THE NEWSPAPER OF AVONDALE, BUCKEYE, GOODYEAR, LITCHFIELD PARK & TOLLESON
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NEWS .............. 6 Litchfield Park Rotary plants trees across city
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LETTERS ..........................8 BUSINESS..................... 17 SPORTS ..........................19 FEATURES .....................23 NEIGHBORHOOD......26 YOUTH ...........................28 OBITUARIES .................30 CLASSIFIEDS................32 NORTH
The Voice of the West Valley for 33 years
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April 11, 2018
Grieving mother: Organ donation shouldn’t be heroic By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski Vikki Burdine was lying in bed watching a television show about organ recipients when her daughter, Jaimy, knocked on her door. “I was watching a show about how these organ transplant recipients were taking on mannerisms or likes of the people they received an organ from,” said Burdine, a Buckeye resident. “She came in my room and it turned out she was watching the same show. She said, ‘It’s really cool. How do I do that?’” Burdine told her it was simple: Residents just sign up to be organ donors through the state’s ServiceArizona.com. “I never knew if she did it or not,” she said. But tragedy struck in April 2015; coincidentally National Donate Life Month. Burdine, Jaimy and Jaimy’s young son, Stylz, went on a horse cart ride to celebrate the baby’s first birthday. During the ride, the horse got spooked and ran down the neighborhood road in Rainbow Valley. An experienced equestrian, Burdine tried to control the horse. Jaimy held Stylz tightly and fell backward off the cart, landing on her back. Stylz, who is now 3, landed on her chest. As she fell on the road, her head hit the asphalt, causing a traumatic injury. Stylz suffered just superficial wounds. A fire station was nearby and Burdine credits the paramedics and firefighters for trying to
Vikki Burdine, center, poses with her wife Claudia Lemon and her grandsons, Bishop, 16, and Stylz, 3, at the memorial for Jaimy Burdine. (West Valley View photo by Melissa Fossum)
save her life. “When the paramedics arrived, she was taking her last breath,” Burdine said,
holding back sobs.
Donors..continued on page 4
School resource officers called a key safety tool, but critics fear discrimination By Faith Miller Between class periods at Westview High School, police officer Edward Toves sometimes studies the TV screens that stretch across the wall of his office, displaying footage from dozens of surveillance cameras. Other times, he stands in a hallway and chats with students – still keeping an eye out for anything that could threaten school safety. As a school resource officer, Toves considers himself more than Westview’s
first line of defense. He strives to be an educator, a mentor and a friend. In a nationwide, student-led push for changes to gun policy after a school shooting February 14 in Parkland, Florida, Toves and other school resource officers have come into the public spotlight. While Democrats have emphasized gun control measures to improve school safety, Republicans, including Gov. Doug Ducey, have pushed for more security, including funding for law enforcement
officers on campus. That doesn’t sit well with activists in Arizona who say school resource officers can abuse their authority over students – especially students of color – and that schools would be better off without them. Arizona has at least 113 school resource officers in schools from Paradise Valley to Tolleson. Those SROs are funded through
SRO..continued on page 2