Philly School Doubles As Nightclub

This is perhaps one of the most bizarre stories of the year. A cafeteria where hundreds of Philadelphia charter school students have been eating their lunches during the week has been doubling as a nightclub at night and on weekends, offering dancing and drinking despite an expired liquor license. City and school officials are not happy about the arrangement between Club Damani and the Harambee Institute of Science and Technology Charter School, which serves about 450 children in kindergarten through eighth grade. Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said in a letter to Harambee on Monday that “a school and a nightclub cannot coexist in the same space and the arrangement must cease immediately.” Liquor licenses can be denied to establishments within 300 feet of a school. In this case, the school moved into a building that already was licensed to sell liquor. The location was once an Italian-American social club that held a liquor license since 1936. The club transferred the license to the school-affiliated Harambee Institute in 2002, but it expired in 2008. Neighbors are extremely upset and complain that partygoers are tossing their empty cans and bottles near the school and trashing up the place.