Because a large part of the news covered by any community newspaper tends to include schools, The News-Times often has the opportunity to highlight interesting efforts from students completing their senior projects.

The collaborative project of seniors from two different schools is just too special to miss.

Lakeside High School’s Mary Michael Stetz and Greenbrier High School’s Amanda Freeman, at the direction of Terri Freeman (no relation), owner of Be My Guest Catering and Events, put together a prom night Saturday for all Columbia County special needs students.

Two sentences, handed down within hours of each other on Friday in Columbia County courts, provide a perfect, encapsulated example of justice, of the promise of juvenile rehabilitation – and of the futility of showing mercy to hardened criminals.

In the first case, Juvenile Court Judge Doug Flanagan sentenced a 14-year-old boy to two years’ probation for the involuntary manslaughter of Kristen Burnette, 13, this past Halloween.

This is Severe Weather Awareness Week, when local and state emergency officials remind everyone to prepare for bad weather.

Typically, the week is scheduled in advance of spring storms. But last week’s band of violent, deadly thunderstorms jumped the calendar, scraping a tornado across west Georgia and causing damage in a wide path.

Would you have been prepared if your home was wiped out, like so many on the other side of the state? We aren’t immune.

Now, was that so hard?

A few weeks ago, some of the folks in nearby neighborhoods were all but ready to put out “for sale” signs out of fear that the Columbia County Alternative School was relocating to the soon-to-be-vacant Evans Elementary campus.

But then a funny thing happened. School officials held an informational meeting for those neighbors to answer questions about the proposed move. They showed a charming video produced by some of the school’s students. They offered reassurances that, as Board Chair Regina Buccafusco says, the school isn’t “a YDC campus.”