CALIFORNIA
Waiting for Godot to Leave
Kevin O’Brien
If this news report is true, then here’s what happened in the Sacramento diocese (which is named “Sacramento” after the Blessed Sacrament – Jesus Christ present among us).
Christopher Cerbone (“Christopher” means “Christ bearer”; “Cerbone” is a name related to that of St. Cerbonius, who was thrown to the bears) was a soccer coach at St. Patrick / St. Vincent High School in Vallejo, California. One day, he learned that there was a kind of “hazing” going on among his students that was tantamount to sexual abuse. As soon as he learned of this behavior, he reported it to school officials.
The school responded by expelling five of the guilty students – and firing Christopher Cerbone! They justified this by issuing a press release saying that, as coach, Cerbone was, himself, responsible for the hazing, even though he immediately reported it as soon as he found out about it.
This is an open and shut case. If the news report is accurate, it is clearly unjust termination and defamation, and it will cost the diocese of Sacramento nearly $1 million in actual damages and perhaps as much as $4.5 million in punitive damages.
In trying to argue against a high punitive award, the lawyer for the diocese told the jury that the diocese didn’t mean any real harm, and that (gosh dang it) the matter was handled “very poorly” – so, no biggie, you see. “Mistakes were made” as it were. Nobody’s fault.
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