Op/Ed

Leticia Desouza

Staff Writer

It is finally fall and you can finally feel the vibes of cold and the approaching winter. With the season changing, more and more artists are coming out with new music that will fit that specific aesthetic. Big platforms like Youtube and Spotify, aswell as big social media like Instagram and Tiktok will promote these new songs. While some people do enjoy listening to the new tunes and lyrics artists have in hand, others take this as an opportunity to bash on other people’s interest in music.

There have been many cases where I went on social media to do my daily dose of scrolling and I noticed a discussion of how Person A doesn’t like what this artist dropped. Confused, I click on the discussion and to my surprise, the person who posted the thread is completely bashing the artist and their fanbase.

The more you scroll, the more you see that the discussion of a social media post turned into a warzone with flying body parts and limbs. 

On one side you have the person who started it all. They are talking about how the artist doesn’t produce real music and that they shouldn’t even be popular and trending. And on the other side you have that artist fandom trying to defend their idol and their music.

In my opinion, I’m still highly confused on why music wars are happening to this day. Something that seems to be so childish is still a daily occurrence in the media we consume daily. 

Don’t get me wrong, people are allowed to have their own opinions about the music they like and they don’t, but they shouldn’t start bashing other people for liking the opposite of their tastes.

I have always wondered why these events are such a high occurrence. Could it be that the person creating these wars is trying to get fame out of it, or are they just disrespectful human beings that bash on someone else’s taste in music.

I personally like to stay out of these wars. They seem very time consuming and a waste of my day. Though I do like sticking through some of them to see what they could be talking about.

Debating whether you like or don’t like someone’s music taste is not a place you get to decide. There are many other places where people can put the same energy to but for a greater cause. The world has many problems as it is, why not help solve them?

Adrie Young

Staff writer

Each morning as students enter school, we put our bags through a scanner and walk through a metal detector. We do it so often that it has become a mindless ritual. 

So I was surprised when, one morning a few weeks into school, a security guard stopped me as my bag passed through the scanner.

“You know you have two metal forks in your bag, right?”

“What?” I was surprised. At the beginning of the year, I had worried about getting my metal utensils into school, but I’d never had an issue with them since school started.

“You have two forks in your bag,” he said again. “Just so you know.”

“Oh. Thank you.” I laughed, then grabbed my stuff and headed towards the stairs. 

The next morning, a different guard stopped me at the metal detector.

“You have a metal fork in your bag.”

Again? I thought to myself. This is weird.

“You can’t bring that into the building,” the guard continued. “I need to take it from you.”

I unzipped my bag and handed him my fork. But as I walked away, I remembered that I still had the extra fork that the first security guard had told me about – and hadn’t confiscated – the day before. 

At first, my two fork-related encounters were fun stories to tell my friends. But it made me wonder about what we can and can’t bring to school.

I looked through the School District’s Code of Conduct and the SLA student hand book, but found it surprisingly difficult to obtain information on what objects we are not allowed to bring to school. 

I decided to ask Principal Lehmann, who directed me to the Philadelphia School District Office of School Safety’s directive on search and seizure. The document states that “students and visitors entering a school… are subject to a search of their physical person and all items in their possession by means of metal detectors, X-ray equipment, or by hand, for the purpose of preventing the introduction of weapons, contraband, or illegal items.”

My fork had likely been confiscated because of its potential as a weapon. But was that fair? The same document defines a weapon as “any object, device, or instrument that is designed as a weapon or that is capable of threatening or inflicting serious bodily harm or which may be used to inflict self-injury.” 

A fork is not designed as a weapon. A fork is technically capable of inflicting bodily harm, but so is a pencil or pen. So where do we draw this line?

In addition, not every metal utensil is confiscated. I had brought many forks to school before one was finally taken.

If the school district is going to have rules like these, they should either be enforced all the time or not at all. This inconsistent enforcement left me confused and unsure of what to do.

But it turns out that I wasn’t the only one who noticed these inconsistencies. Mr. Lehmann informed me that around late September, after a discussion with the Office of School Safety, it was decided that metal utensils would be allowed into the building. I was happy to hear that I could bring a metal fork to school again. Or two.

Sean Hogan

Staff Writer

Halloween 2021 should’ve been a good one. Kids getting a break from the pandemic and staying indoors and dressing up and getting candy. I was looking forward to what I hoped would be a trick-or-treat bonanza. 

What I got was the opposite.

In my neighborhood, Only 15 houses gave out candy. I traveled down blocks and different streets, and everywhere I went. No lights, no people on their steps. No candy. Which sucks because there were a lot of trick-or-treaters this year. My family ran out of candy an hour after we started. We had a lot of candy to give out. 

  And I got 1/5th of a bag full. Which isn’t that bad. It’s enough candy, it just felt so long in between houses. It was so ridiculous. And it took too long, Usually, I would get that after 10 minutes of Trick or Treating, not 30 minutes.

This might sound like a petty complaint — but it says something deeper about what’s going on where I live. There is an influx of renters in my neighborhood, maybe that contributed to it. Also, some people are making these row homes into mini apartments. This makes it harder for residents to hand out candy because there are so many different households in one row home. 

    In some cases, though, it looks like people just opted out of participating. It’s so weird seeing house after house dark as the night with no signs of life inside. I feel bad for the kids who were waiting for Halloween, kids getting disappointed with the lack of people handing out candy. 

Is it that hard to hand out candy or leave a bowl out for kids to trick or treat? When I gave out candy for a few minutes it was fun. Seeing these kids in their cool costumes and seeing people. It was nice. I feel horrible for these kids who were walking around looking for candy. And no one really delivered this year. And that sucks.

Halloween was really important this year. It felt important to get kids outside and get them motivated to get candy. To make people feel like we aren’t in a pandemic. People are outside, wearing masks, people are vaccinated, why can’t you give out candy? Dr. Fauci said that it’s safe. And to let the kids have fun.

I’m saving my costume for next year. I’m pretty sure it will be better then.

Mo Kelly

Staff Writer

It seemed like a normal day. I had just finished Algebra and was running down the stairs so I wouldn’t be late for Biochem. I’ve gotten used to the filth of the back stairwell, so nothing seems too out of the ordinary.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something unusual…  a small figurine baby.

I walked into my next class, still confused, but I wasn’t the only one. A classmate asked  if I had seen the babies. Apparently, they were all around the school, Hidden in lockers, stairwells, or any small crevice that they would fit in. Forget that day’s lesson plan — The babies were the main topic of conversation for the next hour and five minutes.

By the end of the school day, even my advisor knew about them. She had picked one up in the middle of one her classes, and she was also very confused.

Some of my friends pulled out multiple babies that they hoarded. Admittedly, I took one as well and am probably going to keep it for a very long time.

Soon after the initial fiasco, posters about the babies had appeared. They said that it was a game. “Find a baby. Hide a baby.” It called them “Nae-Nae babies”, which after some research, I discovered is a meme. About three days after first poster, a second poster went up declaring that more diverse babies were to be added to the bunch.

The game made sense, but I didn’t quite buy it. Why would the posters go up after the babies had already been planted? Now I was determined to solve this baby mystery.

Right off the bat, I had a suspicion on who it was. The wording of the poster was written exactly in the style of one of my friends, who has made other posters for the school. I texted him, and my speculation was correct. He told me he created the posters but did not plant the babies, just as I suspected. He thought the idea was funny and he and a friend made the posters in Dig Vid. But, he doesn’t know who hid the babies.

There is now an “SLA Baby Blog” on Instagram, documenting all of the babies that were found and where they were eventually re-hidden. Posts include pictures of founds babies and the posters.

This has all been fun to watch. But who planted the babies? A few days later, it is still a mystery to me. I’ve tried asking around, but no one else seems to know. Or perhaps they are hiding something. I don’t think I will ever find out. I think this says a lot about SLA as a whole. This school is a pretty weird place. This isn’t the only thing that has told us this. There are strange things constantly happening, and people just learn to accept it.

Although this was a creepy occurrence, it’s also definitely one of my favorite things to happen at SLA. Seeing people come together in confusion or just excitement about these odd babies shows that no matter how out of the ordinary something can be, people will find a way to interpret it and make it their own, whether it’s through Instagram, posters, or some other medium. SLA is a place where people always find a way to show their creativity, even if it’s in the form of joke posters around the school.