The Chandler Arizonian - 9.19.2021

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CHANDLER HOUSING COSTS SOAR

CUSD JOINS VAPING SUIT

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From Uptown to Downtown, covering Chandler like the sun.

An edition of the East Valley Tribune

This Week

THEMESATRIBUNE.COM

BY PAUL MARYNIAK Arizonan Executive Editor

C

handler Unified and other East Valley school districts are struggling with a rash of vandalism fueled by a challenge to teenagers on the social media platform TikTok. Lured by the desire to score “likes” from their peers around the world, middle and high school students are stealing school property, then posting photos or videos of the items. The trend has been loosely called “The Bathroom Challenge” or the “Devious Licks

Merit test results here top state average.

Chandler kids part of Limelight Theatre production. NEWS .......................................... 2 REAL ESTATE ...........................30 COMMUNITY ........................ 35 BUSINESS .................................41 SPORTS ....................................46 GET OUT .................................. 47 CLASSIFIEDS ...........................50

Challenge.” “Lick” is slang for stealing. And though it started when teens began ripping paper and soap dispensers, toilet seats and even faucets from school bathrooms and showing off online, the trend has broadened to include other school property – even fire alarm devices, according to some parents’ reports on various social media platforms. The vandals’ incentive is to see how many likes they can garner. Some news organizations across the country and around the world are reporting some images have drawn

Lease bouys city’s hopes for downtown theater

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September 19, 2021

Chandler school vandalism fueled by social media

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see TIKTOK page 5

Gramps a champ

BY KEN SAIN Staff Writer

T

Take Your Home From Drab to

thousands of likes and millions of views. The vandalism has provoked warnings of dire repercussions and pleas to parents and students from high school principals in Gilbert Public Schools, Chandler Unified and Tempe Union High School districts and Mesa Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Andi Fourlis. “We are aware of a challenge on the social media app TikTok that is prompting students to cause damage to our schools and schools across the nation,” Fourlis posted last week.

he City of Chandler’s hopes to turn a major downtown intersection into an entertainment hub may not be dead yet, but thanks to the pandemic, they initially seemed to have suffered a blow. City officials expressed concern about the future of Flix Brewhouse’s theater at Chandler Boulevard and Arizona Avenue during a City Council meeting late last month. At the time Council agreed to the theater’s sale to AZ Management and Investment, LLC. Flix and CEO Allan Reagan filed for bankruptcy last October and court documents show they owe more than $70 million to creditors, mainly banks. “We would prefer it remain a movie theater,” city Cultural De-

Fab!

see THEATER page 3

Joel Terrill NMLS #255385

602.430.0835 joelterrill.com

Jim Garfias is his 9-year-old granddaughter Ava Peterson's hero, as she demonstrated Sept. 11 during a Grandparents Day celebration Sept. 11 at the Chandler Senior Center. (Pablo Robles/Arizonan Staff)


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