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AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS www.ahwatukee.com
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Wednesday, January 31, 2018
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Chamber retooling service to members and the community
Bursting with pride
AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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oss Murray readily admits that he wasn’t quite ready yet to become the de facto face of the Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce. “It’s been a little more than I thought it would be,” said the retail mortgage loan officer for HomeBridge Financial Services in Ahwatukee. “Things are really, really busy at work.” Nevertheless, Murray has jumped headlong into his new responsibilities now that, as chairman of the Chamber board, he has the responsibility of leading the 24-year-old organization’s makeover in the wake of the board’s decision to eliminate the position of president/CEO. The move two weeks ago ended the 14-month tenure of that position’s apparently final occupant, Lindy Lutz Cash, and put
AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS NO STRINGS ATTACHED
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NO-DIET DIET (Dianne Ross/AFN Contributor)
Steven Cottle, 3, of Ahwatukee doesn’t seem to mind that a bubble almost as big as him finally met its end. He was one of scores of youngsters who attended the Kyrene Community Play Day last Saturday. For more pictures of the event, see page 30.
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BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
DREAM COME TRUE
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CHAMBER on page 8
Bowie seeks mandatory suicide-prevention training
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larmed by the rash of teens who took their life last year in multiple area school districts, including Tempe Union, state Sen. Sean Bowie has introduced a bill requiring suicide-prevention training for all teachers and staff. The measure would mandate two hours of training in the 2019-2020 school year in all school districts and charter schools for all “counselors, teachers, principals and other school personnel who work with pupils in
grades six through 12.” The bill would require in-person rather than online training and the use of “evidence-based” material – meaning it must be rooted in data, academic research or scientific findings. It would cover suicide prevention, warning signs of suicidal behavior in adolescents and teens and intervention and referral techniques. As reported by AFN in September, seven East Valley teens ages 13 to 18 killed themselves in a six-week period between mid-July and Labor Day last year. In all those cases,
the teens were described as popular, academically successful students. Since that time, at least three other teens in area districts also have taken their lives. There have been three suicides in the last three school years at Corona del Sol High School alone. Among those Corona students was Mitch Warnock, the son of Mountain Pointe High School English teacher Laurie Warnock. Bowie has subtitled his bill “The Mitch Warnock Act.”
Toddler • Primary • Elementary • Adolescent
Reserve your spot at our next Toddler & Primary Campus Tour Wed, Feb 7th at 6 pm & Sat, Feb 10th at 10 am
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SUICIDE on page 4