'Well-To-Do' School Has Growing Homeless Student Body

In the affluent community of south Chandler, Ariz., it's easy to imagine students being most preoccupied with prom dates and college apps. Instead, some in the student body are worrying where they will sleep tonight.

Instances of homelessness are surfacing amongst Chandler Unified School District's student body and are on the rise, the Arizona Republic reports. The district had 563 homeless students last year and that number is climbing, school officials told the publication.

Moreover, nearly half of the 38,000 students from the school district qualify for free or reduced lunches. Many of those students come from what are considered more upscale areas, including those by Hamilton High School, according to the Arizona Republic.

Dia Mundle has been working with students at the high school, making sure those lacking basic necessities get what they need on a regular basis.

"It's gotten bigger every year for the district," Mundle said. "People think Hamilton is a ritzy school, but we have so much poverty here."

One Hamilton student, who asked not to be identified, spent the last year sleeping on relatives' sofas. His English teacher alerted Mundle of the situation so she could offer help, the social worker told the Arizona Republic.

"On the outside, you can't tell he's homeless. He's always neat and clean and he takes care of his things. Kids like him don't usually make it, but he's very resilient."

Wealthier families aren't immune to the impact of the recession, Mundle told the Arizona Republic.

"We have families who have lost everything, dads who had [investment] properties that didn't go well, an engineer who hasn't been employed for a year," Mundle said. "This isn't your poor immigrant."

To read the full story, visit AZCentral.com.

Comments

[evangelicalchimp]

11:02 PM on 09/15/2010

so....I don't want to sound heartless but how do you get into "Well to Do School" if mammie and pappy aint got no cash??????????????

[Downix]

12:24 AM on 09/16/2010

You live in the district.

[gfs5541]

03:22 AM on 09/16/2010

They probably did had money until their expenses gotten ahead of them, or one or the other parent lost their jobs.

[seluR-amabO]

11:00 PM on 09/15/2010

About 70, 000 years ago our species first left Africa and quickly spread across the entire world. (Thumper’s say 6,000 years)

And, this is the best we can do???

What a joke. Pure geniuses, huh?

[Hare]

10:45 PM on 09/15/2010

This is the result of failed politicians and policies that are discriminatory in so may levels. These kids would get their basic needs met if there were social services in place to help them at moments like this, but the mentality of the fiscal conservative is to cut everything and let individuals raise themselves by their bootstraps, problem is, no one wears those anymore and now people are not only beltless but homeless.

[ruburnt]

10:37 PM on 09/15/2010

Phil11514....Have you ever lived in Arizona to know what you are talking about???

[st0ked]

03:51 AM on 09/16/2010

that post is down a bit.

[pattypank]

10:09 PM on 09/15/2010

As a parent and teacher, my heart breaks for the children.

[digger0007]

09:59 PM on 09/15/2010

The erosion of the Middle Class has reached the Upper echelon. At this rate, only the super rich, the top 5% will have any security, any means in the pursuit of happiness.

Republicans talk about rights to own guns, free speech, .... what about the fundamental right to security of person, shelter, and basic living?

[democles]

10:04 PM on 09/15/2010

Republicans only believe in the right of large corporations to screw people. That the Dems shrink from saying this loudly and often, is sickening.

[digger0007]

10:13 PM on 09/15/2010

Not ALL Republicans believe as you said. It would be unfair to paint ALL Republicans with the same brush. There are SOME rational Republicans. Democrats don't demonize ALL Republicans for this reason. It is the irrational Republicans that are a danger to the Republic. Ironic.

[Phil11514]

08:08 PM on 09/15/2010

Arizona is an extreme-right-wing reactionary ReTHUGlican state whose inhabitants despise social programs, blame the poor for their own problems and think about nothing but their "Taxes! taxes! Taxes!".

That there is homelessness in Arizona, even among healthy-looking, young, white, able-bodied, non-substance-abusing students students is not all that surprising. It's what you get, it's the predictable and inevitable result when you gut social programs or make qualifications to get approved for social benefits so tough and vindictive that people are discourged from even applying (which was exactly what the intent was in making the reuirements tough in the first place - to deter people from signing up).

That anybody in ARYAN-Zona actually knows or even cares about homelessness in their communities, WOULD be a very definite surprise.

[NCScientist]

10:07 PM on 09/15/2010

Well put! Fanned.

[CenaW]

10:30 PM on 09/15/2010

Early and long time stronghold of the John Birch Society. Goldwater was a Bircher,
Here is a link to Wm Buckley's story of Arizona,
He doesn't come right out and say Barry Goldwater was a member, but it is hard to not understand it.
Ps Buckley was quite the racist and loved Welch the founder of JBS, never mind that publically he denounced the organization for calling Eisenhower a card carrying Commie.
He, Buckley, just hid them under the Republican bed and betan turining the Republican party into the John Birch Society.
notice the language the last election cycle? ? ?
Wm Buckley on Arizona and Barry Goldwater.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/goldwater--the-john-birch-society--and-me-11248

[Earl Davis]

04:39 AM on 09/16/2010

Yep. One my my worst childhood memories came from good ole' AZ. It's 1980, I'm twelve, and driving cross country to New Mexico with my grandparents, we hit AZ and the hotel. A pretty nice hotel. It was hot so I went to the pool with my grandmother. It was packed with teenaged kids, all high school age. I jump in the pool. Oh, did I mention I'm black, and all the other kids were white. Well, they all hopped out of the pool. I got out, they got in. I jumped in again, they climbed out and stared at us silently.

I freaked out and went back to the hotel room and we told my graddad. He was angry as could be!!!! He wanted to tear the whole place down. Then we decided on a better way. Like I said, it was REALLY hot. So, I went back to the pool, hopped in, same drill -- they hopped out. Only this time I SWAM AROUND for a half hour! They roasted like fish on a hot boat deck. But then, still feeling really self-conscious and weird, I went back to our room.

I still feel bad to this day. It was my first encounter with in-your-face racism. I'll never forget it. Or move to AZ. We never had a problem like that in any other state... and we drove from NJ to NM.

[ernie1241]

06:46 PM on 09/16/2010

CenaW claims that "Goldwater was a Bircher".

Goldwater's comments about the JBS and its leader, Robert Welch:

1962 National Review:
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/goldwater—the-john-birch-society—and-me-11248
“I think you have clearly stated the problem which Mr. Welch’s continued leadership of the John Birch Society poses for sincere conservatives. . . . Mr. Welch is only one man, and I do not believe his views, far removed from reality and common sense as they are, represent the feelings of most members of the John Birch Society. . . . Because of this, I believe the best thing Mr. Welch could do to serve the cause of anti-Communism in the United States would be to resign. . . . We cannot allow the emblem of irresponsibility to attach to the conservative banner.”

National Review, 10/19/65:
"Welch's statements have generally been wrong, ill-advised and, at times, ill-tempered."

American Adviser newsletter, 5/62 re Welch/JBS:

“...I believe that many of the public statements he has made are unwarranted and unprovable. At the time Mr. Welch originally made his statement about President Eisenhower I told him that even though his statement was included in a privately circulated paper, it could result in a great deal of harm to the movement that he was attempting to create...I believe that the JBS would be far more effective if its leader were not making these intemperate statements.”