CHANDLER, Ariz. — 12News hosted a town hall Monday evening focused on the issue of teen violence in our community at the Arnette Scott Ward Performing Arts Center on the Chandler-Gilbert Community College - Pecos Campus.
12News journalists Mark Curtis, Caribe Devine, Tram Mai and Bianca Buono were joined by a panel of experts and community members to discuss the roots of this problem and voice ideas for solutions.
>> You can watch the entirety of the 12News Town Hall on teen violence at the top of this page.
Members of the Panel
- Community advocate Katey McPherson
- Associate Vice President of ASU's Health Services & Counseling Services Dr. Aaron Krasnow
- Jennifer Clack from Silent Witness
- Senior Director of Academics at Blueprint Education Krissyn Sumare
- Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb
- NAACP Arizona State Conference President Bishop Anthony Holt
- Queen Creek Mayor Julia Wheatley
- Eric Hebert, a former gang member
- Richard Kuehner, the father of a teen attacked at an In-N-Out Burger restaurant in Gilbert in August 2023
- Brittney and Brett Durkin, the parents of a teen attacked at an In-N-Out Burger restaurant in Phoenix in May 2023
Root causes and police response to teen violence
The topic of teen violence in the Valley has been at the top of mind for many in the community since the tragic death of Preston Lord, who was beaten to death at a Halloween party in Queen Creek last October. No arrests have yet been made.
That case was the beginning of the discussion at the 12News Town Hall.
"I share their frustration," Queen Creek Mayor Julia Wheatley said when asked about the community response to the lack of arrests. "I share their concern. I want to acknowledge my condolences to the Lord family and everyone who has experienced teen violence. So, I want to acknowledge that first and foremost, the loss of such a precious life."
Wheatley added that while there hasn't been an arrest in the Lord case yet, the Queen Creek Police Department is working "tirelessly" with many rarely taking a day off and that teen violence is "top priority" for the department. She also addressed why Queen Creek Police Chief Randy Brice was not at the town hall.
"It is something that he wants to be out in front of," Wheatley said. "Chief Brice's lack of appearance tonight is not any indication to this not being the Town of Queen Creek's top priority. I can tell you from the mayor's standpoint and we're doing everything we can to work, like I said, I don't think that man actually sleeps with how much he has going on."
Dr. Aaron Krasnow, associate vice president of ASU's Health Services & Counseling Services, also spoke to the root cause of the issue of teen violence saying it all stems from the behavior kids are seeing from adults.
"It's important to understand that violence is behavior and all behavior is reinforced by something," Krasnow said. "And whether it's an episodic behavior, something that is between one or two people one time or something that is more continuous or persistent, it's important to look at what might be reinforcing those behaviors. And so if you look at violence perpetrated by groups of people on a single person or on other people, that doesn't come out of nowhere. That persists, that exists because something has allowed those people to see that as a positive, normative, reinforced. There's somebody in their environment, either in their near environment or at a distance through technology that are reinforcing that that is something to do. If there weren't those reinforcers, that behavior would not persist.
"We have to take a hard look at all of our behavior. What is it that we're doing that would make this more likely? What is happening in the environment to make it less likely that people would be an upstander? What is our role in that as educators, as community members, as elected officials, as law enforcement in maintaining that behavior and ending that behavior?"
Senior Director of Academics at Blueprint Education Krissyn Sumare put it even more simply, saying schools need to take a more active role in helping curb violence among teens.
"Hurt people hurt people," Sumare said. "And until schools start to take some responsibility, we're putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound."
Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb expanded by saying kids who are seeing darkness in their own life in some way will act out as bullies try to get rid of sources of light.
"These kids look for light," Lamb said. "You take a Preston Lord, light. They look to see what they want and they actually don't like it, they try to destroy what makes them feel bad about themselves. And what we find is oftentimes the victims are kids who feel good about themselves, who do come from good families and oftentimes become victims of kids who don't."
Impact of social media
Much of this outbreak of teen violence has been documented on platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok.
12News anchor Mark Curtis spoke about the role of social media in these cases.
"Now, you have seven or eight or nine on one, picking on one kid, surrounding that kid, somebody's got brass knuckles, in some cases maybe there's gun involved, and then, as if that's not bad enough, we're putting it up on social media for the world to see," Curtis said. "And until, I think, until these social media platforms like TikTok and Snapchat are meant to take accountability and culpability, they have blood on their hands and legislation should be passed."
NAACP Arizona State Conference President Bishop Anthony called on the communities surrounding these kids to rise up and fight the impact of social media in their lives.
"Kids need to know that they are safe somewhere along the line," Holt said. "So when you talk about what is needing to be done, I think when you start hitting people's pockets, people will start listening to you.
"So when we look at it, the village, where is the village? Your nextdoor neighbor is the village," Holt continued. "We're responsible all the way across the board. There should be orange shirts, blue shirts, green shirts, red shirts, no shirts, I don't care how you come, just show up because we can't change anything if we don't be here. And when people on social media, them keyboard cowards that like to post all that crap behind the scenes, come see me. Let's talk, face-to-face. See how this works. The only way change is going to occur is when change stands up and says no more."
Impact of teen violence on girls
While most stories of teen violence involve boys, one mother from Gilbert described the impact it has had on her daughter.
"There is an aspect that has not fully been brought out in the Gilbert Goons situation, and that is the sexual assaults that are happening to these girls," Carissa from Gilbert, who was in the audience at the Town Hall said. "My child was a victim multiple times. We had a partial confession in court and I spent an hour bawling on the phone with a county prosecutor because they said it was a first-time offense and because he said he stopped at a certain point, they couldn't go forward. My family was put through three years of hell and a situation that we are still dealing with. My child graduated two years ago and my youngest is still feeling the effects of what happened and the fact that we came forward and tried to get prosecution. We had lambs and goats on the high school property that were teased. We fought like crazy.
"And to sit here now, to find all of this out, I kept praying that we would have some sort of justice. And I just want all of these girls to know, because we know that the kid who assaulted my daughter has gone after at least three other girls and he targeted them. And those girls because of what has happened to us were too afraid to speak up. Our schools have not done what is needed to get these girls the help that they need to be able to come forward and they are terrified because of the manipulation and the bullying and everything else that has happened. And my cry is that when are we going to stop and listen to these girls that are getting hurt as well because they're not the only ones. There is a whole different aspect to all of this."
How parents can help
"I mean, it's a huge responsibility," community advocate Katey McPherson said. "Supervising and monitoring social media will tell you everything you want to know about your child. I speak weekly, daily sometimes about the impact of social media and that there's no mystery to your kid's life. You can have Life360, you can know that they're at In-N-Out, but if you really want to know what your kid is up to, it's all on their phone. And there are ways to open that conversation with your child and continue those open conversations, so that you're not digging through things."
McPherson said conversations about big topics, such as bodies changing and bullying, should be starting when kids are as young as nine. But the main thing parents should be doing is making sure that parents know what is happening in their kids' lives.
"(The parents of the kids involved in teen violence) were asleep at the wheel," McPherson said. "Some of these kids are really good kids, pulling a 3.8 (GPA) and on a sports team and pulling a job, but on Friday and Saturday nights, they're beating the crap out of people at various places around the Valley and all of it, I found it on their very public TikTok platforms."
>> You can watch the entirety of the 12News Town Hall on teen violence at the top of this page.
Silent Witness:
Arizona's Silent Witness program allows people to send in tips and share information about crimes happening within their local communities.
The program shares unsolved felony case information in multiple ways, including TV, radio and social media.
Anyone who has information on a crime or recognizes a suspect described by the program is asked to call 480-948-6377, go to the program's website online or download the Silent Witness app to provide a tip. The identity of anyone who submits a tip is kept anonymous.
Calls to Silent Witness are answered 24/7 by a live person and submitted tips are accepted at all times. Submitted tips are then sent to the detective(s) in charge of the specific case.
Individuals who submit tips that lead to an arrest or indictment in the case can get a reward of up to $1,000.
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