Chapter 5 - MY FIRST OVERREACTION
I suspended every Conti Foundation youth event.
All of them.
Soccer clinics.
After-school tutoring tied to sports.
Equipment grants.
Summer camps.
Scholarship interviews.
Everything.
I did it in a phone call while still sitting beside Mason’s hospital bed.
"Stop all youth programming."
The foundation director said:
"All?"
"All."
"For how long?"
"Until I know who is putting hands on children."
She paused.
"Valerio, Trent does not run all programs."
"I don’t care."
I should have.
Two hundred and eighty children used those programs.
Most had never met Trent.
Thirty-six part-time staff relied on summer hours.
Independent coaches had passed background checks and had no complaints.
By the next morning, the board’s general counsel called me.
"You exceeded your authority."
I was a major donor.
Not sole governor.
Good.
I reversed the blanket instruction within twenty-four hours.
Only the field-day program and Trent-linked Legacy Athletics clinics were suspended pending review.
All other programs continued.
I personally covered wages lost from the canceled weekend events.
Then wrote to the board:
My initial direction was overbroad and driven by anger. It should not be treated as policy or precedent.
Mason saw me writing.
"What are you doing?"
"Fixing something I did too fast."
"Like when you slapped Uncle Trent?"
I stopped.
Children are efficient.
"Not exactly. But yes, I did something too fast."
He nodded.
May you like
Then returned to drawing a dinosaur in a football helmet.
No lecture needed.
