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Parisian delights on wheels PAGE 22 Sunday, February 10, 2019
More EV lawmakers backing suicide-prevention training
VOTE NOW
BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
eastvalleytribune.com
INSIDE
This Week
NEWS............................... 4 Mesa prepares a $196M in projects.
SPORTS .................... 20
Mountain View girls soccer on a roll.
FOOD........................... 22 Bake this for your Valentine.
COMMUNITY.................13 BUSINESS........................ 17 SPORTS ..........................20 GETOUT.......................... 22 CLASSIFIED.................... 27
O
nly days after a 16-year-old Mountain View High School student hung herself in her parents’ garage, an Ahwatukee legislator last week introduced the latest version of a bill aimed at helping to prevent teen suicide. Sen. Sean Bowie’s bill would require the training every three years of all school personnel working in grades 6-12 in recognizing the early warning signs of teen suicide and appropriate intervention techniques. The bill comes as the Mesa teen’s death
brought to 33 the number of teenagers in the East Valley who have taken their lives since May 2017. The act is modeled after an initiative undertaken last year by Tempe Union High School District, which trained everyone from school bus drivers to teachers and principals in recognizing the early warning signs, using a consortium of experts organized by Teen Lifeline. In September 2018, more than 800 Tempe Union employees received the training in twohour blocks on two consecutive days. Bowie has named his bill the Mitch Warnock Act in memory of a champion pole-vaulter who took his own life in October 2016. His
Mesa’s Community Court helps break vicious cycles
BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
M
esa’s Community Court has a judge, a defense attorney and a prosecutor, but their roles have little to do with determining guilt or innocence and everything to do with saving lives. The Community Court’s defendants arrive in custody at times, though many are out on their own recognizance, working on sentences that focus on personal improvement – such as attending alcohol or drug counseling and finding a place to live. Unlike conventional courts, the Community Court adds “navigators’’– representatives of social service agencies such as Community Bridges and Lutheran Indian Ministries – to help defendants connect with the services they need to improve their lives. For many, such as Corrinne Thumb, Benito Anaya and Dustin Klimek, the Mesa Municipal Court program amounts to a court of
last resort – possibly their last opportunity to break free from the addiction that has derailed their lives, left them homeless and established an inexorable pattern of repeated arrests. The arrests – sometimes individuals are arrested as many as 100 or even 200 times – are mostly for crimes of desperation, misdemeanors such as trespassing or shoplifting that are committed by people with nothing to eat and nowhere to go. The goal of Community Court is to interrupt that cycle of addiction, homelessness and arrest, giving the most desperate of defendants an opportunity to regain their selfesteem and to live productive lives. Mesa Mayor John Giles hailed the program last week during his City of the State address, calling it an example of Mesa as “a compassionate city.” A video in his address featured the case of
see HOMELESS page 4
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mother, Lorie, an English teacher at Mountain Pointe High School, has been a champion of suicide prevention. “I think this is a great first step to open up a courageous conversation,’’ said Katey McPherson, an East Valley education consultant and former teacher and assistant principal for Gilbert Public Schools. “This bill is addressing a public health crisis,’’ McPherson said. “Any bill with this kind of bipartisan support speaks volumes about how a problem is impacting a community.’’ “One child is too many,’’ said McPherson, a mother of four who has been building a net-
see SUICIDE page 6
Goin’ to the dogs
They’ll be thinking “Here Comes the judge” at the prestigious Westminster Lennel Club Dog Show in New York this week when Christine Erickson of Mesa walks in. See why on page. 13. (Kimberly Carrillo/Tribune Staff Photographer)
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