The Flash Volume 5 Issue 1

Teacher Shortage

New nurse at

PA Secretary of Education visits FLC

by The Flash Editorial Board

On Friday September 24, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Educa tion Noe Ortega visited Franklin Learning Center. Ortega, the top education official in Pennsylvania, was in Philadelphia to receive the 2021 Ambassador Manuel Tor res Award. The Flash sat down with Mr. Ortega to discuss some topics of interest in our school community. Here’s what he had to say about the 2021-2022 school year.

On the importance of health

“I think to me health has always been something important when you think about education. Well educated folks who have more educational attainment tend to have better health outcomes and to me that’s a really important out come to think about with education.”

On the lack of School Nurses in the District

“I think every school should remain open even when they dont have the full service of all these individuals, but as a state or as a person in the position in the state to make a change we need to ele vate the importance of getting those in dividuals to schools as soon as possible.

And we’re really trying to find ways to encourage maybe nurses who don’t want to be in the front line at a hospital to think, can we get them in a path to serve at a school.”

On Special Education Students

“I think they’re being served in ways that are better than the way they were served before.

Are we meeting all of their needs entire ly? Absolutely not. And I think special edu cation students really struggled during [the last 16 months] particularly since there was no face-to-face interaction and in many cases many of them had to get most of their services and support from family members.”

To young people

“I wanna begin by just thanking stu dents for the tremendous amount of resil ience and courage they showed in the past

year, year and a half, and continue to show moving forward. It’s been really challeng ing to have a school year taken away from you. All the things you remembered that you loved about school being with your friends, extra curricular activities, the fri day night sporting events, all the things that are important including prom, we went without an entire year. And yet we all managed to find a way to continue to make

the best of the circumstances we have. So to all students I want to say thank you for all you have done and continue to do and I want to encourage everyone to be optimis tic about the future. To encourage everyone to do what you can to talk to other folks to figure out, how are we going to to begin to trust each other again? How are we going to work together to rebuild some of the trust that has faded in the past 18 months.”

Quarantining students fall behind

By Dareen Alfroukh

Like many students around the city, Franklin Learning Center student Ri elly Greer knows what it’s like to get COVID-19 and have to stay home.

“So I had to text a group chat with people I hung out with that day and they were like, oh my god for real, you were sick, why did you go to school? And a couple of them got tested,” Greer said.

Mandatory quarantines have affected schools across the nation this year although the specific supports offered to isolating stu dents can vary greatly from school to school.

At FLC, teachers assign work for stu dents and give instructions through Google Classroom, expecting quarantining stu dents to finish work while they are at home. But sometimes the instructions given are not enough to help students to complete the work. Students who didn’t understand the assignment would need personalized help but would not get it because it was not there. Not only could the student get a lower grade they also had to deal with home life also. The student would also be dealing with being sick and the big change in their social life. For a teenager that went through a global pandemic and was finally back to school just to be taken out again can be hard on their mental health, so they were in physical and mental pain.

“Not being able to see my friends,

that kinda sucked,” Greer said.

It can also be hard to focus when you’re home sick and frustrated, having nothing to do but school work. Furthermore, trying to do school can be hard depending on the effects of COVID on the student.

“I didn’t manage school work and it was hard,” Greer said.

There is a huge and obvious differ ence between online and in-person school. Everyone has their own opinion and ei ther likes one or the other, or doesn’t real ly care, but what it re ally comes down to is the child’s education.

“It’s different because in online school you’re more on your own and in person school you get more direc tion,” Greer said.

So what needs to change?

“Having teach ers be able to

come on and give their time to have a Google meet and kids come on to ask questions–” Greer said, “[that would] help because we were all on our own.”

Editorial Board

Damein Williams

Alisha Lou

Ace Ludwig

Layout

Dahslee Hernandez

Quinton Johnson Shayla Pritt

Faculty Adviser

Colin Chrestay

Advertising

All advertisers are subject to approval by The Flash FLC. We reserve the right to refuse advertisements. The deadline to reserve advertising space in The Flash FLC is at least one week prior to publication. Online advertisements can be placed as requested. Payment should be made in cash. Please note: first-time advertisers must prepay.

Policies

The Flash will be guided in the publication of all material by a concern for the truth, for human decency, and for human betterment, remembering that the test of good journalism is the measure of its public service.

The Flash will strive to provide a comprehensive and intelligent account of events in a meaningful context.

The Flash will strive to be a leader of student opinion through its editorials.

The Flash will be a public forum for promoting change and for the exchange of comment and criticism through its letter to the editor and Opinion pages.

A full list of policies and procedures can be found at theflashflc.org/constitution

Memberships

The Flash is a member of the Pennsylvania School Press Association and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

Reader Involvement

The Flash encourages readers to contribute through letters, guest columns, and story ideas. Suggestions will be considered for future publication. Letters should not exceed 300 words in length.

Distribution Press run is 800 copies. Copies are provided free of charge to students, faculty, and staff.

Independent Student Newspaper of Franklin Learning Center

Tiffany Rodriguez

Omar Mumin

Secretary of Education Noe Ortega · Photographer Ace Ludwig

Photographer Ace Ludwig

What does a shortage of teachers mean for FLC?

by Danny Tran and Shapri Singleton

Ever since the start of the 2021-2022 school year, Franklin Learning Center has seen an increase in teacher shortages. An increase in teacher shortages would dis rupt how teachers plan their lessons and prevent students from learning efficiently.

Like in many urban school districts this year, teacher shortages are a common occur rence in the School District of Philadelphia. A survey conducted by Frontline Education found that 75% of urban school districts in cities are experiencing teacher shortages.

“There are teachers who are out because they take time off,” FLC principal Nicole Lee said. “So, in all actuality, I have one teacher on sabbatical for Mathematics, and another teacher out sick currently. And then, on average, I will say we are averaging over five or six [teachers calling out] a day.”

With the school year having a rough start, students at FLC have seen differ ent teachers coming in to cover for their classes. These coverages, in turn, prevent students from learning the necessary top ics needed for them to pass their classes, and it can affect Juniors and Seniors a lot.

Among Juniors and Seniors, some of them are taking Advanced Placement (AP) classes. With the necessary teachers not there to teach them, they will not prepare themselves properly for the upcoming AP exams near the end of the school year.

“One of my classes, AP Gov, the teach er, she wasn’t in there,” Damein Wil liams, a senior at FLC, said. “[So for] a full month, we didn’t have a teacher, so we just have a substitute, we’ll be on the phone, we’ll study for a different class.”

When teachers have an unexpect ed absence, they may not have any les sons prepared for their students, some times leaving them nothing to learn during the duration of their absence.

“I was out unexpectedly and so I didn’t have emergency lesson plans, un fortunately,” FLC teacher Kyle Burns said. “So, whatever stands, students did nothing while I was gone. When I got back, we just kind of started fresh.”

Due to these teacher absences, other teachers have to cover for them during their preparation and/or duty periods. When teachers this time to cover other classes, they fall behind on various other tasks they have to do, like planning and grading. When teachers fall behind on grades, it adds addi tional stress to the students and teachers, es pecially if they are near the end of a quarter.

“I know I would be disheartened at some level if I come to school and I’m missing like three and four of my teach ers,” Lee said. “That gets a little bit dis heartening, I’m looking at grades and

they’re not looking too spiffy right now.”

Teachers play a huge role in the ed ucation of students, building good con nections with the students, and help ing them with their academic goals.

According to the University of the Peo ple, “they hold students accountable for their successes and failures, and good teach ers won’t let their talented students get away with not living up to their full potential.”

With teachers who have little relation ships with the students, it becomes difficult for both parties to figure out what the teacher and the student need to achieve their goals.

“They know our strengths, and our weaknesses, so they’re able to adapt to what we can and cannot learn,” Williams said.

“So, for us not to have teachers in the build ing that do understand our strengths and weaknesses, it’s just dire, I think that’s some thing that is just needed for us to learn.”

There is no denying that teachers play a part in helping students succeed. With teacher shortages being a prevalent issue at FLC, the success of students will be in vain.

“I do wish I had other teach ers that I can also support, and they can support me,” Williams said.

School nurse adapts to working in pandemic

By Debora Oquendo-Serrano and Omar Mumin

Update: Franklin Learning Center’s full-time nurse vacancy has been filled. Nurse Megan Blunt will now be work ing in the nurse’s office daily, with sup port from Gina Hall every other Monday.

Franklin Learning Center, along with many schools in the School District of Philadelphia, have been struggling to find full time nurses, starting the year with va

cancies. The lack of nurses in the school district has had a more serious effect due to the current coronavirus pandemic. Since the beginning of the pandemic last year, COVID-19 has caused change within every working environment, causing fear within some. But, with procedures on how to stay safe and protect themselves from the ongoing virus, others feel comfort.

Gina Hall is a nurse at Franklin Learn ing Center on Mondays. Throughout the course of each week, she provides nurs ing services to five different schools.

“I love my job! It is diverse and you can to tally change your career path but continue to practice nursing,” Hall said. “Majoring in Educa tion but nursing was always in my heart. School

nursing merges those two.”

But this year, as students and staff have returned to in-person educa tion and risk contracting COVID, be ing a school nurse is more complicated.

“I am not concerned,” Hall said. “I am fully vaccinated and I follow all of the mitigation guidelines by masking, wash ing my hands, and keeping my distance when necessary. School health services does a wonderful job keeping us up to date on the latest information that we need to keep ourselves healthy and safe.”

Due to ongoing COVID cases returning to high numbers, five schools in the district have been forced to temporarily close with in the first month of school’s reopening.

“The pandemic has been a challenge for all of us, but as a school nurse return ing to school it has been overwhelm ingly busy and exhausting,” Hall said.

Franklin Learning Center has tradi tionally had a full time nurse in addition to Hall but a vacancy has left FLC without a school nurse four days a week since the start of the year. This leaves Hall, already supporting multiple school communities each week, with multiple responsibilities.

“It’s kind of like doing two jobs,” Hall said. “One’s being COVID patrol and the other one’s being your regular school nurse responsible for kids who you see with braces

and who need elevator passes and have med ical concerns. So all of that is like the regu lar job and then COVID is like another job.”

These tasks add up when there’s only one day each week to complete them.

“Typically I’m responsible for track ing, immunizations, making sure every body has their shot records of the day, making sure people have physicals, and all the normal stuff that you would do to be in a school. But because of COVID, we have all of that plus everything that has to do with COVID testing consents, talking to families about how long their students have to quarantine, about get ting different testing done,” Hall said.

Students specifically are left at a dis advantage due to this shortage, unable to obtain medical attention every day of the week, with a continuously spreading virus. In most schools like Franklin Learning Center, only staff, athletes, and members of certain music groups are tested regularly.

School nurses have always been in need, but with the added responsibility from the pandemic, the job may be off-putting for those who want to be nurses. Students may spread COVID without knowing due to how long symptoms could take to show.

“The current situation with COVID has made my job more challenging and more demanding than ever,” Hall said.

Staff shortage has led to district-wide sub shortages as well. When a sub does not pick up a teacher absence, other teachers are asked to cover for a period, a task that many teachers blame for their exhaustion. · Photographer Ace Ludwig

Nurse Megan Blunt started working full-time at FLC in December ·

Photographer Tiffany Rodriguez

What is Philadelphia’s policy on vaccination cards and masks?

by Lillian Holbrook-Ngo

Why do citizens have to show their vacci nation cards or wear a mask to enter restau rants and other public places? On August 12, 2021, Philadelphia issued a new policy making public places like gyms, theaters, and restaurants require proof of vaccina tion for those who wish to not wear a mask.

Cases have been rising recently and have not been this high since April 2021. Philadelphia takes a step, by mak ing a policy about masks and the vac cine card. Here is someone’s opinion on having to show your vaccination card:

“I think that’s reasonable. Because some people like to lie about if they got their vaccination or not just to get what they want.” said 9th grader, Xina Lau

Since a lot of public places have made it mandatory to show your vaccine card to enter, A lot of people are mak ing fake cards and selling them to peo ple. August 2021 a woman named Jas mine Cliford was charged for selling fake vaccination cards using Instagram.

“It hasn’t really affected me. I just don’t like wearing masks be cause it’s hard to breathe.” said Lau

Now, masks or a vaccine card are man datory. Which one would you pick, wear a mask or get your vaccine? Personally, I would choose to wear a mask, Yet there are still people out there who don’t even want to wear one out of courtesy for others.

“If a business or institution is requir ing that everyone — including staff — be

fully vaccinated before entering, then no one in that place needs to wear a mask,” said acting Health Commission er Cheryl Bettigole in a news conference on Wednesday. “So, there is an exemp tion for places with a vaccine mandate.”

For someone to enter public places they

have the choice to wear a mask or show you’re vaccination card. Since you have to do these things. Now People are calling it discrimination, Against people who don’t want to get the vaccine or wear a mask. The quote up top is the Acting Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole, showing

that it’s not only the consumers needing to get the vaccine. That they aren’t alone.

“Sure, a restaurant can say, ‘You’ve got to wear shoes.’ Sure, a restau rant can say, ‘You’ve got to show us you’re vaccinated,’” Feldman says.

Assistant Principal Dr. LaTrina Stewart takes a weekly COVID test · Photographer Ace Ludwig

FLC cautiously adds flag football

by Mahala Fox

Do you ever wonder how the sports here at Franklin Learning Center are selected? Have you thought about why we don’t have a football team?

Megan Condit, the Athletic Di rector at FLC, is the one to ask.

“So essentially I’m like the middle man between the school district Ath letics Department and our coaches and our athletic programs,” Condit said.

The school district athletics de partment helps decide which sports get added to a schools athletic pro gram, but what if you want a new sport added? What happens then?

“My fear would be spreading our estimated athletes too thin if we of fered many more athletic aid op tions,” Condit said. “So, it’s tough because even though we’re a de cent sized school, we’re still rela tively small. So, I think it will be hard to add too many more things.”

FLC has over 900 students enrolled this year, but compared to Northeast, which has over 3,300 students, we are relatively small. One way that small er schools can give their students the opportunity to play sports is to part ner with other schools to form a team.

“So if there’s a student who’s in terested in a sport that we don’t have,” Condit said, “we can always reach out to the surrounding schools and figure out if we can create a partnership with them.”

FLC doesn’t have a football team but goes to South Philadelphia High School to play for the Southern Rams. The same with golf–

FLC plays with Constitution High School.

Now students know what to do if they want to play a certain sport FLC doesn’t provide. But get ready because FLC is bringing girls flag football this Spring.

“The district is partnering with

the Philadelphia Eagles,” Condit said, “and we’re trying to get wom en’s flag football started in the city.”

New sports can be a bright spot in what has been an otherwise dif ficult few years for student athletes.

“No matter how tired you are, how hard your day is,” Condit said, “if you have that positive interaction at the end of the day, where you get some physical activity–it just, it makes your day better.”

Should Ben Simmons be a part of the 76ers’ future?

by Justin Lip

As drama rises after Ben Sim mons’ terrible performance in the 2020-2021 NBA playoffs, many fans of the Philadelphia 76ers are an gered by the point guard’s actions.

During the 2020-2021 play offs, Simmons averaged an aw ful 9 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds with a below average free throw percentage of 30%. The league average free throw percentage is 77%. Prior to the playoffs series, Simmons averaged 16 points, 8 assists, 9 rebounds and a better free throw percentage of 60%.

Sixers fan and FLC stu dent, Andrew Trinh, had bitter words to say about Simmons.

“I think he should get in trou ble for what he’s done” Trinh said.

To avoid playing, Ben has also been reported fak ing symptoms for COVID-19 during the 2020-2021 playoffs.

Trinh included that he wouldn’t have even wanted Simmons on the team to begin with, especially after finding out that he was kicked out of practice by head coach, Doc Rivers, for being a distraction to the team.

The FLC student had more to say about Ben Simmons’ poor performance in the play offs,“It’s kind of disrespectful to the team, after everything he and Philadelphia has been through.”

Megan Condit is the softball coach, in addition to being FLC’s Athletic Director · Photographer Hannah Woodruff

Ben Simmons’s free throw percentage · Joleah Nay and Kyndra Patterson

Heidi Kern finds hope in teaching English and Spanish

by Nelda Mercedes-Aquino

Most students look at teachers as just educational instructors and don’t wor ry about what the person who is giving them knowledge goes through every day. Heidi Kern is an English and Spanish educator at Franklin Learning Center.

Kern grew up in a town called Quak ertown, Pennsylvania before attend ing Swarthmore College, a small liber al arts school just west of Philadelphia.

¨My college was basically for really se rious students. I was around the smartest people I’ve ever met. It’s a very intense en vironment, so if school wasn’t your thing, you really kind of stood out¨ Kern stated.

Being in a college filled with intelli gent people might seem stressful to some but in Kern’s eyes, she finds that beneficial.

¨Most people say if you’re at Swarth more, you study really hard but you also party really hard too so I did get both sides of the college experience.¨

Whenever Kern wasn´t party ing with her classmates she was tap ping into her studies of languages.

¨When I started college, I went into the linguistics department because of my love for learning languages-----by studying lin guistics, I could connect to people more and make a positive change through language but I soon realized that the better way to do that was to become a language teacher¨

Kern always knew she was passion ate about learning diverse languages. She found love in teaching when she helped her sister find independence in academics.

¨My twin really struggled in school and I was always more confident in my classes, and no one really understood the way that my twin thought about different ideas and I could always be the one person to explain it to her and the way she un derstood and I saw her really thrive from that. So I think it gave me some inspira tion to become a teacher.¨ Kern shared.

Kern saw improvement in her twin sister’s understanding of knowledge after she transmitted the information to her.

¨It made me understand that people have completely different learning styles and if you can help someone, to find that satisfaction and learn ing for themselves and being more confident¨

The major im pact on Kern’s career choice was seeing her teaching help some one academically.

Right after I gradu ated, I actually worked at Girls High for one year as a Span ish teacher. But then I lost my positions due to leveling so I’ve been at FLC ever since.¨ Kern stated.

Kern worked at Girls high for one year as a Spanish teacher. She’s been working at Frank lin Learning Center for the past four years.

¨ Franklin Learning Center students are re ally driven even if aca demics aren’t necessar ily their passion. I feel like everyone here has a different passion.¨

Franklin Learning center is not only a school that focuses on student’s academics. The school also focuses on the students’ talents and what amuses them.

¨ I’m privileged to be at a school like this because we have students from all around the world that come here so they’re they may be new to the country or new to Philadelphia.¨

Most people believe students only learn from the teachers, but teachers also receive knowledge from students.

¨ My Spanish class that I started, it’s a native speaker class or heritage class. I get to learn a lot from students who are

speaking it amongst other Americans.¨

Kern’s dream of connecting with others by learning new languages has come to light, but she also shares her other ambitions.

¨ Any free time I do have I use to go to dance class. I love ballet, it’s my pas sion, but lately, I’ve been into more hip hop and African dance as well .¨

Being an educator, danc er, and grad student can be frustrating. Kern still finds joy in learning even when things aren’t so easy.

¨It’s definitely been over whelming with time man agement this year because as a teacher, your work is nev er done. You go home and you have a pile of grading or you have to figure out a week’s worth of lesson plans. So it takes a lot of mental energy with also being a student at the same time.¨

Being a teacher comes with lots of responsibilities. Being able to not show when you feeling overwhelmed or stressed is a positive feature.

¨You have to just ac cept that things aren’t gon na go as planned. Right, be prepared to have anything thrown your way and just accept that you can rehearse a class, you know? Every class is going to be different.¨

from Honduras, Guatemala, the Do minican Republic, Puerto Rico, Colom bia,¨ Kern reveals ¨ They’re constantly teaching me new things about the lan guage that I never would have learned

But what might be stressful to some teach ers is a positive to Kern. the beautiful thing about teaching--even if you’re repeating the same lesson through out the day, you learn something dif ferent based on the students who are in front of you and how they react.¨

Heidi Kern teaches English and Spanish for Native Speakers ·

Photographer Nelda Mercedes-Aquino

In addition to teaching, Kern loves to dance ·

Photographer Nelda Mercedes-Aquino

Kern keeps her library current to encourage reading · Photographer Nelda Mercedes-Aquino

Judith Johnson keeps the library feeling peaceful

by

As the lunch bell rings, Frank lin Learning Center climate staffer Ju dith Johnson waits at her desk in the library to greet students and create a peaceful environment for them during their brief break before their next class.

“If students come in and they’re not taking books out, they’re there for the qui etness, the relaxation, and I think that’s good for them during the day,” Johnson said. “So I find that to come to the li brary whether you’re reading a book or just relaxing or doing schoolwork, it re laxes your mind, spirit, soul, and body.”

It might come as a surprise, but the li brary everyone sees today is not what it al ways used to be. It took a lot of work and help for Johnson to turn it from looking like a storage room to looking like a real library.

“The library had not been in use for a few years. So when I came in, the library was really just full of boxes and different storage that they just put in there that wasn’t being used,” Johnson said. “And so [the] chal lenge was to get it all cleaned out, to bring it back up to its natural beauty as a library.”

All that work to transform the library paid off. During lunch, some students may prefer the quietness of the library compared to the loudness of the cafeteria. Now, some students come into the library almost everyday. This, in turn, allows Ms. Johnson to create bonds with the students.

“My relationship overall is pretty good. And the reason why I could say that is because I especially know my stu dents that come into the library,” John son said. “They appreciate having some where quiet that they can just come in through the day to day things in school and just come in and wind down.”

There may be times where there are some disruptive students, but Ms. John son always finds a way to work with them.

“One thing I will say as a word of wis dom, is that we as educators have to have patience in order to work with stu dents,” Johnson said. “And sometimes some students are very hard and very difficult to even get through to them to even talk to them. But we have to have enough patience to say ‘I’m going to be able to do this one way or the other.’”

From time to time, Johnson can overhear the conversation of students while they are in the library. When she is able, Johnson provides some

advice to help guide them forward.

“We mold ourselves, life molds us also, but we have to know what... I’ll put it to you this way. We have to know when to eat the meat and spit the bones out,” Johnson said.

Life as a transgender high school student

by Shapri Singleton

Leo Bender was young when he real ized that he was transgender. This came as a surprise to him and his family. He did not fully understand the change he was going through but as he grew up things started to become clearer. He was a transgender male.

“People treat me differently. Some peo ple are like oh you’re trans and stuff like that.” Bender said. “And like sometimes my family’s like, oh, well you used to be a girl.”

Being a transgender male in the ninth grade comes with additional challenges–not everyone can accept who you are and what you’ve become, sometimes even your family.

“Yeah, my uncle who I didn’t like in the first place got way worse. He got way transphobic. He was like eww and started using my dead name to mess with me,” Bender said. “My family’s not, you know, super supportive, but they’re fine, I guess.”

This not only causes the person around you to feel emotions but also those around you.

“For me, most people are cool with it. Um, it’s kind of funny, because people are like, so you’re a girl, right? I’m like, no, and they’re like, oh, I’m so sorry because guys don’t like being called girls.” said Leo

Bender’s pronouns are he/it but when many people see him they assume he is a girl.

When asked if people ever used the wrong pronouns on him, Leo stated, “Yeah, people do it a lot by accident. Like it’s fine. I’ll just correct you. It’s no big deal. “

There isn’t just difficulty with pro nouns; he also had many complications when it came to using the bathroom.

“It was a bit of a struggle with going to the bathroom. Because like, I use the men’s bathroom and my friends were like, no, you can’t do that. They’re gon na harass you, but that hasn’t happened.”

Leo Bender knows what it is like to be misgendered at FLC · Photographer Shapri Singleton

Clockwise, from the top: Judith Johnson keeps FLC’s library organized and up to date by putting away the many books, working at her computer, and greeting students in the hallway · Photographer Danny Tran

Danny Tran

Student Stress

by Dylan Howe

Even though stress is something nearly every human being experiences, it is not an inherently negative occurrence. It is an es sential part of the human experience. But, like many things, we all must go through it in moderation. If not, the burden and trauma could cause everlasting harm.

In an article about stress during the pandemic, Kristen Graham inter viewed many students in Philadelphia.

“We are all depressed, we are all breaking down every day,’’ said Ferrara, “I barely made it through last quarter,” said Santos-Roman, “I have mostly C’s or D’s or F’s because things are so hard. Last year, I was mostly an A student.”

This shows how stress could have a toll on a person’s mental health, par ticularly in children. Where an A stu dent can go from a bright future to failing classes at the speed of light.

So why are Philadelphian students and school staff so stressed out? At the root of the problem, it’s a lack of government in tervention, at a local scale, the School Dis trict of Philadelphia. On the surface, there are many issues, all of which are valid, but none more concerning and frustrating than the blatant lack of care the district takes with their students and employees.

“The students have taken their concerns to Principal Patricia McDermott-Fair, who has not made meaningful changes to the schedule,” they said. District leaders did not make McDermott-Fair available for comment. In a statement Malika Sa voy-Brooks, the district’s chief of academ ic supports, said she understood remote

learning is challenging for some. “That is the extent of the District’s mercy, semikind words, and hiding figures. No action was taken, no concern was shown, it may seem like an overreaction to an annoying system, but for students and even teachers school can be a dread, on top of the al

ready hostile environment in Philadelphia.

Now we come to the most infuriating part, how easily they could fix these stress-caus ing issues, like asbestos and weapons in the building and the extreme amount of work that teachers pile onto their students.

One of the most stressful issues for stu dents, but especially among teachers, is the lack of safety in the building. This is an issue that can be categorized further into

two parts. The most consistent and may be most dangerous problem is the safety hazards within the walls of schools. Quot ed from an article from The Flash by The Flash editorial board, ¨Over the years, the SDP has periodically removed asbestos from FLC and other schools, but their vis its have only shown slow progress on an urgent matter.¨And the more talked about the more frightening threat, ac tual threats, in the form of gangs, school shoot ers, or any other variety of gun-toting maniac. Another pressing is sue is the immense pres sure applied to students by homework and tests. Tests are very important to grading, counting for a whopping 40% in any given class. Outside of the conventional class room standardized tests like the SATs play a large role in which college you can attend. And though there is an argument to be had on how essen tial it is, college can determine what jobs you can get, affecting many other areas of adult life. That´s a lot for a high schooler to carry, like a very stressful domino effect. But homework for many students is the largest cause of stress. In terms of percent ages, for a form of work that takes up 10% of your grade homework takes up an easy majority of student stress levels. The ques tion might be asked,¨Why are students so

worried about homework?¨ Well there are a few reasons, first of all, it can be embar rassing to come into school with home work not done, or half-finished, and teach ers can be cruel. Also, homework does affect grading, as 10% can be the difference between a low grade, and a failure. In ad dition, future lessons can depend on com prehension that can’t be gained without doing homework, further affecting grades. And as always it’s a simple fix, put a limit on the amount of homework a teacher is allowed to assign. An article from Stanford by Brooke Donald quoted, “For example, we have teachers who teach AP classes and cut their homework load in half, and the kids end up doing as well on the exam. You don’t have to do four hours of homework to learn something in-depth or to retain it. But four hours of homework can be incred ibly damaging physically and emotionally.”

So now we ask, how do we improve stress in schools? The answer is to apply stress to the District. Peace is what is need ed to maintain unity and maintain rela tions, but sometimes anger, violent words are what is required. Sometimes there is no other option but to fight fire with fire. Bother them about the lack of a limit on homework that forces kids to stay up late into the night to get an A, and then wakes up at 5:30 in the morning to get to school to continue the same vicious cycle. Persecute them for the asbestos and lead paint in the walls of 80% of Philadelphia public schools. Harass them about the lack of support for the students who are suffering from anx iety, depression, and suicidal thoughts from these issues on top of the ones fol lowing them from home. This is what is required to mend this broken system.

LGBTQ+ rights should be more protected in PA schools

By Amira Simmons

The Pennsylvania Department of Edu cation needs more regulations to protect LGBTQ+ students. Unlike other states, Pennsylvania has nothing that will protect the LGBTQ+ community from harassment, lack of resources, and overall discrimina tion. In the state of California, in 2013 Gov ernor Brown signed a bill to protect young LGBTQ people, which prohibited state-li censed therapists from using dangerous practices such as shaming, verbal abuse, and aversion therapy. These practices put LGBTQ+ children at high risk for depres sion and suicide. This was seven years ago in a time when being a part of the LGBTQ+ community was shunned upon even more, yet PA has done nothing to make change.

Children are being bullied simply for being themselves in school. In 2019, the School District of Philadelphia sent out a survey, which was the 2019 “Youth Risk Behavior Survey.” The results of this sur vey shows that 58.6% of LGBTQ+ stu dents are being bullied compared to the 32.1% of their straight peers being bullied and and 15.55% of the LGBTQ+ students are not going to school because they are scared for their safety and don’t want to sit through about 8 hours of bullying. Bul lying gives a higher risk for depression, anxiety, increased feeling of sadness and loneliness, issues with sleeping and eat ing, and loss of interest in things that used to be enjoyable. Bullying can cause a de crease in test scores and loss of motivation.

Besides bullying, uneducated teachers and adults can add stress to LGBTQ+ stu dents. During a school day, a student can

be repeatedly called by pronouns they are uncomfortable with or be dead named. These seemingly harmless actions by the adults around them can cause students to doubt themselves and their worth. Leo, a 14 year old trans man says, ``as a trans person I was called my deadname and was told I wasn’t a real man,” when he told his family about this, they said to ig nore it and deal with it as an adult would. This shows that uneducated adult figures also limit how they can protect their chil

dren. Hearing others call queer kids slurs and derogatory words and not knowing how to adress it is a problem. Just saying a simple “hey don’t do that” does nothing and in most cases the “repremanded” child will just go back to harassing other queer kids. This can make LGBTQ+ students feel unheard, unimportant, and forgotten. Uneducated staff can also lead to a lack of resources for LGBTQ+ students, such as no place for LGBTQ+ students to reach out to for help, as well as no gender neutral

bathrooms. I go to a school where the gen der neutral bathroom is in the nurse’s of fice and with covid, it is only unlocked one day a week. This means that 4 out of the 5 days of school students that need a gender neutral bathroom have to use bathrooms with genders assigned to them which makes them uncomfortable. This can pos sibly lead to harassment or a forced outing. In some cases, students even reported that they felt like they were not given as many opportunities as their straight peers.

The k-12 education survey asked LGBTQ+ respondents whether they agree or disagree with the statement, “Because of the way the schools op erate where I live, LGBTQ+ children here don’t have the same chances to get a quality education as children who are not LGBTQ+.” 43% agree while 52% disagree, 5% say they don’t know.

There are many ways we can pre vent these things from happening. In CA, bills were signed to prevent children from going through harm ful ¨therapy” or being kicked out of school for being a part of the LGBTQ+ community. Clubs can also be de signed for LGBTQ+ students to con fide in each other. Many schools have organized gay-straight alliances in order to form a safer space and coun terattack bullying. We can have some of these solutions happen during the school day for children who want to be a part of it but aren’t able to stay af ter school. LGBTQ+ students deserve to experience the same education without worry of being bullied and the Pennsylvania Department of Ed ucation needs to do better in protect ing it’s LGBTQ+ students from harm.

Illustration by Gabriella DiGiacomo

The original iconic photograph “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima” from WW2 was replaced with the LGBTQ+ pride flag, in recognition of the LGBTQ+ students who are struggling in Pennsylvania schools because of the lack of protection and safety · Illustration by Gabriella DiGiacomo

by Zaynab Hajali

Franklin Learning Center’s girls locker room can be described as one thing, mor tifying. It’s an embarrassment to even call it a locker room due to the fact that it is far from what an ideal locker room should aim to be and look like. Multiple students at FLC have been voicing their concerns about the locker room, but no changes have been made. A former student, Eme ly Seda, actually wrote an article about the girls locker room back in 2018, and the conditions she described are still rele

Girl’s locker room

“There’s mold, rust in the showers and paint peeling off the walls.” Looking at the lock er room today, at the end of 2021, mold, rust, and peeling paint can all be clearly seen. Disregarding the period of time when no one was in the building, it’s still unac ceptable that everything’s still the same.

Students at FLC were given a short sur vey asking about how they feel about the locker room and here are a few of their responses. To the question, “what was your first impression of the locker room?”, multiple students expressed that it was, “dirty.” That says more than enough, but here are a few more responses, “Unhy

never went inside, but I saw pictures and it looks scary.” Students aren’t happy with the conditions of the locker room and since they are the ones expected to use it, their opinions are the most important.

The boy’s locker room got redone a few years back and theirs is in a better condi tion than the girls. Students were asked how they felt about this and here’s what they had to say. A student at flc who would like to remain anonymous says, “I believe that some people will think that the girls won’t use it or won’t care about their locker room but that is not true. Some girls play sport as well and it’s not right to put them in that condition. The girls locker room at

least deserves a decent clean-up so every one can feel comfortable.” Batoul Ayyash, a former flc girls volleyball player, claims she would, “practice in my uniform just so I don’t have to change in the locker room.” She is probably not the only one who did this, and that is truly unacceptable.

Considering the fact that Franklin Learning Center is a diverse school and is made up of not only boys, but other gen ders too, ones who may identify as girls, it should be able to provide the same treat ment to all it’s students. The difference in the locker rooms is drastic and if FLC wants to do the best it can for its students, there needs to be change for the girls locker room.

School shouldn’t be mandatory when buildings are hazardous

By Dibanhi Ronzon

In the district of Philadelphia it’s really no secret that school buildings could be hazardous. It’s not fair to make school man datory when the buildings are hazardous. In most Philly schools the buildings are so old we have paint chipping, ceilings falling down, doors not closing properly and more.

The schools in Philadelphia are so haz ardous that they have attracted national attention. In January 2020, one of the best schools in Philly, Masterman, had to sec tion off parts of the school due to the con tamination of asbestos they found. Going further south we find Furness dealing with walls falling down while students were try ing to take their test, “like the whole ceil ing went down , and we were all shocked, I couldn’t concentrate during my test,” says Tobing, a student attending Furness. The majority of schools in Philly were built before the 1970’s before lead-based paint was banned. Because of this we have a lot of schools in the district that had no remodelations and now have lead-based paint chipping and peeling off the walls. Due to a lot of these issues we have both students and teachers falling ill because of how old and unsanitary the schools are. A teacher working in Meredith Elementary school was diagnosed with Mesothelioma, a type of cancer that is caused by inhaling asbestos fibers for long periods of time. The teacher, Lea DiRusso, had been work ing in two asbestos contaminated schools for nearly 30 years and was later diagnosed with Mesothelioma but because this cancer is so aggressive she really has no hope in surviving this.”I was completely unaware, as were my colleagues and staff and students,

that there even was asbestos present in the school building,” DiRusso says “I did not know that the steam pipes behind me were wrapped in asbestos. And I touched them and I hung clotheslines to hang student work. And I used it because I was creating a home for my students.”. Students with asthma are also affected by this because of the mixture of the asbestos fibers mixed with the dust, or even just mold that could be found there could cause serious asthma attacks. The rates of asthma related hos pitalizations are highest in children living in North and West Philly, In Philadelphia the rate of asthma related hospitalizations is 59 hospitalizations per 10,000 children.

There’s plenty of evidence that students are being harmed by the building itself. If a school had to choose between keeping their students safe or helping them be come geniuses. We would want to keep all students healthy first. When certain teachers that harm or punish kids get some sort of punishment from the school dis trict because of the harming of students then shouldn’t buildings that harm stu dents be helped by the district to make it not such a hazardous or dangerous place?

Currently if the buildings are being this impacting to people within the schools, it’s not fair to make school mandatory when the buildings are hazardous.”These changes will go into effect beginning in 2020-2021 school year and will require all students to attend school no later than age 6 and un til age 18 or graduation, whichever occurs sooner.).” Why make it mandatory when it shows that they’re not putting my safety first with the buildings being so hazardous?

Discolored stalls in the girls locker room · Staff Photographer Bwe Ku.

The girls locker room is currently locked and unavailable · Photographer Nunu Ra

Many Philadelphia schools are hazardous buildings · Illustrators Analissa Salvador, Lyle Vargas, and Leo Bender

What do students think about FLC dress code?

Philadelphia dress codes sexualize girls and criminalize boys of color

by Dahslee Hernandez

Philadelphia’s schools have dress codes. Whether the school requires a uniform or not, there is a certain criterion that students have to meet to please the staff’s idea of ap propriate attire. Within these criteria, most Philadelphia schools use dress code to sex ualize girls and criminalize boys of color.

The sexualization of young girls in high school is sadly very normalized. The week of Halloween I was wearing a hoodie with a skirt that reached up to my knees and socks that also reached up to my knees, and I was almost dress-coded for showing “too much”. I am fourteen and precisely what that lec ture told me is that I am the problem that is distracting to an adult staff member when that should not be what is being taught in schools. The barely one inch of knee that was shown was deemed as inappropriate to the point where I needed a warning to not wear it again. Was it really for my safety, or was it really to keep on the inter nalized sexism rooted in school systems?

In 2019 at Masterman High School, se nior Lauryn CiardulloIt recalled during an advisory one day in, one of the teach ers came around with a ruler and said, “If you are a girl wearing shorts, stand up.” In the summer girls can’t even wear shorts or tank tops because it is not allowed be cause it is inappropriate to be dressed as so when in reality girls are not aiming to look inappropriate but dressed as appropri ate for the weather. Young girls from ages 13 to 18 in high school are being told that what they are wearing is inappropriate not because of what is being worn, but because of the perception of what reaction it could possibly get out of other male students.

According to The FLC student hand book, “At FLC, “appropriate attire for school” means fully covered from the

neck to the tops of the knees.” Then later on the school website listed below the cat egory “bottoms” says, “No leggings.” Leg gings are generally categorized as wom en’s clothing. The argument that it is too fitted can be debunked because skinny jeans are fitted as well, but they are still allowed. The dress code being applied more to more “women’s” clothing than “mens’” is just one example of the marketi zation of dress codes on young women.

As sexualization keeps occurring in most Philadelphia schools, students explore the realization that the dress code is rooted in school sexism. Stu dent Amaliya Yunusova, who goes to Central High School in Philadelphia.

“The dress code has been unfair in many ways I’ve observed while attending Central,” Yunusova said. “I have seen girls be reprimanded and punished for having their shoulders out. I view this as an issue because this is teaching women to accom modate men’s inability to control them selves, rather than simply fixing the issue at its core by teaching young boys to be more respectful. I believe that this is indi rectly promoting rape culture in America by teaching women that they are the prob lem when in reality, they are far from it. I have also seen teachers dress code students for wearing traditional, cultural scarves; I found that to be extremely unfair.”

Teaching women that our bodies and our clothes are the problem is reinforcing more sexism and misogyny than safety. Women have always had to live through what a male deems as appropriate, if males would be distracted, if males think that the attire is provocative. Instead of schools trying to keep that sexism rooted, they should be teaching boys what respect is, especially in the newer generations.

In 2017, The Today Show surveyed

17,000 people and found that 94% of teen girls’ parents agreed that dress codes have become too confusing. If even parents see a problem with how the dress code specifically targets girls then school administrators should see it too.

Although girls have more dress codes, the dress code that is put in place for boys is criminalizing boys of color in schools. According to dress code research by Alys sa Pavlakis and Rachel Roegman from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, “One Black male student thought the rule against hoods was because teachers and administrators were worried that students might “have a weapon in our hoods.” Anoth er male of color, who liked to wear a do-rag to school, said he was always told to “take it off ’cause the cameras can’t recognize me.”

He wondered how a do-rag could pre vent security personnel from recognizing him when the head covering “doesn’t even cover nothing but my haircut.’’ Since schools are now requiring students to wear a mask for protection, not once have I ever heard the excuse that we shouldn’t wear masks be cause cameras wouldn’t recognize students. But when it comes to Black males wearing a simple hood or wearing a durag that is part of African American culture to protect the hair, it is seen as a threat. The dress codes put in place can be used to boys of color.

Schools using dress codes to crimi nalize males of color is nothing new. The rooted racism in schools is also still very present. African American culture is sometimes not seen as a culture in schools or not culturally appropriate enough to wear the aspects of the culture. Accord ing to the Franklin Learning Center high school student handbook, “Students are not permitted to wear hats and head cov erings in the building, except for religious reasons documented by the bona fide

Weekly dress down days will raise spirits

by Aja Nakamura

A dress code is enforced on the Frank lin Learning Center student body. Al though there are good aspects worth acknowledging, there should be an ad justment made for the betterment of FLC. A weekly dress-down day should accompany FLC’s dress code.

Some believe that dress codes can pro mote better concentration, less bullying, and school pride. In reality, there are still negative outcomes despite dress codes. The Flash, FLC’s newspaper and prima ry journalism source, released an article addressing a shooting that took place in the afternoon of September 15th, 2021.

The article reads, “An altercation led to gunshots on the northeast cor ner of the school...a lockdown was then issued by school administration”.

This provoked deep concern from stu dents, staff, their families, and friends. It showed that bad things may still hap pen with the current dress code in place. It is still worth mentioning, though, that there are still qualities that are useful. Even with the negative traits that it car ries, the dress code is still helpful. That’s why it doesn’t have to be fully exterminat ed but simply modified. According to the School District of Philadelphia code of con duct, “Students are expected to follow their school’s dress code so that their appearance does not constitute a health or safety hazard.”

With the dress code in place, students are safe and are guaranteed a healthy learning

environment. The attributes that are pre sented by a dress code may be fitting for FLC, and have great reason to remain present.

Franklin Learning Center occasion ally allows students to be out of the dress code. Those days have clearly had a posi tive effect on the students as a whole and an even better impact on them individually. When asked for their opinion about spir it week (a week where there is a daily theme for students to coordi nate with) many stu dents reacted positively.

“This is the only time that [students] can express their true colors,” said Nunu Ra, a ninth-grader.

“[It] prompted more student attendance and interest in school ac tivities–it made people want to go to school,” said ninth-grad er Emilie Lugo.

A common word used throughout students’ re sponses was “fun”. The feedback indicates that the days where students are freed from complying with the dress code are cherished. An occasional break from dress code, like spirit weeks, may be enough to boost student

self-expression. But weekly dress-down days are sure to consistently boost morale. While there are several positives to having a dress code, FLC will great ly benefit from the addition of a weekly dress-down day. It saves time, effort, and energy. One-day-a-week freedom pro motes individuality, while the other four days of dress code keep a unified front.

leader of the religious sect.” If religious reasons are enough to wear head cover ings and hats, why not cultural coverings?

On the other hand, some people may argue that dress codes help prevent sexual harassment and improve safety in schools. However, schools saying that dress codes prevent sexual harassment is teaching young women that we need to change be cause we are the problem when schools should teach boys to respect women. The allegation that dress codes also support safety in schools is not valid. If safety in schools revolves around what people are wearing and not who is attending the school, there is a problem. Whether it is young women wearing a shirt that shows a shoulder or a young man of color wear ing a hoodie, those factors are not the fac tors that determine whether the school is safe. If schools are aware that students have the capability to sexually harass or make the school unsafe, then those students should be held accountable when it occurs.

A solution to these problems in the School District of Philadelphia is to sim ply change the dress code. Of course, some dress codes will always be stricter than oth ers, but the reasoning behind a dress code needs to be backed up with something that can not correlate to sexualization of girls or criminalization of boys of color. Instead of Franklin Learning Center’s no shorts or skirts above 2 inches above the knee, it could be changed to mid-thigh since realistically it is hard to find shorts for girls that are knee-length. There are ways to change the dress code for boys as well, like allowing cultural clothing or hair pro tection. There are solutions to these dress codes if the administration of Philadelphia schools is willing to consider those most affected by these policies: the students.

Sometimes unfortunate events happen even with a uniform dress code. I believe blending dress code with dress-down days can best serve the students. The advan tages combined with flexibility catered to each student will most certainly boost morale throughout the school. The ability to choose empowers students, and the free dom to dress enhances the freedom to learn.

Illustration by Leena Hilaly

Open bathrooms are a necessity for student respect

by The Flash Editorial Board

Having a large sign wrapped around you in order to use the bathroom isn’t what any of us had in mind when enter ing the new quarter, but here we are. We had the opportunity to talk to Principal Nicole Lee about the new bathroom pol icy and why it was initially put in place.

“We’re finding children are going out in the hallway for an extended length of time to the bathroom,” Lee said. “There were a lot of things going on in places that were not appropriate. We’re hoping [the new bathroom policy] will allow teachers to monitor which students they’re letting out and how long they are going out for.”

While some staff members are hoping that this new policy will diminish the prob lem at hand, this policy might cause more harm than good, due to the increasing number of students in the school. This year’s ninth grade class is the largest in FLC histo ry. This makes the restroom more crowded.

With only the first and sec ond-floor bathrooms open, if some one on the third or fourth floor needs to use the bathroom, they have to go downstairs and hope there is no line.

“You now have a hall pass to go to the bathroom, or to the nurse or wher ever you need to go. It’s only going to be one per classroom. That’s going to hold students accountable for be ing where they need to be,” Lee said.

These types of changes are not just go ing to affect students; some teachers feel as though this is just another weight on their shoulders. Kayti Arthur, a science teacher at FLC, has concerns about the new policy

“I feel hopeful that the hallways will become less crowded,” Arthur said, “but I also feel like that bathroom pol icy is a lot on teachers to remember

who’s out and it’s just all on us again.”

The bathroom is one of the least sani tary places anyone can be in at school, so having dozens of kids carrying one bathroom pass in and out of the bath room over and over all day long doesn’t scream cleanliness or COVID safety.

Instead of making the whole school suf fer for the mistakes and actions of a few, it would be best to have discipline for only those who break the rules, and it would

be even better if the discipline was consis tent. In a year that has had more than ten bell schedules, a library and a nurse’s office that are only open sporadically, and daily teacher absences, this lack of consisten cy throughout the school year is not only confusing but unbearable. This leaves stu dents with less trust in the school at a time when they need support more than ever.

Taylor Presbery-Fields, a Junior at FLC, is irritated with the locked bathrooms.

“Going to the bathroom is a basic right, so you shouldn’t lock the bathrooms,” she said. With these regulations being in place, student rights at FLC are being limited. Bathroom access is a right, not a privi lege. It doesn’t matter if a student has bro ken rules in the past–they deserve access to a functional bathroom whenever they need one. FLC should unlock its bath rooms and address misbehavior as exact ly what it is: the exception not the rule.

Illustration by Leo Bender

FLC returns to performances with Into The Woods

Pictured here are students of the Mu sical Theatre De partment during a Dress Rehearsal for Into the Woods Jr on Friday, Novem ber 19th and Satur day, November 20th / Staff Photogra phers Ace Ludwig & Leo Bender