Ja’riya Cole – 4th grader, Crawfordville Elementary

Principal: Alena Crawford

Achievements/Reason for Nomination: Ja’riya Cole is a fourth-grade student who is a great example of hard work and kindness. She has earned straight A’s all year and stays organized in everything she does. Ja’riya is kind to everyone and is a positive leader to have in the classroom. This year, she won the fourth-grade 4-H Public Speaking Competition, and she also placed third in the school spelling bee. She is an example of what it means to be a successful student!

Pinwheels

Students at Wakulla Middle School.

There were a number of gardens of blue pinwheels put up last week to raise awareness of April as Child Abuse Prevention Month. Students at Wakulla Middle School, the Wakulla County Health Department, and at Azalea Park with a garden of pinwheels put out by volunteers for Caroline’s Agape Project. (Photos by Shirley Howard, Elizabeth Neighbors, William Snowden)

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Annie coming to WCT

“The sun will come out tomorrow…” Famous lyrics from a song about optimism. The musical, “Annie” from 1977 is all about being optimistic in the midst of negative things out of your control. Set in 1933, Annie is an eleven-year-old girl who has lived her whole life in the New York City Municipal Orphanage, Girls Annex.

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Hit and run driver gets 15 years

Alfreda Nelson ran over a 9-year-old boy and left scene, sentenced to maximum

Alfreda Nelson

By WILLIAM SNOWDEN
Editor

The woman who hit a 9-year-old boy with her car and then left the scene was sentenced last week to 15 years in state prison, the maximum sentence for the charge of leaving the scene of an accident with serious injury, a second degree felony.
The courtroom was packed on Thursday, March 26, for the sentencing hearing of Alfreda Nelson as the case drew widespread attention last year over the concern for the boy, Sawyer Crawley, who suffered traumatic brain injury as a result of the accident.

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JQC recommends public reprimand for Judge Smith

In frustration, the judge told attorneys at a hearing he should have the bailiff shoot them

By WILLIAM SNOWDEN
Editor

A panel at the Judicial Qualifications Commission issued its findings and recommendations that Wakulla Circuit Judge Layne Smith violated judicial canons with some intemperate remarks he made in court to attorneys during a contentious hearing back in September, and recommended he face a public reprimand.

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