Hopefully all Van Buren students are well-rested from the unplanned three day weekend that the winter weather brought in.

This morning, world leaders paid tribute to former South African president Nelson Mandela at his funeral in Johannesburg, who died Thursday, Dec. 5 at the age of 95. Thousands were in attendance for the four-hour service to honor Mandela, who was South Africa's first black president, credited for his many strides to end racial segregation and discrimination in his country.

On that note, Dec. 10 is Human Rights Day, which is in commemoration of the day in 1948 that the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Read more about it here.