The Orangewood Elementary School in Phoenix may soon be sued for alleged security failures by the family of a 10-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted by a criminal alien.
Abel Kai Gblah, a 25-year-old citizen of Liberia, allegedly impersonated a doctor and sexually assaulted the girl at Orangewood Elementary School. Gblah was a registered sex offender at the time of the offense.
In their legal notice, the girl’s parents claim Gblah entered the school through the front office and was encountered and briefly questioned by a staff member before being allowed to continue on to the school, where he eventually attacked their daughter.
Their notice also claimed that police weren’t notified and the school wasn’t placed on lockdown until nearly half an hour after Gblah fled campus.
Gblah has a criminal history dating back to at least 2019. The continued presence of Gblah in the U.S. appears to be a result of bipartisan immigration enforcement failures.
Gblah was arrested under both the Trump and Biden administrations, but not deported by either.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the immigration enforcement against Gblah last November, days after media reports of his arrest for sexual assault.
DHS claimed Gblah’s crimes were committed under the Biden administration only, but federal court records say otherwise.
The federal case against Gblah dates back to the summer of 2019, when he was arrested for smuggling illegal aliens into the country. Contrary to those court records, DHS claimed Gblah was arrested in 2022 for that offense.
According to Arizona District Court filings, Gblah worked with an accomplice to smuggle illegal aliens in June 2019. Gblah was given five years of probation for smuggling, and the fine was waived. He surrendered a Liberian passport upon his arrest.
Records further reveal that Gblah violated his probation almost immediately following the judgment against him. Gblah failed to report to his probation officer for six months, from September to December 2020, and then January and February 2021.
In July 2021, Gblah again violated his probation when was arrested for multiple felonies related to sexual abuse, exploitation, and conduct with a minor. That case was handled in the Maricopa County Superior Court. Gblah was convicted of molesting a 16-year-old girl with both intellectual and physical disabilities. Both the victim and her guardian reportedly objected to the plea deal given to Gblah under then-Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel.
Gblah remains listed on the state’s sex offender registry as a Level 2 sex offender.
The first iteration of the Trump administration failed to deport Gblah after his smuggling of illegal aliens. The Biden administration failed to deport Gblah after his sexual crimes against a minor.
Last fall, Gblah served two months in jail for violations of his lifetime probation related to his sex-based crimes per records obtained by ABC15. Violations included missing sex offender treatment dozens of times and an arrest in Florida. Several days after his release late last fall, Gblah committed the sexual assault at the Phoenix area elementary school.
Gblah came into the United States in 2011 under President Barack Obama. He received a green card, according to DHS.
AZ Free News found social media pages connected to Gblah. At one point a man claiming to be Gblah’s father, Robert Muipoe, asked an individual who appeared to be Gblah’s sponsor — Mitchell Gblah — when he could communicate with Gblah.
“Mitchell why I can’t see talk [sic] with my son Abel one day?” asked Muipoe in a comment on a Facebook post made by Mitchell Gblah in January 2017.
Mitchell Gblah died in 2022 while making one of his frequent visits back to his home country of Liberia, where Muipoe and Gblah were also from.
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The Goldwater Institute has called on Arizona’s largest school district to immediately repeal a policy that prohibits “personal attacks” on school board members, staff, students, or members of the public during public comment periods, arguing the rule unconstitutionally silences criticism while allowing praise.
In a formal letter sent to Mesa Public Schools Governing Board President Courtney Davis, the Goldwater Institute contends the policy constitutes blatant viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment and the Arizona Constitution.
The Mesa Public Schools Governing Board adopted this policy in July 2024, banning any “personal attacks” during the public comment portion of board meetings. According to the Goldwater Institute, the rule effectively permits speakers to praise or thank board members, administrators, and teachers by name, but forbids any negative, critical, or challenging comments directed at the same individual—no matter how factual or civil the critique may be.
“This prohibition punishes a specific viewpoint insofar as it prohibits ‘attacks,’” the letter states. “It is not, then, the speaking about Board members, staff, students, or members of the public in general that the Governing Board is preventing, but only speech about those groups from a certain viewpoint. That is unconstitutional.”
Adam Shelton, an attorney for the Goldwater Institute, who wrote the letter, told The Center Square, “The Supreme Court has consistently held that viewpoint discrimination is almost always unconstitutional.”
The Goldwater Institute became involved after concerned Mesa parents contacted the organization, requesting a review of the policy. Shelton noted that the board reads the restriction aloud before every public comment session.
“The policy has chilled the speech of some of the parents,” Shelton added. “They’re afraid to speak out and bring problems before the school board. These parents are concerned about being banned or punished for making negative comments about school board officials.”
Public comment periods at school board meetings serve as a vital democratic function, allowing parents and community members to bring forward issues, including complaints about teachers, policies, or administrative decisions. The Goldwater Institute argues that Mesa’s policy undermines this purpose by making it nearly impossible to discuss real problems without naming those responsible.
Federal courts have repeatedly struck down similar policies. In Ison v. Madison Local School District Board of Education, the Sixth Circuit invalidated a rule banning “antagonistic” or “abusive” speech personally directed at board members as impermissible viewpoint discrimination. More recently, in Moms for Liberty – Brevard County, FL v. Brevard Public Schools, the Eleventh Circuit ruled against a prohibition on “abusive” comments, noting that such policies effectively require “happy-talk”—allowing positive comments while suppressing negative or challenging ones.
The Eleventh Circuit emphasized that restricting “personally directed” speech obstructs the core purpose of school board meetings: educating officials and the community about legitimate concerns. The court observed that a parent complaining about a math teacher’s instructional methods would struggle to explain the issue without referencing the teacher.
The Goldwater Institute warned that maintaining the policy exposes the district to potentially costly litigation. Following its victory in the Brevard case, Moms for Liberty secured a settlement requiring the Florida school district to pay nearly $600,000 in attorney fees, costs, and expenses.
In addition to federal constitutional concerns, the letter highlights that the policy likely violates Article II, Section 6 of the Arizona Constitution, which provides even broader protections for free speech than the First Amendment.
The Goldwater Institute has requested that the Mesa Public Schools Governing Board promptly amend its policy by removing the prohibition on “personal attacks.” The organization expressed willingness to work cooperatively with the board to bring the rules into compliance with constitutional standards and noted that all options remain under consideration if the policy is not revised.
No response has been received from the Board President, Courtney Davis, or the governing board as of the time of publication.
Ethan Faverino is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Arizona State University (ASU) is using an AI tool, ASU Atomic, to create educational modules using content ripped from professors’ work.
Professors say they were not made aware of their lectures being used in this way; they also characterized the outcome as inaccurate “AI slop” as first reported by 404 Media.
“AI slop” refers generally to poor, undesired generative content. In some circles, “slop” may refer to not just some but all generative content under the perception that generative AI tools rely on stolen original works.
ASU Atomic promises to create an unlimited amount of custom learning modules for subscribers by taking long lectures and condensing them into smaller clips based on prompts. These synthetic clips “grounded in trusted ASU courses” fit within condensed courses that amount to less than 10 hours.
The tool began as a pilot launch earlier this month within an initiative called “Project Atomizer.”
Subscriptions for ASU Atomic cost $5 a month. At present, course content produced by the tool doesn’t translate to ASU academic credits, nor badges or credentials.
Not much exists publicly on Project Atomizer. The initiative was mentioned briefly in a February presentation by ASU President Michael Crow, part of a larger proposal to make AI the focus of the future: “current realities require current solutions,” according to the presentation.
Crow said in an interview last week with the Greater Phoenix Chamber that ASU has 50 AI tools, three of which are augmentative AI tools for students. Crow said he uses AI for “everything” in his daily life.
“[W]hen I’m driving to work, I use the Gemini tool. Basically, I’ll pick a subject that I don’t know enough about and I’ll get myself educated in like 22 minutes or 25 minutes,” said Crow. “I use it for basically quick analysis of really complicated things that I don’t have enough facts [for].”
Crow also revealed that he has used AI to write 20 white papers since November. He’s also used AI to create multiple architectural proposals: one for a site in Hawaii near the village of Javi, another for an addition to the West Valley campus in Phoenix.
ASU literature professor Chris Hanlon was one of the first to raise awareness of ASU Atomic. Hanlon told 404 Media that no professors he’d spoken with had given their permission for this generative content.
“None of the ASU faculty whose course materials were harvested for the module I generated were aware that their image, lectures, lessons, or other teaching materials are being used,” posted Hanlon on Bluesky.
Hanlon said the course materials were pulled from Canvas, a course management system. Hanlon criticized the AI-generated clips as error-laden, jumbled, lacking context, and confused.
“Concerning the course itself, there’s no throughline I can see; none of the videos really speak to one another — it’s a mishmash, though the individual lessons that comprise it probably make a lot more sense in their original context,” said Hanlon.
The ASU Atomic website says the tool relies on content pulled from the ASU Online library.
“If ASU teaches it, Atom — your AI learning partner — can build a hyper-personalized learning module around it,” stated the Atomic.
Since 404 Media broke their investigative report, ASU closed off new signups. Instead, interested users or curious onlookers will have to join a waitlist.
Faculty asked Crow about the AI tool during a recent faculty Q&A following that initial report, as later revealed by Inside Higher Ed. According to Crow, the tool remains an early-stage experimental project without substantial promotion.
ASU Atom told Inside Higher Ed that its model was built on Anthropic’s Claude. ASU has declined to speak on the training and development of the tool.
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Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne is pleading with the state legislature to approve an additional $40 million for school safety.
Horne said in a Monday press release that those proposed millions are just the minimum that hardly reflects the outsized need on Arizona’s campuses for security.
Superintendent Horne said the latest deadline for school safety grant requests yielded a demand of over 800 counselors or social workers and over 700 officers. He said the funding needed to fulfill the cost of these requests would amount to nearly $187 million.
Under Horne’s administration, the number of armed officers under the School Safety Program (SSP) grew from just over 100 to nearly 500—nearly five times the size in just three years. SSP determines the distribution of resources through competitive, state-funded grants lasting three-year cycles.
Horne said that the best model for the SSP is to have officers present to work alongside the certified mental health counselors. There are nearly 600 counselors and social workers that work alongside the nearly 500 armed officers at over 1,100 locations statewide.
There are over 1,500 district public schools and over 500 public charter schools in the state. Over 1 million students attend these schools, and nearly 60,700 educators that teach in them.
The average SSO salary according to the fiscal year 2027 FAQ runs at about $157,000.
“If the funding isn’t there to provide for them, and then a tragedy happens in one of those schools, that would be a terrible occurrence,” said Horne. “Any school that asks for a police officer should be able to get one to defend the students, to defend the staff and the teachers.”
Superintendent Horne cited the recent near-tragedy that occurred in Oklahoma earlier this month. An unarmed high school principal, Kirk Moore, confronted and stopped an adult former student, Victor Lee Hawkins, who was attempting to shoot up the school. Moore survived the encounter with a gunshot wound to the leg; no fatalities occurred.
He also cited the 2012 tragedy out of New England, where another principal made a similar attempt to stop a gunman and lost her life in the infamous Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. An elementary school principal, Dawn Hochsprung, was shot and killed by gunman Adam Lanza as she confronted him.
Both cases, Horne says, justified his argument that every Arizona school requires an armed officer to prevent injuries or deaths.
“My biggest nightmare is that an armed maniac gets onto a school campus and kills people. Just a few weeks ago, a heroic principal in Oklahoma subdued an armed gunman at a school and was wounded in the process. While we praise his actions, having unarmed teachers be the first line of defense is not acceptable,” said Horne.
Horne said that current law will ensure those 500 armed officers remain funded, but that no new funding will mean no additional officers and, further, will mean a loss of funding for the nearly 600 counselors and social workers.
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U.S. Representative Eli Crane (R-AZ02) announced the winners of the 2026 Congressional Art Competition for Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District following an awards ceremony held in Prescott.
The event took place at the Phippen Museum, where students, families, and educators gathered to recognize outstanding artwork submitted by high school students from across the district.
“The Congressional Art Competition offers our talented high school artists the opportunity to showcase their skills, and it’s an honor to play a role in the process,” Crane said in a statement. “On behalf of my team, I am deeply grateful to the Phippen Museum, our partners in higher education, and our professional judges for collaborating on this great tradition. We also appreciate the teachers who encouraged their students to participate, as well as everyone who came out to celebrate this occasion.”
The annual Congressional Art Competition is a nationwide program sponsored by the U.S. House of Representatives to encourage and recognize artistic talent among high school students.
Crane presented scholarship awards to selected student artists during the ceremony, from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Grand Canyon University, Northern Arizona University, Northern Pioneer College, and Yavapai College, honoring their work and participation in the competition.
Winslow High School student Lindsey Cox earned first place and was awarded a scholarship to Northern Arizona University for her piece “Albert Camus and His Cat.” Her painting will be displayed in the U.S. Capitol for one year, and she will be honored at an awards banquet in Washington, D.C.
Jazmin Hunt, a Mingus Union High School student, won second-place honors with her piece, “Cat Eye,” and was awarded a scholarship to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Sarah Meyer, a Prescott High School student, was awarded third place for her piece “Desert Nightlife,” along with a scholarship to Yavapai College.
Honorable mention went to Prescott High School student McKenzee Stapleton, who earned a scholarship to Grand Canyon University, and the People’s Choice Award, voted on by the public, went to Mingus Union High School student Isabel McKean.
The event was supported by staff and volunteers at the Phippen Museum, as well as local artists who assisted in reviewing submissions and selecting winning pieces.
The Congressional Art Competition is held each spring in congressional districts nationwide, with winning artwork typically displayed in the U.S. Capitol for one year as part of a national exhibition.
The coalition behind a ballot initiative to roll back the universality of Arizona’s school choice program is facing a campaign finance complaint.
On Thursday, the Protect Education Accountability Act Now Committee (PEANC) was made subject to a complaint, reviewed by AZ Free News. PEANC was accused of falsely claiming that out-of-state contributors amounted to a mere nine percent of funding.
PEANC filed the ballot initiative, “Protect Education Act” last month. If approved, the initiative would impose an income cap on enrollment in the Empowerment Scholarship Account Program, among other restrictions to include an elimination of funding rollover. The Protect Education Act superseded an earlier version, the “Protect Education, Accountability Now Act.”
In order to make the ballot, the initiative will need nearly 256,000 signatures. PEANC reported gathering over 150,000 signatures during a virtual press conference on Friday.
The complainant, Jack Johnson Pannell, cited a disclaimer posted to the bottom of PEANC’s website. That disclaimer reflects PEANC’s total out-of-state contributors account for only nine percent of its total funding.
Arizona law requires political action committee advertisements to disclose the aggregate percentage of out-of-state contributors as calculated at the time the advertisement was produced for publication, display, delivery, or broadcast.
Pannell’s complaint called for a declaration that PEANC violated Arizona campaign finance disclosure law and an action against the committee.
Pannell said on X that Arizona families deserve the truth behind PEANC. Pannell is the founder of Trinity Arch Prep School for Boys, a microschool.
“More than 100,000 families are choosing great options for educating their children,” said Pannell. “It’s a cheap shot to accuse hardworking people of cheating the system. It just ain’t true.”
I’m proud to file this complaint because AZ families deserve the truth. More than 100,000 families are choosing great options for educating their children. It’s a cheap shot to accuse hardworking people of cheating the system. It just ain’t true. #schoolchoicehttps://t.co/FFz9MkTWLh
Contrary to this disclaimer, campaign finance records reveal that 98 percent — $4.5 million, or nearly all of PEANC’s $4.6 million in funding — have come from special interest groups in Washington, D.C.
That $4.5 million came from the National Education Association in four allotments delivered throughout February and March. The first payments from the NEA (over $2.3 million) came on February 13 — exactly a week after PEANC registered their website domain.
The earliest available archived version of the site captured on February 12 reflected an out-of-state contributions disclosure totaled at 50 percent.
Other major donors included the Arizonans For Quality Education ($50,000), Nita and Phil Francis ($25,000), and Arizona Education Association ($10,000).
99 percent of AFQE’s funding has come from “shadow sponsors”: unnamed corporations and LLCs. The remainder of the funding, less than half of a percent, came from Christopher Kotterman on behalf of the Friends of ASBA.
Kotterman became a senior policy advisor for Gov. Katie Hobbs in late 2024.
Phil Francis is the retired chairman and CEO of PetSmart; Nita Francis formerly chaired the Valleywise Health Foundation board.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly listed Justan Rice as the current chairman of Arizonans For Quality Education (AFQE). Rice left AFQE in June 2025 before the donation to PEANC was made.
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