School Column

As local high school seniors develop their college lists each fall, the University of California system prominently factors in. However, admissions missteps and policy have, in recent years, made it imperative that Californians look beyond the public university system for viable options.

After last year’s public relations disaster – where UC Irvine attempted to manage its 2017 overenrollment problem by rescinding acceptances to more than 500 admitted students, and then had to rescind its rescinds and allow those students to enroll – the UC Regents passed a policy that prevents this type of rescinding in the future.

During the next few months, high school seniors all over the country will be finalizing their college lists and preparing applications. They’ve worked hard over the past year to research and select colleges that reflect their goals for the future, or they have assembled lists based on the recommendations of family and friends.

Hello, seniors:

Congratulations on submitting your college applications. You may be receiving notice from your early-action and early-decision schools, so now is the time to begin your decision-making process.

Lissa Dutton offers advice for parents on comforting grieving children and teens in the wake of the death of a classmate.

Depending on their stage of development, children can perceive death in vastly different ways. A child in preschool may view death as reversible or temporary. Younger school-age children may understand that death is permanent, but may think of it as a spirit or a person. Children starting around nine or 10 through adolescence have a more concrete understanding of the permanence of death both for themselves and others.

I’m not a boxing fan by any stretch of the imagination, but in the last month, I watched hours of advertisements for the money-grabbing pay-per-view showdown between champ Floyd Mayweather Jr. and MMA fighter Conor McGregor.

Every time I was forced to sit through another one of these ads as I waited to watch the next episode of my comedy-drama, I had a strange sense of deja vu. I tried to put my finger on it, and eventually I realized that the familiarity I felt while watching these ads came from watching the CNN advertisements for election night last fall.

It is important not to litter. Do not throw trash into the ocean – it can be dangerous.