Once again my favorite axiom, “It’s never the mistake you make but how one handles the mistake that defines one’s character”, rears its ugly head this time on the Bakersfield High School Campus and in our courthouse in the now famous (or infamous) “Chicken Suit” suit. Without rehashing the entire trial, don’t think I’m gullible enough to swallow the lawyers claims that young Mitch Carter’s injuries from getting blindsided by a fellow Driller then dog piled by the brain trust on the football team added up to $10 million bucks. I’m quite aware that for that kind of dough I can find 100 qualified doctors who’ll swear Michael Phelps can’t swim! The injustice that demanded compensation comes in the school or perhaps the district’s peculiar decision to fight the matter. As Ray Rice can attest, video is remarkably damaging and turns more heads than death bed testimony and the phone-fed site of young Carter getting clipped then pummeled is, however, NOT as damaging as the site of Paul Golla saying just about anything, it appears, to save his job. And again, don’t think I’m naive enough to fault a man for fighting for his livelihood but for the school and or the District to sign off on this clear case of CYA is the larger travesty that should be remembered next Kern High School District election time.
