Teens' voices sought in 'goons' probe

Jan. 22—A newly minted council subcommittee wants to hear what school students have to say about their peers viciously pummeling other teens in swarmed attacks.

The Subcommittee on Teen Violence in its inaugural meeting Jan. 18 said it will delve into the brutal assaults and bring back proposals to council for approval.

"We heard a lot from parents. We've heard facts from PD but we haven't heard from the kids themselves," Councilman Chuck Bongiovanni said. "I'd like to see us propose the town hire a company that can create a professional survey for us that we can assess the scope of the issue."

The other members are Councilman Jim Torgeson and Vice Mayor Scott Anderson, who chairs the group.

The three pushed for the subcommittee after public demand that the town address teen violence in Gilbert.

The issue came to a head after a 16-year-old Queen Creek boy was beaten to death t a Halloween house party in Queen Creek in October.

Queen Creek Police announced in late December that it forwarded to the Maricopa County Attorney criminal charges against seven juveniles and adults.

Preston's fatal assault, which was captured on cell phone videos and disseminated on social media, became a rallying cry to seek justice not just for the Combs High School junior but for all teen victims. People on social media talked and shared videos of other teen-on-teen assaults in Gilbert, prompting police to review prior cases.

Bongiovanni said that the survey would yield multiple outcomes — "how the kids are feeling, how are they feeling in school, are they feeling safe in the community. Get some ideas from them, which may create more goals and ideas for us once we get some of that data back from them."

"It's very important that we focus on the teenagers themselves," he said. "I envision having one of us going out, talking with the kids first, gaining some rapport with them and then leave them the survey to complete."

Bongiovanni noted that the town would need the school districts' OK in order to dole out the surveys and that parental permission also would be needed before children can be polled.

Bongiovanni pitched four other ideas and goals for the subcommittee to work on:

—Legislation: find a local state senator or representative to sponsor a bill making it illegal for a minor to purchase, own or sell brass knuckles. (A number of attacks involved the use of the weapon).

—Community: investigate working with local churches or volunteers to create a "mentorship program kind of like an adopt-a-teen program to foster positive role models for some of our teens at risk or at crisis."

—Businesses: investigation some options with local businesses to support activities for teens.

"For example, I know there're lots of businesses that teens like to go to that are closed at 6 p.m., you have to have an adult," Bongiovani said.

"Maybe we can speak with them, have them charge a fee to go into the business without an adult and then maybe you can hire an off-duty policeman or a security force to make it safer for them."

He said that way "kids actually have another place to enjoy themselves rather than hanging out in the parking lot."

—Work with the general community and parents. Looking into some parental support groups for troubled teens, working with community groups to establish a program to help teenagers have a voice and to work with groups to foster teens' trust with adults.

Torgeson agreed with reaching out to kids.

"But I think the answer for why some things don't come forward is really rooted somewhere in probably the schools," Torgeson said. "Not trying to blame any schools for it but in the culture there, this is where all of this begins."

He said that an anonymous survey may give great information to "help facilitate more communication, facilitate feeling better about reporting something or prosecuting something."

Bongiovanni said one of the data points he would want from the survey is the students' trust levels with their school resource officers.

If a school showed a high-level of trust with an SRO, the police chief could find out what the officer was doing to gain the students' trust and "we can learn from that and make it part of training," Bongiovanni said.

Anderson said that parental support also was on his list — how to help parents who may not feel comfortable attending the subcommittee meetings and talking about what is going on.

He added that the message "See something, say something" should also be stressed in schools and if not, train the SROs to support that.

Amy Hommen, a former teacher of 20 years, agreed that the problem begins within the schools.

She blamed the practice of restorative justice — alternative discipline using mediation for misbehaving students other than expulsion or suspension, which studies show impact students of color more.

And because district funding is based on student count, schools won't take the punitive measure of removing kids from the classroom, according to the Gilbert resident.

"I got attacked personally by a student," Hommen said. "I no longer teach because of that.

"That's something that you're going to have to fight in the schools because they're not going to do anything because they're not going to be making any money."

Hommen said kids also are afraid to speak up because "nothing happens" when they do.

She said teachers also won't speak up because they'll get harassed by administration and get fired.

Torgeson suggested the group include teachers in the anonymous surveys to get their perspective.

"I thank the biggest thing is parental involvement," said Anna Van Hoek, a Higley Unified School Governing Board member and Gilbert parent; "teaching our kids that it's not OK to bully, it's not OK to be violent, it's not OK to put your hands on anybody — starts at home."

She said figuring out how to get more parents involved is key.

"It's also important that schools are enforcing their bullying policies and also their student discipline," Van Hoek continued. "That's been a major problem with many districts.

"These policies they have in place aren't being enforced and they really need to ensure that they are because it's making teachers' lives very hard."

She said educators' attentions are being diverted from teaching by trying to control a few unruly students in the classroom.

Van Hoek added that restorative justice doesn't work because the students "don't learn anything from that" and maybe parents need to be held accountable for their children's actions, which would force them to become more involved.

"I don't know if that is something that can be done through legislation," she said. "But especially when minors are involved, what are the consequences and maybe going after the parents may make a difference."

Chandler resident Amiee Valenzuela-Altomart said she loved the idea of a survey and if one is done, it should be widespread as the East Valley communities overlap because of the school districts. She said that 80% of parents want to be part of the discussion and to stop the violence.

"We got a lot of parents in Chandler talking because of Preston Lord's death," she said. "We know lot of our kids and friends of our kids might have been at that party."

Some of Valenzuela-Altomart's suggestions included finding out what security measures are in place at businesses where kids hang out and bringing churches together to address the problem. She also advised that parents should educate themselves about social media if their children are on it.

The group discussed holding the meetings every other week and perhaps later during the day. Last week's meeting at 3 p.m. was sparsely attended.

"We heard at thee council meeting that the struggles the frustrations the desire to take actions and we heard that loud and clear," Anderson said. "We're into the action phase where we actually can take input and formulate actions items that we can take back to the council for approval."