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Staff Writer: Aylin Echandy

It’s no secret that students judge the fashion choices of their teachers. I have heard students point out certain clothing or shoe style that they were disgusted by when their teachers walked past. I have always wondered why students would frown their face and stare with a face full of shame and embarrassment. So why are students so bothered and impacted by teachers’ clothing?

The issue went viral last month when students at Freire Charter decided to start their teacher a GoFundMe because they felt as though he needed an upgrade on shoes. The GoFundMe was supposed to be an April Fools joke, but it ended up going viral. Mr. Julian’s history class wanted to see their teacher in new kicks after wearing the same shoes for four years. The students raised over $3,000. No word on how many pairs of shoes they bought their teacher.

I admit that it can be hard to focus when you see questionable and weird-looking clothing walking around, so I could understand and vouch for the feelings of certain students when they are paying attention to what their teachers choose to wear. And. But how do SLA teachers fare in the eyes of their students? Are they more fashionable than the teacher whose students wanted to buy him a new pair of kicks? Or are they old and out-of-date?

I decided to randomly ask students about what their dream outfits would look like for their teachers. 

“I like how Mr. Todd dresses, but I really feel that his shoe game could use some improvement,” said Sophmore Jabree Brown. “If I were to dress him, I would pick him out some black jeans, a Polo white tee, and some OG Patent Bred Jordan 1’s.” 

Sophomore Fanta Dukley chose Ms. Gasser to makeover.

“She dresses really comfy and that’s like her signature style. It fits her well since she has this soft attitude. A dream outfit I would choose is a cardigan with some baggy pants.” -10th, Dukley 

Sophomore Jasmine Young had somewhat-kind words for the instructional staff at SLA.

 “I mean some of them usually don’t actually dress badly, you can just tell that they are a teacher.”

Now that the students have made their opinions known,  will teachers continue to allow their students to be distracted by their clothing, or will they take inspiration to switch it up and show their ‘22 “swag”? 

Only time will tell.

Staff Writer

Fatima Abashera

April 2nd marked the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, the holiday observed by Muslims all across the world. During this month, Muslims do many other things to build their relationship with God and strengthen their faith, including fasting from sunrise to sunset and making other sacrifices. 

Because of the continuous growth of the religion in the United States, there are so many people that are observing Ramadan that have to navigate day to day life while doing things like fasting and praying. School can be one of the many environments an individual has to navigate and this can raise questions about what it means to be a Muslim student specifically in America.

At SLA, the accommodations for students observing Ramadan include making a space for Muslim students to pray the daily prayers. 

So, how are SLA students handling this season while still being full time students?

“It definitely is harder than being at home”, Samira Ahmed a senior at SLA noted. “Sometimes it’s hard to explain these kinds of things to people”.

However, Ahmed also stated that educating other people helps them understand other religions and break through cultural barriers. 

 Muslims students can feel isolated at times especially because of the media bias surrounding Muslims, which encourages negative stereotyping. However, there are many efforts being made to help students feel welcomed in school and free to express their faith and beliefs. 

 “Yes, I think like they respect a lot of cultural differences and they make others feel more inclusive and share more about their religion. There are classes like world history that help students share more about that”, Tina Zou a sophomore at SLA expressed when asked to giver her opinion of SLA’s efforts to make an inclusive community from a non practicing Muslim perspective. Many students within the SLA community have had the impression that the community is inclusive towards the Muslim community. 

 Ramadan is recognized as a month of growth, humbleness and refresh for observing Muslims. However, as the month of April comes to a close and Eid is coming close. Lehmann says “Eid Mubarak to all who celebrate!”. 

Andre Doyle

Staff Writer

Starting in the fall school year of 2022 – 2023, The School District Of Philadelphia has voted to shift  the starting time of high schools to 9:00 a.m., and an end time at 4pm.

In making this announcement , The District cited  research conducted The American Academy of Pediatrics in the spring of 2021, who states “ by starting high schools at a later start time it’ll enable them to be more alert, and ready to learn, especially since the majority of our high school students are responsible for making their own ways to and from school.”

I personally do not have a concern with the later starting time — but I believe the later end time will result in a lot of parents questioning their kids’ safety, es especially during the winter months 

When it gets colder and the nights come quicker, the loss of daylight means that students are at risk of…  This gets even worse during daylight savings time when the clock goes back one hour and light is still out.

Also important is that many schools will end after 4PM. For example, with SLA we personally get out at 3:45  on advisory days ( Mondays, and Thursdays) , but if the time limit gets pushed back, and school hours get adjusted, we´ll then be released at 4:30. , 

In addition to traveling in the dark, the changed start and end times will lead to a longer commute. For  some students they get home quicker than others whether they’re being picked up, or dropped off, or own a car. But, for others it takes them a little longer for their commute of an hour or more just to get to school alone, so they would arrive home until close to quarter to 7 or around 7 pm, especially when rush hour is happening. 

Personally, it takes me an hour, and 30 minutes on a one way trip going home during rush hour, which means I won’t be home before 6PM on advisory days. 

Speaking for myself, I wish that the District wouldn’t push back school hours for the safety of the students and faculty.

By Staff Writer Leo Braveman

          Right before covid started my dad started playing a smaller version of tenis called pickleball. He would take me to go early in the morning on some weekdays, and we would go on weekends. When covid hit, the gym we would play at closed, giving us no place to go and play. A few weeks later we went to a park in Cherry Hill NJ where there were pickup games. 

            Although we started playing before covid, there were constantly new players who would come and learn the game. From that point, the search word “pickleball” has doubled in terms of times googled per hour. 

           Some time later I was getting tired of pickleball. I had nothing to do, there weren’t people hanging out in the same way, there weren’t sports events to go to, and there weren’t even public parks open. As you can guess, I was on my phone most of the time, and one day I saw a tik tok that said “Favorite course in the Philadelphia area?”. 

I looked in the comments and the name of the golf course was “Riverwinds”. In the next few days I thought about the idea of golfing, it’s funny to think about now but to be honest I wasn’t really interested in the sport, but the idea of getting to drive a golf cart seemed really fun to me. 

          Later that week me and my dad went to the golf course to play. With golf being such a unique sport, there weren’t the same regulations stopping people from playing like with other sports in the city going online, or parks closing. When I played I was awful, not only at playing but also at driving the cart which I would not be allowed to do after the first minute of it. Even though I played really bad, I ended up going back to golf with it being such a perfectly fit sport for covid, playing a couple times a week now. I wouldn’t say i’m good, but compared to my game when I played only to drive the cart I’m amazing!

            Recently I have been playing golf, but in a different way. Covid, which made me start playing, also made me stop being able to do the commute to the course with it decreasing and life getting more normal. Because it’s hard to get a ride to the course, I shifted into playing in a simulator, which some gyms have and it’s a much closer drive, being able to stay in the city. For me I know I have drastically improved. Of course I only have the data I can get from the simulator, but I hope that when the time comes on the course I’ll be able to enjoy the game more with the hopefully new way I’ll play.