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Colonnades coming down in Mesa
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This Week
NEWS ......................... 10 A new survey says several EV communities are great for families.
BUSINESS . ................ 18 Chandler company offers new help in finding a job
EAST VALLEY
Mesa’s ‘Human Calculator’ plans bee PAGE 13 Sunday, September 16, 2018
FDA warning comes late amid EV vaping epidemic BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
S
moking in the boy’s room has morphed into vaping in the boys and girls’ room as the national e-cigarette vaping epidemic engulfs East Valley schools — possibly making teenagers a new generation hooked on nicotine. Two East Valley school districts began fighting back before the U.S Food and Drug Administration last week declared teen vaping a national epidemic and took aim at e-cigarette manufacturers, threatening them with additional regulation and forcing them to come up with plans to stop minors from buying e-cigarettes. Acting on the results of an undercover sting
(Kimberly Carrillo/ GSN Photographer)
Vaping rigs are common in Gilbert schools.
operation, the FDA also issued 1,300 civil fines and a warning letter to retailers that illegally sold the e-cigarettes to minors.
But the FDA warning comes well after hundreds of kids even in East Valley middle schools have been caught up in vaping. “There has been a noticeable increase of vaping occurring with our students this year, both on campus and off campus,” Gilbert Public Schools warned parents in March. “This is not exclusive to GPS; it is occurring on campuses everywhere in our area, state and nationwide.” At a forum sponsored by the Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce in June, two area superintendents See
VAPING on page 6
EV moms plan state’s first ‘club’ for foster kids SPORTS ...................... 21 Handicapped golfers plan tourney in Mesa.
GET OUT .................... 23 Queen Creek celebrates Founders Day.
COMMUNITY........... 13 BUSINESS ...................18 OPINION .................... 19 SPORTS ....................... 21 CLASSIFIEDS ............. 28
BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
T
hree Gilbert women’s life-long commitment to helping foster children has put them on a mission to convert an old east Mesa church into Arizona’s first community center. The lives of Anika Robinson, Susan Woodruff and Angela Teachout have revolved around children for years. In all, they have 26 children — some biological, some foster and others adopted kids. Their commitment goes well beyond the walls of their homes. After experiencing the challenges of raising abused and neglected children, they worked together in 2016 to get passage of a state law — dubbed Jacob’s Law in honor of one of Woodruff’s foster children — that now requires Arizona to provide foster children
behavioral health services and other assistance at a much faster rate than in the past. Now, Robinson, Woodruff and Teachout are undertaking another major challenge. They are converting the church on University Drive near 80th Street — which once was a Masonic temple — into Jacob’s Mission Community Center. It will be a sort of boys and girls club for foster children. “This will be a first in the state. There isn’t anything like this at all,’’ Robinson said. “When teenagers don’t have someone along the way to help them, it’s hard.’’ See
FOSTER
(Kimberly Carrillo/Tribune Staff Photographer)
Gilbert foster moms, from left, Angela Teachout, Susan Woodruff and on page 8 Anika Robinson are converting a huge Masonic Tempe in east Mesa into the state’s clubhouse for foster children.