BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
The mother of a boy whose hand was caught in a carousel at the Magical Bridge Playground at Mitchell Park has sued the city of Palo Alto and the nonprofit that had the playground built.
Henry Odette’s hand was caught in a gap between the rotating carousel platform and an outer ring on March 24, 2025, the lawsuit said.
“The entrapment was so severe that emergency responders, including fire department personnel, had to use forcible methods including hatchets to pry the carousel components to free (Odette’s) hand,” said the lawsuit, filed on March 26 in Santa Clara County Superior Court.
Odette’s hand was crushed and lacerated, the lawsuit said.
His mother Amanda Odette, 40, of Palo Alto, is suing the city for allegedly having dangerous public property, the Magical Bridge Foundation for alleged negligence and Goric Marketing Group for an alleged manufacturing defect.
Olenka Villarreal, founder of the Magical Bridge Foundation, said her nonprofit fundraises for construction and runs events at the playground. But as soon as the ribbon is cut, it’s a public playground maintained by the city.
Villarreal said the carousel has worked for over 10 years, with around 20,000 playground visitors per month.
“We’re terribly sorry to hear that someone hurt themselves,” she said in an interview.
Goric Marketing Group didn’t return a request for comment, and city spokeswoman Meghan Horrigan-Taylor declined to comment.
The Magical Bridge Playground at Mitchell Park, which is accessible for kids with disabilities, was the first of its kind opened in 2015.
Since then, the nonprofit has built 11 more playgrounds.
Redwood City paid a family $16,815 after a piece of metal from a water play area fell on an 8-year-old girl at Red Morton Park on June 12, 2024.
The metal allegedly hit the girl’s head and caused her to become more forgetful after a concussion, her family’s claim said.
Was the mother standing there watching her child trying to stick their hand in a moving part under a play structure away from the intended play area? Was she distracted while talking on her phone? I was not there but after 10 years of use and no recorded accidents you got to ask yourself what was the kid doing exactly and where was Mom?
Why is the child’s name published in this article? Please remove that. It is unnecessary and aren’t there journalistic ethics around this?
The mother decided to put her child’s name in the lawsuit. She could have filed the case as a John Doe. That was the decision she and her attorney made. The newspaper shouldn’t be faulted for reporting what’s on the public record, in this case a lawsuit that anyone can view online or in person at the courthouse. The names of minors have appeared in civil suits going back decades. It’s not unethical to say who is a party in a lawsuit. Why are you in favor of censorship now?
What is it with Palo Altans and censorship? Remember the ninnies who insisted that we keep all railroad suicides a secret. Then it became a big problem, and people were saying, “How come we didn’t know about this?” Censorship never solves problems.
Things aren’t turning out well in the socialist nirvana of the Bay Area. The only solution Progressives can offer is censoring the news so that people don’t find out what a mess they’ve made. After a horrible murder or rape in SF, it’s funny to hear the Progressives like Gavin say it’s all the fault of Fox News, as if Sean Hannity and Greg Gutfeld were committing murders all over town.