San Diego Unified is making moves to address concussions in general and a serious injury in particular.
It’s rewriting concussion guidelines for coaches and trainers in the wake of a serious incident involving a La Jolla junior varsity football player who continued to play despite suffering a head injury.
The district dismissed an assistant coach accused of ignoring the player’s plea to come out of the game. These changes are coming less than a week after we broke the story that revealed what happened.
So, speedy response right? Not quite.
The district has known about the incident since it happened in October. It only took these actions after we wrote about it. Despite making changes, the district also is insisting everyone handled the situation just fine.
“The district’s contention that coaches and trainers did the right thing while dismissing the coach at the center of the controversy provides one more example of its muddled response to the incident, which left the 17-year-old student with chronic migraines and unable to attend classes,” Mario Koran writes.
• Charlie Wund, who created a tool that lets school programs report injuries and communicate directly with health systems, was a guest on our podcast this week. Wund called football a “collision sport” compared with contact sports like soccer, basketball and the rest.
• Koran appeared on KPBS’s “Roundtable” to talk about his big concussion story.
Jerry Brown’s Epic Week
It’s not all that often a 76-year-old makes me feel like a lazy bum. Thanks a lot, Gov. Jerry Brown.
The governor had an action-packed week, Brian Joseph and Lisa Halverstadt explain in this week’s Sacramento Report: He kicked off an unprecedented fourth term with a State of the State address, swore in new Supreme Court justices, broke ground on high-speed rail and unveiled his latest budget proposal.
We’ve got details on all of those moves, including key takeaways about Brown’s budget priorities and what his inaugural address reveals about how he views his legacy.
Just Call Us Never-Never Land
San Diego must grow up, not out, planning guru Bill Fulton argued in a U-T op-ed. That’s because the city – apart from Otay Mesa – has run out of raw land to keep expanding in the traditional ways.
He’s right, Lisa Halverstadt finds in a new Fact Check: “Only about 2 percent of city land is vacant. … Local real estate experts say much of that open acreage isn’t development-ready or ideal for building.”
Convention Center’s Future Comes Into Focus
Mayor Kevin Faulconer is expected to reveal his vision for the Convention Center in his State of the City address next week – and not a moment sooner. The mayor “met separately with tourism and Chargers officials at least 10 times since September,” KPBS gleans from his calendar. If you want to brush up on the Convention Center saga before the mayor’s big speech, this piece from Scott Lewis is a must-read.
As for the Convention Center’s immediate future, the U-T examines who’s using it over the next year: mostly doctors – medical conventions are a big money-maker. Despite high attendance projections, though, “overnight stays in local hotels will still be well below peak levels.”
The Convention Center’s occupancy rate is still around 70 percent. Lisa Halverstadt explored why facilities are almost never 100 percent booked in this Fact Check.
What We Learned This Week
• Safeguards failed one La Jolla High football player, who suffered a devastating concussion after he already showed signs of a head injury and kept playing.
• Assaults at Lincoln High don’t happen every day.
• The City Council won’t vote this month on the One Paseo development after all.
• Few protections limit cops’ use of StingRay cell phone spying technology.
Quick News Hits
• A bill from Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez that would have made welfare assistance available for diapers got a lot of attention but ultimately failed. Now, Gonzalez is working on a new proposal to make diapers tax-free.
• Facebook has purchased a San Diego video-streaming startup.
Quote of the Week
“It’s so embarrassing and humiliating; the crap that my cops have been up to” – Calexico Police Chief Mike Bostic, whose department is under federal investigation for alleged on-duty criminal conduct.