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Inside This Week
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Gilbert police equipped for autism-related calls BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
NEWS ........................ 10 Several Gilbert group homes are under fraud scrutiny.
Sunday, May 21, 2023
G
ilbert Officer Levi Leyba remembered responding to a call where a grandmother reported that her grandson was missing. The boy, 11 or 12 years old, lived with his grandparents and often rode his bicycle around the development. He also was autistic.
“So the child usually gets home if he’s out with a friend at 8, 9:30 p.m.,” Leyba said. “He had not come home. She got concerned.” Leyba interviewed the grandmother, friends in the neighborhood and made sure the house was cleared because “kids like to hide,” while other officers searched the area, checking out places the boy liked to go to. Then Leyba’s recently acquired autism awareness training kicked in. Children with autism spectrum disorder
or ASD tend to wander and “a lot like to go to the park and bodies of water,” said Leyba, now a spokesman for the department. Leyba recalled finding the boy in a park area by water in south Gilbert. He would not disclose the park. “He was walking his bike when I came across him,” Leyba said. “I called out his name and he looked at me.
see AUTISM page 6
Onto the future
GPS board approves REAL ESTATE ............18 $100M bond election
‘Crazy’ returns to Valley housing market.
BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
SPORTS.....................20 Perry, Casteel score big in state finals. COMMUNITY..............................17 REAL ESTATE ............................ 18 SPORTS ......................................20 GET OUT..................................... 23 CLASSIFIEDS ............................ 25
C
ompetitive pay and critical facility maintenance are some of the proposed expenditures for a 15% budget override and a $100-million bond going to Gilbert Public Schools voters this November in an all-mail election. The Governing Board last week voted 5-0 for placing a continuance of an existing override and 4-1 for a general obligation
see BOND page 12
While Higley Unified, Gilbert Public Schools and most other districts in the East Valley will be sending off their Class of 2023 this week, the East Valley Institute of Technology bid adieu to its seniors last week. The class of 2,500 seniors from scores of high schools who attended EVIT in half-day sessions the last two years was so large the ceremonies were split across two days so that Sloan Park stadium in Mesa could accompany the newly minted grads and their guests comfortably. EVIT Superintendent Dr. Chad Wilson offers some insight into this year’s graduates in a special report on page 8. (David Minton/GSN Staff Photographer)
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