'Gilbert Goons' must pay for their crimes. But that won't fully solve the problem

Everyone wants justice for the “Gilbert Goons.”

We want to see those who violently attacked teens pay for their crimes — and rightly so.

Multiple communities were terrorized. A young man is dead.

But it’s also widely believed that once we get arrests and convictions, the problem goes away.

Which misunderstands the problem.

How the Gilbert Goons attacked

Understand how these attacks took shape:

Some have been random, but others started in school and carried over to social media, where threats, plans and discussion of past attacks proliferated in multiple group chats.

Some attacks occurred at or were catalyzed by parties with ample alcohol — word of which also was spread on social media.

Others occurred in very public locations, including an In-N-Out Burger that not only faces one of the busiest corners in Gilbert, but where calls for service had increased exponentially in a short amount of time.

Yet police failed to put the pieces together on these brazen assaults — as did school resource officers and high school administrators who were notified about some of the bullying but did little to step in.

Several aggressors faced child trauma

And what of the aggressors?

They may have hailed from wealthy neighborhoods.

Yet, based on interviews with those familiar with these families, many also grew up with little discipline and few positive influences.

Police reports detail drug and alcohol use among several Gilbert Goons. One parent is now facing drug possession charges.

Court records also reveal that parents of some accused teens had previously been convicted of dealing drugs, stealing cars, illegally possessing weapons and propositioning an undercover police officer for oral sex.

A protective order was issued against one parent amid allegations of domestic violence.

Why did so many look the other way?

Ample research suggests that adverse childhood experiences like these can increase the risk of teens turning to violence, particularly the more adverse events they experience.

But the opposite also is true: Strong relationships with positive role models — including parents, other adults and teens who refuse to tolerate deviant behavior — can lower the risk of kids with adverse experiences turning to violence.

Which brings us to the most troubling thing about the Gilbert Goons:

Lots of folks knew about their behavior. Yet few stepped in to stop it.

It’s not fully clear why.

But it suggests that beneath Gilbert’s low crime rates and family-friendly image, holes have formed not only in the institutions that are supposed to protect young people, but in the fabric of the community itself.

For hundreds of teens, this is normal

Consider that dozens of other teens never threw a punch but filmed the violence or hung out in the background as these brutal attacks occurred.

Hundreds more attended the alcohol-filled parties that helped catalyze some attacks — many of which occurred with, at best, willful ignorance from hosting parents.

At least some of these teens must think it’s normal to watch kids get drunk or high and beat the tar out of others on the weekends.

And that’s also a giant red flag, considering that research also suggests teens who witness bullying are more likely to struggle in school, feel depressed or use alcohol and drugs.

A recent Arizona Republic investigation found that bullying and emotional distress have largely driven the proliferation of school gun threats.

We cannot allow this behavior to fester.

Promising steps, but only partial solutions

Gilbert and Chandler are working on new laws that should give police more leeway to break up unruly parties.

They also may ban teens from owning or purchasing brass knuckles, which some Goons used in fights.

These are important steps. But they also are just partial solutions.

Fully addressing the Gilbert Goons problem requires a communitywide press — from police and schools to parents and, yes, even residents without teens — to stop these troubling behaviors.

It’s promising to see orange ribbons — the favorite color of murder victim Preston Lord — and “Be an Upstander” signs persistently dot the community.

What's missing from our response

What’s missing is a sustained effort to educate parents and others about bullying, problematic social media behavior or underage alcohol and drug abuse.

Bullying plays likely role in 'Goons': How to respond

That’s where district and charter schools — which have been oddly quiet in all of this — need to step in.

To help educate, but also to play a critical role in prevention.

The problem is that most school mental-health counselors have hundreds of students under their watch. They are often triaging crises, leaving little time to counsel troubled students or connect them with mentors.

Schools need the resources to hire more counselors.

They also can leverage school resource officers to help identify at-risk teens, before they engage in destructive behavior.

School resource officers, in turn, must work a lot closer with area police to address issues that occur off campus, despite the wonky jurisdictional boundaries that often put a school in a different city from where its district is based.

And police must redouble their efforts to restore broken community trust — starting with more fully explaining why they failed to connect the dots between these assaults.

Are we ready to put in this effort?

This isn’t going to be easy.

Changing ingrained mindsets and behaviors won’t happen overnight.

But that’s what it takes, if we want to ensure that no group like the Gilbert Goons ever gains a foothold in this community again.

Are we ready for that?

Reach Allhands at joanna.allhands@arizonarepublic.com. On X, formerly Twitter: @joannaallhands.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Gilbert Goons' problem is much wider than many of us think