Student petitions to re-enroll at SLA

By Leah Kelly

Staff Writer

Friends of Angelina Pingitore, former SLA student, have created a petition to get support to convince the administration to admit her after she became pregnant and decided to leave SLA at the end of freshman year.

After transfering to a cyber school for the 2012-2013 school year, Pingitore hoped that she would be able to return to SLA as a junior. However, because she officially unenrolled from the school, her place was lost and could not be “saved” for her.

This was a bitter disappointment for Pingitore, who believed she had a good chance being able to return to SLA.

“I told Ms. Siswick that I will have to do a year of homeschool but after that, I would want to come back to Science Leadership,” Angelina told SLAMedia. “I was told that there would be a great possibility [of coming back].”

Ms. Siswick, however, does not recall mentioning the possibility of Angelina returning to SLA.

Ms. Siswick implored that the situation has nothing to do with Angelina in particular. “It’s not a personal thing; she did well at SLA and we liked her. This is primarily about numbers.”

“Right now, we don’t have a space,” Principal Chris Lehmann said, “and if a space becomes available, we will have to evaluate her along with every other student that’s applying.”

The school policy is that that empty spots in a class are immediately taken by students who want to transfer in.

“We get dozens of calls for spaces, so whenever we have a space we fill it,” explained Lehmann.

In response to this situation, Angelina has decided to do one more thing to attempt to get back into SLA.  Sophomore Alexis McCormick, Angelina’s best friend, made a petition for SLA students to sign, and is encouraging students to write letters to Mr. Lehmann and the staff about why they want Angelina to come back.

Their goal was 200 signatures on the petition. As of now, they are 75 signatures above what they had hoped for.

“I also made a facebook event called ‘Bring Angie Back’,” said Alexis, “where past SLA students are able to post whether or not Angelina should be able to come back to Science Leadership Academy.”

If Angelina is not accepted into SLA for the 2013-2014 school year, she is going to attend her neighborhood high school, Northeast High School.

“I guess we’re going to have to wait and see with our fingers crossed,” she said.