The Gilbert Town Council Subcommittee on Teen Violence rounded the curve in its third meeting Feb. 26 and is heading toward its goal of presenting a list of actionable items for the town.
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The Gilbert Town Council Subcommittee on Teen Violence rounded the curve in its third meeting Feb. 26 and is heading toward its goal of presenting a list of actionable items for the town.
The tone of the meeting changed from the second meeting Jan. 31 as residents pledged to focus on offering solutions rather than criticizing officials, and subcommittee members said they were looking to wrap up the subcommittee’s work and get a plan to council quickly.
“I know that the subcommittee, the police chief, the mayor and others have been pummeled with plenty of criticism,” Mesa resident Eric Hebert said. “And I speak for many members of this grassroots movement when I say from this day forward, we will focus solely on action items, and we would all like to thank this committee for all the actions so far as well as what's to come.”
Councilmember Chuck Bongiovanni rounded up some of the activities being done, including arranging surveying of students in Gilbert Public Schools and Chandler Unified School District plus discussions about mobile block watches. He said he would like the subcommittee to meet just one more time before having a plan for council to review.
Bongiovanni praised the community for its suggestions and how it has pulled together to face the problem.
“We're completely in this together, and I think if you take a step back, you've seen the whole process,” he said. “I mean, I've seen all of the different stages of grief here, and we've all seen it, and I see us also working together to solve some of these things.”
The meeting did not break much new ground but did have speakers throwing out suggestions for what to include or asking questions about existing resources. Some asked for greater accessibility to information on resources that has previously been presented.
Bongiovanni also praised a 10-point plan from community activist and education consultant Katey McPherson that she called “Change for Good” that she calls for actions from different stakeholders: mayor and council, business leaders, schools, faith and youth groups, youth, parents and families, and law enforcement.
She also defined three things that need to happen: triage, which she said is what the community has been doing to this point; “hot-wash” to address why this has happened and address systemic issues; and moving on and up, which would include prevention of it happening again in the future.
“Criminals will be held accountable,” she said. “Victims will be supported. Tools and resources will be implemented. All in our community deserve to feel safe.”
We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X.
Raised in Arizona, Tom Blodgett has spent more than 35 years in journalism in Arizona and joined Independent Newsmedia in July 2022 to launch the Gilbert edition. He is a graduate of Arizona State University, where he served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication from 2005-19 and remains editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet.
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