Making a stand against teen violence

Southeast Valley cities and school districts are still grappling with how to handle a wave of violent incidences involving local teens.​

Gilbert is expecting a subcommittee looking at solutions to make its presentations this month. Chandler’s large public school district and its city council have both been forced by the public to look at teen violence and find ways to curtail it. Queen Creek is putting together a youth advisory commission and holding a teen voices summit in May.

The moves are in reaction to the October 2023 murder of 16-year-old Preston Lord and a host of other alleged altercations that have come to light involving groups of teens and young adults.

On March 6 and 7, seven young men and teens were indicted and arrested in connection with Lord’s death. The 16-year-old Combs High School student was severely beaten during a house party in Queen Creek on Oct. 28. Lord died of his injuries two days later.

All seven defendants have been charged with first-degree murder.

Finding a path forward
Perhaps nowhere has attention been focused more on the issue than Gilbert, the epicenter of some of the actions as well as the home to some of those arrested and who have been charged in Lord’s death. A city subcommittee comprised of three city council members will release its report April 16 on next steps to curb the spate of violence.

“The difficult task that we have now is to take all your comments, all these actionable items, synthesize them into a document that we can present to the council,” said Gilbert Councilor Scott Anderson, who chaired a subcommittee looking at the issue that will develop the report. “So we’re going to have to hunker down in the next two weeks, and the three of us will put together a document that will be made available to the public and especially to the council so we can take action on this.”

During a March 26 meeting in Gilbert, teens in the community for the first time gave their input publicly to the process, under an option not to give their name.

One, a senior at Perry High School, said the issue is becoming shrouded in secrecy because of how administrators at the Chandler Unified School District high school in Gilbert shut down discussion. 

“We’re not allowed to say the names of the victims or the people involved, which I understand that we don’t want drama, we don’t want rumors spreading, but that almost amplifies it,” she said.“We’re not allowed to discuss it when we’re shut down by our teachers, our educators, we’re not allowed to bring it up because admin hasn’t deemed it to be an appropriate issue.” 

She said that manner of handling it has created a “sense of negligence when we don’t directly address what has already happened.”

Other speakers made suggestions for the final report, including an independent consultant to lead the task force through the issue and an audit of police actions to see why investigations were inactivated or why data did not reveal an issue.

Slower responses
In Chandler, a March 22 meeting of the city’s Safety Community Subcommittee, council members and City Attorney Kelly Schwab unveiled a summary of the city’s “social host ordinance” as a potential to curb large teen gatherings, the kind at which Lord was killed.

The ordinance, put in place in 2015, has fines for adults whose homes are used for gatherings where minors are served alcohol, though it hasn’t been invoked often.

From 2020 to 2022, only seven citations were issued by Chandler Police using the ordinance — four to minors and three to adults —  and a handful of other citations were issued.

Chandler Police only broke up two parties in those years in which 50 or more minors were present. Neither involved weapons.

While the city was looking at solutions, Chandler Vice Mayor O.D. Harris at the meeting implored parents to stay involved in their children’s lives and let teens and children know what comes with new freedom and responsibilities and know where teens are and what they’re doing as much as possible.

“It’s a question of parents knowing what their kids are doing,” Harris said. “Parents have to manage their children. Parents can help ensure their teens are safe by doing their due diligence.”

Also, Harris said, curfews need to be in place and enforced. Teens who are mobile need to not only be taught to be positive role models, but also ensure everyone around them has the same goals.

The subcommittee also looked at summaries of recently enacted nuisance, party or other unlawful gathering ordinances from other Valley communities, along with a similar Tempe ordinance that’s been around since 2013.

Involving schools
Dozens of parents, speaking during public input at Chandler Unified School District governing board meetings, and one board member, Kurt Rohrs, have said directly CUSD needs to take more action to stem teen violence in the East Valley.

But many recommendations, with the exception of calls for CUSD Superintendent Frank Narducci to resign and a few policy requests from Rohrs, haven’t been specific. The district hasn’t announced any policy, programmatic or curriculum changes meant to curtail violence.

Chandler Unified has announced some new training for staff and some new programs. In addition to staff training to help students deal with grief, taking a moment to acknowledge the parent walk in memory of Lord, a parent workshop and reminders about the Speak Up for Safety email address and phone line, Narducci said an app new to the district called ParentSquare is a “home-to-school communication tool” and could be used to help better communication between the district and parents.

Separately, a CUSD teen violence advisory committee will be formed. Narducci said the committee will include CUSD parents, industry professionals, medical professionals, law enforcement, faith-based and other nonprofit organizations and members of the community.

Rohrs said CUSD should allow a forum in which parents can speak for longer than the two- or three-minute limits during public input.

“Parents should be our allies, not our adversaries,” Rohrs said. “They’re afraid. They’re afraid for their kids. We should listen to them.”

Teen summits
Queen Creek will hold a summit to hear from local teens about issues important to them.
Queen Creek Mayor Julia Wheatley announced the Teen Voices Summit during a March 20 council meeting.

“The summit is an opportunity for our teens in our community to share their needs, their concerns and their vision for our town,” Wheatley said.

The summit is set for 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Saturday, May 4 at the Queen Creek Public Library, 21802 S. Ellsworth Road.

The summit is part of Wheatley’s larger initiative to create a teen advisory committee, which she has said is more important than ever in the face of youth violence in the southeast Valley.

“Queen Creek is very interested in hearing directly from our teens,” Wheatley said.

The summit will be open to students who will be freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors in the 2024-25 school year. Students must live in Queen Creek.

Wheatley announced the summit after Queen Creek Police Chief Randy Brice gave a summation of where the Preston Lord murder case now stands.

‘We still have a lot of work to do. The investigation itself is still ongoing We continue to wrap up different portions of the investigation, including the incoming tips that continue to come in. I think we’re over 600 now,” Brice told the council. “We’re working on some forensic evidence that we’re working through, as well, in preparation for the trial phase.”

Brice thanked Lord’s family for their patience and help during the investigation. He also took time to thank the community for its help.

“We want to just make sure the community knows that we continue to need their help,” Brice said. “There obviously is more coming up, especially with our teens as we continue to focus our efforts to combat that teen violence in our community and the region. It takes a commitment from all of us to make sure that we’re doing those things, and a true resolution here requires that we all do that together, not just the police, not just the government.”

Brice’s updates have been a standing agenda item at council meetings since Lord’s death. Wheatley said the updates will no longer be part of council’s agenda for the time being, with Brice providing “notable updates in the future.”