State budget logjam / P. 8
Special ed woes / P. 3
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
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COMMUNITY........... Mesa teen helps drive for brain tumor research.
Mesa Public Schools to speed up security upgrades BY SCOTT SHUMAKER Tribune Staff Writer
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he day after the killing of 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, Mesa Public Schools Superintendent Andi Fourlis sent a note to district staff and families. “School should and must be a place where students and staff feel safe and secure,” Fourlis wrote in part. “While no amount of planning
Mesa sees $334 million in apartment complex sales.
SPORTS ..............
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Westwood brothers share gridiron time. COMMUNITY................................. 17 BUSINESS....................................... 21 OPINION......................................... 26 SPORTS........................................... 29 CLASSIFIED.................................... 35 Zone 1
can guarantee that a tragedy such as this will not occur, we do everything we can to keep students and staff safe while at school and always look for ways to continually improve.” Before the massacre, Mesa security officials were already implementing a plan to create single points of entry with secure front offices at all schools – something that has become a talking point for some national politicians in the wake of the Uvalde killings. Now, the school system is accelerating
its plans to put secure entries in place at all schools. The vision includes a secure perimeter that funnels visitors to the front office, where they wait in a secure lobby area until they are buzzed in by an employee. The glass dividers between the lobby and front desk will be fortified with a film resistant to bullets and forced entry.
see SECURITY page 4
3 Mesa burn survivors take on a mountain today BY CECILIA CHAN Tribune Staff Writer
BUSINESS ............. 21
Sunday, June 12, 2022
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE THE EAST VALLEY) | TheMesaTribune.com
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t’s been a painful two-year journey of 47 surgeries, setbacks and rehab for burn survivor Jason Nelson, who lives in Mesa. Today, June 12, he begins another journey – hiking 19,341 feet up to the top of Africa’s tallest mountain. “For me personally it’s just a challenge to come from almost dying to standing on top of Mount Kilimanjaro with a group of survivors,” said Nelson, 45, who now lives in Mesa. “It’s hard to resist that.” Joining Nelson are six other burn survivors all treated at Arizona Burn Center at Valleywise Health. The trip is mean to raise awareness of what burn survivors can accomplish and also to
raise money for the burn facility. Among them are a Mesa couple who miraculously survived a crash that obliterated their private plane. Stephanie Neilson in 2004 as a young mother became one of the first “mommy bloggers” when she started an online journal about motherhood, traveling with children and creating a family home. Over the next four years, thousands of followers shared in the couple’s joy as their family grew. On Aug. 16, 2008, she and her husband Christian were flying their small plane when it crashed and exploded on impact in the Arizona desert. Over the next four months, their lives and future were in the hands of medical After 47 surgeries for injuries he sustained in an explosion at his then-home experts at the Arizona Burn Cen- in Gilbert, Jason Nelson, now living in Mesa, is preparing to climb Africa’s highest peak with seven other burn victims form Maricopa County.
see JASON page 6 (Courtesy of Jason Nelson)
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