Op/Ed

Flush, Wash, and Throw Away The Trash

January 21, 2022 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Gabrielle Hart

Staff Writer

It started off as once in a while, I assumed it was just a mistake.

Then I saw it at least once on every floor, and I started to become more concerned.

Then it became a common theme on every floor, in every stall.

It was just all around gross.

On the first day of school I was excited to attend a school where I knew people cared about SLA’s environment. But then I encountered the mess of the bathrooms.

I’ve had bad experiences with school bathrooms in the past — and I understand that mistakes happen — but this issue became a routine I saw everyday, in every all-gender bathroom.

Initially, the school sent out an email saying that the automatic flush is not guaranteed to work for every toilet earlier in the school year. It was also stated in the email that it is in everyone’s best interest to use the button on the side of the toilet to ensure that everything goes down the toilet.

Based on how nasty things have been, I will just assume that many people didn’t read that email. Since then every time I walked into the bathroom most stalls would be clogged with toilet paper… along with other things you typically find in a toilet. I would often find myself and at least one other person entering and exiting the bathroom within seconds because of how foul the bathroom stalls were. I can recall many instances where all we could do was laugh with one another in disbelief.

Trash is another issue in these bathrooms. In the handicapped stall there aren’t trash cans to put our used paper towels in. However, there is a huge trashcan next to the door that you simply can not miss when walking out. I began to notice that people would leave their used paper towels sitting on top of the handicap stall sink. After a week or so I realized that many people just took after one person when leaving used paper towels in the stall instead of putting them in the trash. I would find myself using dry paper towels to pick up the soaked used ones and placing them in the cans myself.

Students also leave the sinks covered with water and clogged with paper towels, ramen, or hair in the drains. If one notices that they have created a mess when washing their hands the best thing to do is to grab paper towels and wipe it up instead of leaving it there. It can get really annoying for another person to come into the bathroom to wash their hands and leave with their forearms and elbows soaked in water.

While there are times that messes occur in the bathroom we are still responsible for cleaning up after ourselves.

COVID – Is it really that bad?

January 13, 2022 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Anouk Ghosh-Poulshock

Staff Writer

COVID has been on everyone’s mind for the past year. Some people are scared, while others are not worried about it at all. So, is it really that bad?

Last January, I tested positive for COVID-19.

For the 10 days I had to quarantine, my symptoms weren’t great, but they also weren’t as bad as I expected. The worst symptoms were the headache and finding it hard to breathe. I didn’t even get a cough or congestion, which I found strange. I was exhausted most of the time.

Fortunately, online school meant I didn’t have to miss any of my classes. On the one day when it felt the worst, day 5, I took off from school and slept in. It was pretty easy to keep up with schoolwork while sick, because there wasn’t much work and I wasn’t that sick.

The one symptom that stuck around for the longest was my loss of smell, which started Around the fourth day of having COVID. It was super strange, losing something that I was accustomed to. I ate mints until I got it back.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t do the same for my smell. That didn’t come back for three months.. I didn’t really know what to do about it, and it wasn’t a crazy inconvenience, so I didn’t care, but it was strange. Even stranger was how all of a sudden, on a random day in May, I got my sense of smell back. It returned out of nowhere, I just woke up and I could smell again. I didn’t really notice at first, but I grabbed an orange and noticed I could smell it.

When I got my vaccine in late May, the doctor said that it would be a different experience since I had gotten COVID. Basically, it would feel like I had COVID again. When I got my first vaccine dose, it was a Thursday. I felt fine the whole day, but the next day I felt horrible. To make things even more complicated, Friday was my first day of hybrid learning and I had to go into SLA for the first time while feeling terrible. I took Tylenol most of the day, which helped and I didn’t feel any symptoms. It went away after a day, and I felt normal the next day.

I had the same experience when I got my second dose of the vaccine. That time, I just stayed at home and rested.

Ever since getting COVID, I have still been careful about getting it again. You need to be cautious about the people around you, and make sure that you are doing your part to help get rid of COVID once and for all.

As for how it has changed me – it has taught me to be cautious of COVID, and I learned that I definitely do not want to get it again. To lose something and get it back teaches you how important it really was.

Well…Let’s Talk About Stairwells

January 13, 2022 by Fatima Abashera Leave a Comment

Fatima Abashera

Staff Writer

As soon as a class at SLA is over, the two major stairwells at SLA are flooded with students rushing to various floors and classrooms. This is normal for high schools however not for many high schools post COVID 19 lockdown.
After the major COVID 19 lockdown, an eventual return to school was inevitable however it had to be considered how it could be made safe for everyone. That is when the SLA administration rolled out the idea of having stairwells for two designated directions. The up stairwell was for students moving up floors, down for those moving down floors. This felt like the perfect plan to limit mobs and crowds and practicing safe social distancing. Until, students began not following protocol and using the wrong stairwells. As one can imagine, this created 5 minutes of absolute chaos at SLA everyday. There would be 30+ students at a time in the stairwell commuting in opposite directions which slowed down the commute for many and frustrated students moving through the right stairwells. Not to mention, this was not even about a smoother transition in between bands but more importantly about practicing social distancing appropriately in school. Not abiding by the SLA administration’s stairwell plan only created a COVID superspreader event in the stairwells everyday.

Clearly, the administration’s plan to practice social distancing and ensure a smoother commute went south really quickly because of student’s irresponsibility.

Personally, the most frustrating aspect of commuting to different floors for me is seeing students trying to squeeze down the up- stairwell or up the down- stairwell. All it does is create chaos and rush when travelling through SLA.

This issue raises the question of why students are not abiding by stairwell protocol. This question is one on everyone’s mind that experiences this event at SLA almost everyday. If anything it is in students best interest to follow protocol as it is saving the school from another looming transition to Zoom school.

Social distancing is a mechanism designed to keep individuals a specific measurement of space away from each other to slow the spread of infectious disease. Diseases like COVID 19 spread through airborne particles so it is easy for these particles to spread at a rapid rate when people are clumped together or gather in large groups. However, when individuals are a safe distance away from one another it creates less room for these particles to spread through the air.

Well… we talked about the stairwell, what’s next? It is important for all students to pull their weight when practicing the protocol for social distancing. Even more so , if a good percentage of students practice using the right stairwell, maybe there will be a visible change in stairwell traffic and even COVID cases.

SLA Affirmations Scandal

January 13, 2022 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Anouk Ghosh-Poulshock

Staff Writer

In mid-November, the first SLA Affirmations Instagram page was created: @sla_affirmations. The next day, another one was created: @slaaffirmations, both run by different people.

On the surface, these accounts have the same intention and goal. So why two? Wasn’t one enough?

The first account, @sla_affirmations, was created by two freshmen, one of whom was Pax D’Alba. They created their first post on November 16, a post about the long and brutal walk to the sixth floor.

Many of their posts were about the day to day complaints about their time in school, such as the stairs, vending machine, and the posters around school. Both accounts were inspired by the Philly affirmations page, which started posting in early November. Ever since then, many schools created affirmation pages, such as Central and CAPA.

“I started off by following a bunch of people I knew [who] went to SLA and they followed back. Then [we] and the followers started sharing posts, more people started finding it and following it,” said D’Alba.

When asked about the second affirmations page, D’Alba was blasé. “It came after us and was posting similar things so it almost felt like competition, but I didn’t really care about it,” they said “We tried to stay away from harmful things, especially since we said who we were, and they posted more risky things. Whatever they did was their choice. It was just frustrating but then I didn’t really care.”

After only posting for a few days, the account stopped posting. D’Alba says the future of the account is still undetermined, but there will most likely not be any new posts.

The second account, @slaaffirmations, had its first post on November 17. They consistently posted for a few days as well, but stopped posting after about a week. The owner of the account has chosen to keep their name anonymous. Their content was similar, and about the same topics.

“I saw that the other SLA affirmations were run by freshmen and I thought that their affirmations weren’t that good. My friends and I had a ton of ideas for affirmations so I decided to make a separate page,” says @slaaffirmations.

This account does not look like it will be sticking around for much longer either. They don’t have the time or motivation to run the account anymore, but they enjoy seeing the other unique accounts popping up.

Both accounts wanted to stay anonymous, since they were afraid of getting in trouble with the school. In addition, both thought they could make better content, which is the reason for multiple accounts.

“I think the time of SLA affirmations has passed,” says sophomore Josie Barsky, “They were really popular for a hot second, but they’ve both stopped posting so there’s not much left of them.”

“Some are cool and funny. I think some are or could turn into something very toxic and harmful which is not good,” says D’Alba.

While none of the accounts ended up turning into something harmful, fear of getting in trouble drove both away. With both accounts inactive, it has left plenty of room for new SLA accounts to take the spotlight. The most popular, @sla_sleeps, is an account that compiles posts of students sleeping. There are also multiple SLA meme accounts, some new and some old.

What is the Best Place to Eat Lunch at SLA?

January 13, 2022 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

by Maya Smelser

Staff Writer

Everybody loves lunch. For obvious reasons, It’s a lot of people’s favorite period of the day. The list of lunch spots at SLA isn’t too long. Students have five options—

First off, there is also an actual lunchroom, but it’s always full of freshmen, seeing as they are obligated to eat there. The line to get lunch is always long, usually almost out the door. I’ve never gotten school lunch, but I have waited in the line with my friends who do. The rest of the room is full of tables and chairs, some decorated with the Rockets emblem.

The terrace is my personal favorite, but it definitely has its cons. I love it because I can be outside and get fresh air. I also like that I can take a long break from my mask. Students will sometimes play sports up there. You do have to watch out unless you want a football to the head or a frisbee in your lunch. The weather is also a big factor. There have been multiple instances where I found myself shivering while eating my sandwich or having to get paper towels from the bathroom to wipe down the seats because it rained the night before. It is always a pain to walk all the way to the sixth floor, but I think it’s definitely worth it. As long weather and my legs allow, I always eat there.

The most popular place to eat is the commons, located on the first floor. It’s big and has lots of room for people to sit. It’s very close to where food is served and the vending machine. But I hate eating there. I find it overwhelming. It’s always loud and busy. For the first few weeks, I ate here exclusively. Then I discovered the terrace and never looked back. I don’t mind the balconies overlooking the commons, but they are usually just as loud.

Next is the ballroom. Being on the second floor, it is fairly close to the lunchroom and vending machine too. There are only a few tables and chairs, so it’s not as big or loud as the commons. It’s almost like a mini version of the commons. If you have ever visited the ballroom, you’ve probably seen the whiteboard. Students doodle and write all over it. It’s always so fun to see what new things people have added and to make my own additions. If I am too tired to make the trek to the terrace, I normally eat here.

Depending on who catches you, students can also eat in the darkrooms at the end of most floors. I have only ever done classwork there but it seems nice and secluded. The only downside is the possibility of getting kicked out by a teacher or administrator.

We all have our favorite place to eat lunch!