Mater Dei Ex-Nurse Claims Illegal Firing

A former Mater Dei High nurse filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the school and the Diocese of Orange, alleging she was wrongfully terminated after complaining that Principal Pat Murphy gave preferential treatment to an athlete who repeatedly failed drug tests.

Murphy, reached at home Tuesday night, denied the accusation and said he had “dozens and dozens” of pages of documents to prove that all students were treated in a fair and consistent manner under the private Catholic school’s drug-testing program.

“Neither the school nor the diocese has done anything incorrect in this case,” Murphy said. “The [charges] have been concocted and fabricated and they flat out did not happen.”

Attorney R. Richard Farnell said the lawsuit was filed in Orange County Superior Court on behalf of Sheila Azzara, 48, a nurse at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange who administered drug tests during part of her tenure at Mater Dei from August 1996 to last February. The suit focuses on an athlete who “tested positive for certain controlled substances, including methamphetamine and THC,” a byproduct of marijuana.

Azzara alleges that after the student failed a drug test for the fourth time, Murphy failed to implement the policies of the drug-test program, which dictate that any student who registers three positive tests “be asked to withdraw from school.”

Azzara claims she was then admonished from performing further drug tests. Last February, she alleges, she was told her contract would not be renewed because of a restructuring of the school staff.

“When you take a stand for what is right, many times you have to suffer the ramifications of doing the right things,” Azzara said. “And that’s exactly what happened to me.”

Murphy said Azzara never expressed any concerns about the drug-testing program to him and resigned several months after asking to be relieved of her duties with the program.

“I will swear on any stack of Bibles in any courtroom in this country that never once ever did the school nurse make a statement regarding concerns or unhappiness in our drug-testing program,” Murphy said.

“No student-athlete was given preferential treatment,” Murphy said. “Every student has been treated fairly.”

The diocese could not be reached for comment late Tuesday.

Azzara, who seeks compensatory damages for wages lost and emotional duress, said in an interview she regretted that the matter had to resolved in court.

“I felt very sad that it had to be done,” she said. “My husband and daughter and son have all graduated from Mater Dei. We have a history since 1965 at the school.

“But I’m doing the right thing. And when you do the right thing, you have to follow it through.”