The college application process, with its myriad academic requirements and deadlines, can be mind-boggling. Then comes the financial aid application, which can seem as daunting as a 1040 income-tax form on steroids. more

Last Friday morning, Calhoun High Schools students were driving recklessly in the back parking lot of their school, veering here and there, occasionally crashing into parked cars and nearly missing pedestrians. They were all drunk. That is, a computer simulator gave them the sensation that they were driving drunk. more

Concerned parents are reserving their seats for “Dangers in Your Medicine Cabinet: What You Need to Know to Protect Your Children,” a parent-targeted substance-abuse awareness program that will be hosted by the Bellmore-Merrick Community Parent Center, in partnership with the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District, the Bellmore, Merrick, North Bellmore and North Merrick elementary school districts, Nassau County Legislator David Denenberg and the Bellmore-Merrick Coalition Against Substance Abuse. The talk will be held at the Brookside School, 1260 Meadowbrook Road in North Merrick, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 11. more

The scenario is tragic, gruesome and perennial. A high school senior, all of 16 or 17 years old, gets a driver’s license. His or her proud parents hurry out to buy their child a new car –– perhaps a fast car. Within days or weeks, the teen is dead, killed in a fiery wreck. more

Editor’s note: Tepfer is executive director of the Bellmore-Merrick Community Parent Center. With the holiday season upon us, we at the Community Parent Center believe it is important for parents to be extra careful when handing over the car keys to their teen drivers. The time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s is one of the busiest for travel, and newly licensed teens do not have enough experience to navigate through heavy traffic and winter weather conditions. more

According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, more than 17,000 people die in drunk-driving crashes annually -- one person every 30 minutes. Officials in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District and at the Community Parent Center take that statistic to heart, said Wendy Tepfer, the parent center's director. And so she teamed up with Saul Lerner, the Central District's health and physical education director, to bring an innovative anti-DWI program to Bellmore-Merrick next Thursday. more