The teen violence conversation was front and center at a parent night in Tempe and the Gilbert Town Council meetings on Tuesday.
The parent night was held at McClintock High School and featured speakers from the state's gang enforcement task force (GIITEM), a community advocate, and resource groups for kids.
"I think the awareness and the education that’s going on is fabulous," said community advocate Katey McPherson. "We’re so much farther ahead than we were four months ago."
ABC15 has reported four Valley municipalities along with Pinal County all have group teen violence investigations, Tempe is not one of them.
In Queen Creek, the beating death of Preston Lord at a Halloween partyhas escalated fear and drawn outcries from many in the East Valley. As the community waits for arrests in Lord's case, on Tuesday people showed up once again in orange at Gilbert's Town Council meeting.
See the latest ABC15 coverage on the developments of the string of teen violence incidents here.
"We are still in the midst of a teen violence crisis," said one community member at the meeting.
Gilbert has the most teen violence cases ABC15 is tracking. Some people who spoke at the meeting echoed calls for Mayor Brigette Peterson's resignation.
"I don’t know why you don’t seem to care, because if you did at this point you would resign and we accept it," said Kristine Brennan.
But community members did praise the work of the Town Council’s Teen Violence Subcommittee. Those three council members, a part of the group, gave an update Tuesday.
"We are planning one more subcommittee meeting, and in that meeting we will receive any actionable items that we can," said Vice Mayor Scott Anderson. "We will formulate an actual plan of action that we can bring to the council."
The members also said they still are looking at the possibility of taking this to a task force or committees in the future, but no action was taken Tuesday.
Have a news tip related to teen violence in the Valley? Email us at teenviolence@abc15.com
