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.

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Unexpected Fire Alarm Disrupts Classes

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Students waiting outside the school during the fire drill.

By SLAMedia Staff

Interviews by Melanie Thomas and Jacob Lotkowski

On Thursday, Dec. 13th, the entire population of 55 N. 22nd Street was sent outside for the second day in a row.

At around 12:30 PM, during Y band, the fire alarms went off, leading to a full evacuation.

This alarm was a particular surprise because the school had just had a scheduled practice drill the day before.

Students remained outside for 25 minutes while Principal Lehmann investigated the source of the alarm.

There was no fire, but the cause of the alarm is not completely clear. Construction has been happening on the residential side of the building, which Principal Lehmann thinks was probably the culprit.

“The landlords think it’s from students, and we think is from the dust of the workers,” Lehmann said. The workers were kicking up dust during construction. Residents of the building also had to evacuate.

After it was determined that the building was safe, however, the alarm could not be disabled because the code given to the school to deactivate it was wrong.

The fire department did not show up, but that was by design. According to Lehmann, “the alarm calls the fire department depending on the code.” Based on where the alarm went off, the fire department was not immediately notified.

During the time outside, rumors swirled about the cause of the evacuation. Students had many theories, including a mishap in Engineering Teacher Matthew VanKouwenberg’s classroom, or a pulled fire alarm, such as the red box by the front stairwell on the third floor, where the plastic case is broken.

Because the alarms don’t actually go off during a drill, the situation seemed more serious than usual.

Freshman Isabella Mezzaroba stated, “First I thought that it was just another drill because we had a drill the day before, but then I remembered the alarm doesn’t go off when we have drills.”

“Some people panicked,” she said, “but everyone seemed to be pretty chill about it.”

Other students were unfazed by the drill.

When asked how he felt about the evacuation, Junior Anthony Buchnico said, “Pretty indifferent. I didn’t expect there to be a fire.”

One lingering concern is the broken door to the back stairwell on the 5th floor. If the door is not propped open, it is locked shut. A truck parked right outside the back door also created a bottleneck of students trying to exit the building.

“There was a big cramp there for a little bit,” reported Buchanico, “but we got by it thankfully.”

After twenty or so minutes outside, the alarm was finally disabled, and students returned to their normal schedules.

“I was relieved that my school didn’t burn down,” reported Mezzaroba. “And then I was like, ‘Okay. Off to English class.’”

Hallway Fashion: Rahed Albarouki

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Would you consider yourself fashionable, to stand out fashion wise amongst the students at SLA?

Some days, yes. I mix in the old with the new and the trashy with the classic. I would call my style/myself either trash glamour or sophisticated hipter. But then again, I do dress sort of like a college student from a British University, Jack Wills would be the perfect example for that.

 

Do you know which each item is from? If so name the places you got it from.

Levi jeans from Macy’s,

Forever 21 button down

Beanie Forever 21

Shoes from Urban Outfitters.

 

Who is your fashion icon that you get inspiration from?

Lady Gaga is probably my biggest fashion icon. The fact that he is fearless with not only with her fashion, but also her art and personality too. She has pushed the boundaries of fashion and music into a new generation and continues to go nowhere but up in the world.

 

Where do you find inspiration?

Tumblr, Lookbook.nu, Vogue, Jack Wills, Urban Outfitters, Harpers Bazzar, GQ, Barney’s, Neiman Marcus, random people on the street, my friends, the world, my feelings/thoughts, events such as equality rallys, fashion shows and launch parties.

Where do you usually shop?

Urban Outfitters, American Apparel, Lucky Brand, Jack Wills, Gap, Macys. Usually anywhere that sells what I like.

 

Interview by Dalena Bui

Editorial: Issues with Affirmative Action

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While many people may not know exactly what affirmative action is, most are aware of the concept. Affirmative action is the action/policy that favors minorities and underrepresented groups in terms of education and jobs. This can affect the number of a certain group admitted into a college, university, or even high school.

Abigail Fisher, a 22 year old white woman and a graduate of the University of Louisiana, brought her case of what she thought to be racial prejudice against her to the Supreme Court last October. Fisher was turned down by the University of Texas at Austin and argued that the only reason that they rejected her was because of her race.

“I’m hoping,” she said, “that they’ll completely take race out of the issue in terms of admissions and that everyone will be able to get into any sc

Abigail Fisher, 22, graduate of the University of Louisiana, photo via The New York Times

hool that they want no matter what race they are but solely based on their merit and if they work hard for it.”

How does this affect SLA and how we run admissions? Every student goes through an interview process in which the staff and ultimately Mr. Lehmann, decide whether or not they are a good fit for this school, which means that they are being hand selected. When students are being accepted into SLA, things like race, gender, neighborhood and middle school are all taken into account. Not only does SLA look at all of those components, but we get to know the students, which is one of the reasons why people like SLA.

Arguments are made that affirmative action should privilege students who do not have the access or opportunity to a good education. But what means that you don’t have opportunity? Many people think that it directly indicates race, but we believe that it is more about economical standing, that can influence which neighborhood you live in and your access to a good school.

Where would we like to see affirmative action go? We don’t have a single solution, but here are some of our suggestions:

  • If colleges want to reach the least advantaged students, they should focus on economic status before race.
  • Colleges should make every effort to get to know the student. However, larger schools should relate economic status and the quality of their high school to GPA’s and SAT scores. Did the student excel at what they had control over?

Lastly, no one should be ignorant about the factors that go into the decision process of acceptance into a school or university. If it’s only based on merit, who decides what merit is most valuable?

 

 

Unsigned editorials are written and approved by the SLAMedia Editorial Staff. They do not reflect the opinion of Science Leadership Academy and its employees.

Frosty Classrooms at SLA

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By Sara Nesbitt

Staff Writer

 

SLA, being the school for creators and thinkers, sometimes the building doesn’t fully meet the requirements as well as the students and teachers do.Temperature continues to be a problem in the classrooms at SLA. Over the past few years, there have been several mishaps–from heaters malfunctioning to air conditioning always running– and sometimes both happening in the same room.

The problems can be persistent. “The heater kept breaking, and the guy had to come a third time before he fixed it and it’s working now,” History and Spanish Teacher Juan Sanchez told SLAMedia.

In English Teacher Matt Kay’s room, the temperature has reached a low of 53 degrees, and English Teacher Meenoo Rami’s room has reached the low 60’s.

The fluctuating temperatures cause distraction to teaching and the learning of students.

“The past week was a challenge for the learning community in room 311,” Ms. Rami noted, “It definitely throws off the rhythm of the class.”

Both teachers moved their classes into the library, having to improvise their lessons. Students shared aggravation.

Junior Rose Knibbe commented, “Because Ms. Rami’s heating was messed up, I had to find somewhere else to get my work done.”

The move to the library has a ripple effect — the students who have clear the library due to the classes felt annoyed, as well.

“The fact that the library is supposed to be a free, open place and we get kicked out is really frustrating,” Junior Dalena Bui said.

Not all teachers think cold rooms are a problem, however. On the contrary, Science Teacher Matthew VanKouwenberg has a different idea about temperature.

Mr. VK purposely keeps his classroom at frosty temperatures. Junior Matthew Marshall said of room 304 that Mr. VK “keeps his room colder because people retain knowledge better.”

Is there a solution to this constant temperature problem? Most of the classrooms were fixed as of now, but keep a sweatshirt handy, because that might change.