Amanda Mantra

Review of Saint Joseph Academy (Clevelan...

A place of diversity and acceptance, a place where...

A place of diversity and acceptance, a place where you can be yourself! ... Just as long as you're like everyone else. The Academy functions in a way that you cannot have a sense of self expression if it deviates from the norm, so you better get ready to adjust to the life of a hive mind! That's right, you're gonna share your collective intelligence with 5-6 of your peers, but you'll still get into the college your daddy will pay for you to get into. Theology discourages different beliefs, History doesn't teach you everything you need to know for the OGTs (which, apparently, there's an opinion on what happened in history here), health class doesn't teach you what's important, and sex ed basically instills the fear of ever being caught alone with a guy. They took out home ec and design because they think it's sexist, but boy or girl, you're still going to have to learn how to make more than ramen and cereal. And if you think taking an AP Class will fix that, it won t. I took two and we were guaranteed a fail on the final exam ON DAY ONE. They take bullying and suicide as a joke and use a student passing from a terminal illness as a cash cow opportunity to bring students together for all of one year to flaunt off the "love and support" they supposedly gave before they resort back to shoving each other against lockers and harassing one another. The school is falling apart (except for the gym, of course. Sports are all that matters!) This is definitely not a place for students that are more oriented to the artistic fields, but I can assure you the art class will be the safe haven from the toxicity of the mental manipulation the school tried to force on everyone. But of course, it's hard to respect a school that can't even enforce a dress code hard enough to make sure the girls aren't wearing neon bras under white shirts or keep skirts at a proper length, but God forbid you have the Nike symbol on your socks. That being said, I can understand why there was a sex scandal with one of the former teachers. Not only do they dress improperly, they practically throw themselves at the teachers! We've had a student teacher scared to return to the school for this reason, I felt so bad for him. I honestly look forward to the day this academy gets taken by the receding cliff line it sits ever so close to. I'm all for all-girl schools, but don't waste your time at St. Joseph when Magnificat is one main road away.