Free of charge WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016 Today: High 113, Low 89, Sunny Tomorrow: High 111, Low 90, Sunny
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PHOTO ESSAY
COVER STORY
Schools battle reckless social media sharing By Lee Shappell
COMMUNITY:
AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS MANAGING EDITOR
(Cheryl Haselhorst/AFN Staff Photographer)
YMCA program for seniors needs volunteers. p17
BUSINESS:
Longtime Ahwatukee boutique closing. p25
The new school year began Monday for 1,500 students at Horizon Community elementary and secondary schools in Ahwatukee. Above, new kindergartener Natalia Galvan listens to hear mother, Carmen, read her a story before school starts. For more photos, see p.15.
With one reckless push of a button, a young life can change instantly. Feelings are hurt. Reputations ruined. A scholarship is lost. Commonly, students feel bullied. There are rare but tragic reports of young people left feeling so hopeless that they take their own lives. Social media posts are forever. And they can go viral. “Then it’s worldwide,” says Dr. Kenneth Baca, superintendent of the Tempe Union High School >> See SOCIAL MEDIA on page 10
By Paul Maryniak AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS EDITOR
SPORTS: Local Little Leaguers vie for title tonight. p38 Neighborhood p3 Around AF p4 Community p15 Opinion p22
Faith p30 GetOut p32 Sports/Rec p37 Classified p41
For the last two years, Maricopa County and Phoenix officials have been studying proposed remedies to downpour-driven flooding on a street that borders the south side of South Mountain Park/Preserve in Ahwatukee. The proposals were of no use to Stacy Schwartz and Ronnie O’Steen, of 11140 S. Mandan St., on July 18. Early that evening, torrents
cascaded down the mountainside, knocked down their 5-foot concreteblock back wall and in minutes ravaged the home for the second time in two years. “I’m so discouraged,” Schwartz said Monday, a week after the disaster washed away nearly $20,000 in repairs that she and her husband had put into the house since a September 2014 flood, when her father occupied the home. Schwartz grew up in the singlestory, three-bedroom house that
(Cheryl Haselhorst/AFN Staff Photographer)
Family struggles to recover from devastating flood her late father bought in 1980. She, her husband and their two children, ages 4 and 6, moved back into it from Maricopa in April 2015, shortly after her father passed away. They took title to the house 10 days before the July 18 flood and had not yet obtained flood insurance. Now they and their children are sleeping on two beds in the living room and trying to figure out how Ronnie O’Steen discusses cleanup at his >> See MOONSOON FLOOD on page 6 flooded home.
School Starts on August 1, 2016. Meet the Teacher. Elementary School: July 27 and Middle School: July 28. Check website for more info.