California Principal Blocks Ambulance Sent to Help Student To Protect Recently Remodeled Field

Parents in San Jose, California are upset over an astonishing decision made by a high school principal to stop an ambulance from driving onto a football field to help an injured player at Del Mar High School on October 29th. The principal Liz Seabury reportedly says she was following district orders to protect the school’s recently remodeled field from motorized vehicles.

Fourteen-year-old Keanu Gallardo was lying on the field when the ambulance arrived. This appears a case where the official was taking an absolutist view of policies — much like the absurd cases we have followed over the zero tolerance policy on drugs and weapons where kids are suspended for drawing stick figures or bringing in aspirin.

Gallardo had suffered a concussion during Del Mar’s JV football game and the principal forced emergency workers to carry a gurney 75 yards downfield to help him. The decision could have cost the district dearly. If the child was harmed by the delay or the act of being carried over the field, the school would have been hit with major torts damages for negligence.

Source: ABC

Jonathan Turley