Adam Sokol, Pennsbury graduate and Yale freshman recently published a scathing editorial in the Yale Daily News regarding the conditions he experienced while attending the public school including faulty air conditioning, violence, and windowless classrooms.
Manuel Rodriguez, 25, a journalism major from Levittown claimed that had Sokol not mentioned the name of the high school in the article he never would have assumed it was Pennsbury, saying, “When I came to Pennsbury I thought it was amazing.”
In the article called “Prepping for Preps,” Sokol said that he was the only Yale acceptance from Pennsbury since 2006. He also claimed that Ivy League acceptances from the high school are very rare, although 2012 alone several graduates from Pennsbury were sent off to Penn, Brown and Harvard.
“[Pennsbury] may be a public school but it’s a good public school with tons of extracurricular activities,” Erich Martin, 20, a journalism major from Levittown said who also called Sokol’s words disgraceful and shameful. “He takes everything he had for granted.”
Sokol noted his resentment starting after he was accepted to Yale, stating, “When I was accepted to Yale, I was treated like a king. Some people would love that. I hated it.”
Sokol reaffirms his love for Pennsbury at the end of his editorial, then goes on to blame it for the culture shock he experienced upon transitioning to the famous university. Sokol assures the readers that “The struggle was most certainly real” at Pennsbury.
Many Pennsbury alumni were outraged in their responses to the editorial.
“If he’s trying to burn bridges he’s doing a damn good job,” Craig Miller, a Pennsbury graduate of 2011 said.
Miller noted that there were better ways for Sokol to air any grievances, and that the teachers he accused of giving no academic challenge in his article are probably the people that wrote him letters of recommendation.
“He over exaggerated slight problems,” Ashley Brice, 19, an early education major from Fairless Hills said. On the topic of courses which do not offer a challenge she said that “Pennsbury offers a lot of AP classes and challenges.”
Not every alumni was offended by the Sokol’s article.
Peter Davis, 19, from Levittown, and a computer science major, didn’t agree with everything Sokol said, but understood what Sokol meant in his editorial.
“There are a lot of policies at Pennsbury that don’t make sense, [and] there are underachievers at Pennsbury,” Davis said. “The opportunity is there only it’s presented in such a way that it’s not appealing. For people who are committed there are plenty of AP courses. I don’t find it insulting, but I can see why other people would be offended.”
Lisa Follman, the assistant principle of Pennsbury and supervisor of school counseling stated “I know Adam Sokol well. His editorial was unfortunate, but we recognize that he has a right to express himself. We don’t wish to enter into any sort of debate. We are proud of all our students and believe that Pennsbury provides excellent preparation for college and career.”
This comes as surprising because in May he wrote a letter to the editor of the Courier Times concerning his opinions on Simon Campbell, a member of the Pennsbury School Board. In this letter he was also very complimentary to his high school stating, “As a high school senior, I am proud to have spent my last four years at Pennsbury High School. I have had the pleasure of having brilliant and dedicated teachers, motivated classmates, and a long list of extracurricular activities to choose from. To top it all off, Pennsbury’s great guidance department helped me get into the college of my dreams.”
Going back then to the article he published in August, Sokol seems to contradict himself entirely. He doesn’t refer to his teachers as “brilliant and dedicated,” but instead accuses them of being “laid back” and making it difficult not to get an A. His fellow students are not made out to be ideological young people striving for a higher education but dangerous degenerates that are known best for “punching cops at prom and smearing blood on bathroom walls.” Indeed anyone who reads these two separate articles may never suspect they are written by the same person at all. It seems Sokol is already getting over that culture shock.
Though Sokol refused to speak to Centurion reporters, citing safety concerns, he did apologize for the article on twitter saying, “I love PHS and am so thankful for my time there. The piece’s subject was not PHS, but my personal transition. I’m sorry for offending [anyone].”