their own family; it happens one way or another. At a young age our impressionable minds absorb everything, we are taught that natural hair isn’t beautiful. We are teased, taunted, and ridiculed. But, what happens when our natural hairstyles are worn by another race? They are glorified for being “hip” and “trendy.” Why the difference in attitudes?  

Cultural appropriation places everyone in a tricky position. The ones who are appropriated cannot wrap their minds around it due to the incessant abhorrence we’ve endured because of an aspect of our culture. Our culture is only glorified when it is worn by someone else, specifically white people. As for people who are doing the appropriation; some of them ask: why is it big deal? This is America, and we are supposed to embrace different cultures because we’re a melting pot. But, there is a fine line between appreciation and appropriating.

To see how SLA feels on the subject, I spoke to a couple of African American students. I spoke to Sophomore Savannah Manns expressed her problem with white people wearing historically black hair. ¨For dreads, twists and braids specifically; they are protective styles for our hair type. I feel as though whenever black people have or do something creative and makes us individuals; it’s just stripped away from us. We can’t have anything to ourselves; everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon.” 

Other students at SLA have a different perspective. Sophomore Joseph Lee does not have a problem with it. ¨It is just hair. It means nothing to me; there’s no significance.”

In September, singer Miley Cyrus decided to ¨rock¨ her faux locs during the VMAs. She constantly used AAVE (African American Vernacular English), called rapper, Snoop Dogg ¨mammy¨ (mention how that’s inappropriate). It is obvious she loves our culture and would like to mimic us. Yet, when singer Nicki Minaj speaks about the racism in award shows, Cyrus  portrays her as being bitter and angry. She dismissed the fact that her whole rant was about the blatant racism in the media. Cyrus decided to silence her and cover up her actual problem. This is a prime example of why black people (women especially) as a whole feel offended when others attempt to make our culture a costume.

It’s not just hair; this is our identity, this is our culture. You can’t pick out the aspects that are appealing to you and then pretend to be oblivious about the struggle that comes with it. If you want to be apart of our culture; take everything that comes with being a black person in America. You have the privilege of putting on a facade for one day or however long your phase is; but we are always going to be black; there’s no escaping that.

Think of it this way: one day in class, you’re assigned to do a paper. You put your heart and soul in it, you believe it’s a remarkable piece and you’re thrilled to share it with your professor. He hates it, he ridicules it; says it’s the worst thing he has ever read. He gives you a failing grade. You’re distraught because you thought it would be a wonderful piece and he would love it. Years later, you find out he took your paper that you worked on; without even any recognition that it was your original piece. He profits off of your paper, people praise him for his innovative thinking and style; whereas a few years before he berated it. 

Personally, I would not have a problem with us sharing our culture if we weren’t brainwashed to despise our identity because it did not fit the Eurocentric standards. There would be no problem if white people loved black people as much as they love our culture. It is not fair for young black girls (and boys) have self-hatred drilled into their minds before they even have a chance to realize how beautiful they are. Then, when they grow older they finally do see their features are beautiful to most of the Western Civilization; only if another race acquires it.