Gilbert nurse helps moms PAGE 19 breastfeed
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An edition of the East Valley Tribune
This Week
BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
NEWS......................................
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Neely Elementary janitor nabbed in sex sting.
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s Gilbert police continued to probe the death of a 3-year-old girl left in a hot car last week, neighbors and strangers mourned the toddler’s death. “The whole neighborhood is now engulfed in pink ribbons,” said Judy Rott, who lives on the same street where the unidentified girl’s family lives. Indicating the color pink was chosen because “she is a little baby girl,” Rott said last week, “Our street is lined with pink ribbons on every boulevard tree. One of the neighbors went to Phoenix today to buy 3,000 yards of pink ribbon.” The girl is the third and latest child to die
after being left in a hot car this year in Arizona and the 39th nationwide, according to KidsAndCars.org. Arizona ranked fourth in the nation for the number of child hot-car deaths with 43 fatalities since 1994, the national nonprofit child safety organization reported. Last year was the worst year in history for these deaths with a total of 53 children that died nationwide. The group is pushing a federal bill, The Hot Cars Act, that would require technology in all vehicles to help prevent these deaths. As of last Friday, Gilbert Police were still investigating the circumstances leading to the child being left for up to three hours in a black pick-up truck in the family’s driveway. “The decision to submit crimi-
nal charges will be determined once the investigation is complete,” Sgt. Mark Marino said in a news release. Marino said the department planned to release the 911 transcript and the family’s identity on Friday, past GSN’s deadline. Property records showed the home is owned by Scott and Angela Jones. When first-responders arrived near noon last Tuesday, Sept. 3, in the Higley Groves West neighborhood at Higley and Elliott roads, they performed CPR and other medical intervention on the child, Marino said. By that time, the temperatures were already reaching into the triple digits. The girl was transported to a hospital and
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Hale Theatre musical a stage delight.
COMMUNITY...................... 14 BUSINESS............................. 19 OPINION...............................22 SPORTS.................................23 GETOUT................................27 CLASSIFIED......................... 31 A New Beginning Can Start Now!
see HOT CAR page 4
Gilbert girl, 7, takes on battle for her life
BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
Play (fall) ball!
GETOUT..........................
Sunday, September 8, 2019
Gilbert mourns, police probe toddler’s death
INSIDE
SPORTS.............................
Gilbert Legion post needs Christmas help PAGE 14
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t 7 years old, Leighton Accardo is already facing one of the biggest challenges in her life — cancer. The Gilbert second grader has stage IV germ cell tumors and is handling the disease with the same resilience she brings to any one of the sports she’s involved with — hockey, figure skating, soccer and softball. “She knows it’s cancer,” said mom Carly Accardo, a preschool teacher’s assistant. “She knows it’s going to be bad. (But) she’s tough as nails.” Germ cell tumor accounts for about 3 percent of all tumors in children 15 and younger, according to the American
As she battles cancer, Leighton Accardo, 7, of Gilbert, can't go to school and does work at home. (Kimberly Carrillo/GSN Staff Photographer)
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Society of Clinical Oncology’s patient information website, Cancer.net. In girls, the tumors tend to originate in the ovaries. Leighton showed no signs of the cancer before her diagnosis. “It was very sudden,” Carly recalled. “We thought she was constipated.” Leighton was taken to a gastrointestinal doctor, who found nothing. “One day she happened to get up and can’t pee,” Carly said. “It wasn’t until she couldn’t pee that she was experiencing excruciating pain.” Leighton went to a hospital emergency room where a CT scan found multiple masses throughout her abdomen. It was
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