Students at Benjamin O. Davis High School launched the new year of their skate club with a meeting run by students rather than a faculty sponsor.
Senior Juls Pippenger led the September session in the school's front parking lot, asking members to give their names and skating experience before breaking into groups by skill level. Another senior, Josh Dannison, coached beginners on a smoother section of the lot while Pippenger worked with more experienced skaters on tricks and ollies.
The club's longtime sponsor, social studies teacher Dave Shaheen, was transferred to the School of One at East Tech as part of districtwide school mergers. According to Signal Cleveland, no other Davis teacher was willing to sponsor the club, so Shaheen asked Pippenger this spring to keep it going.
Shaheen, a longtime skater, began the club three years ago after students brought boards to school, and it grew with help from local groups such as Advocate SkateWorks. He estimates he has handed out close to 75 skateboards to Davis students.
The mergers this year combined Digital Arts and Davis Aerospace and Maritime into a single high school, raising questions about how students with different career focuses would mix. Club members said students from both schools had always been welcome, and the meeting's main divide was between experienced skaters and those still learning to balance.
Pippenger is currently unable to skate after a hip injury but still led the meeting and closed it with a group discussion of what each student learned.