Former Mater Dei AD says school
mishandled hazing case
Amanda Waters in a sworn deposition also alleges the school's vice principal ordered her not to talk about the altercation.
The Mater Dei HS official overseeing the school's nationally renowned football program ordered Mater Dei's athletic director not to discuss or ask questions about an alleged February 2021 hazing incident that left a player with serious head injuries.
Former Mater Dei athletic director Amanda Waters, in a sworn deposition last month, said the assistant principal Geri Campeau was "very angry" the morning after the altercation that Waters had asked Monarch head football coach Bruce Rollinson about the incident, and that she was never to talk about the event or the alleged victim "ever again anymore."
...“Everything from the initial (moment) when (the injured player) walked out of the locker room, to the silence after, was handled wrong, in my opinion“ Waters said.
Waters said Rollinson made statements in a conversation with her the morning after the altercation, that seemed to contradict statements the coach later made to a Santa Ana Police Department investigator.
Waters also said Campeau instructed a Mater Dei athletic trainer not to contact the alleged victim's parents or EMTs in the minutes immediately following the incident. Waters in the deposition, said Rollinson rebuffed 10 requests to monitor the locker room.
"I don't have time to do that (expletive)" Waters recalled Rollinson saying.
...Rollinson, Mater Dei, and the Diocese did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Waters said she saw the alleged victim shortly after the Feb. 4, 2021 incident.
"I was standing in the quad when he walked out of the locker room."Waters said referring to the alleged victim. "He walked down the steps and he had two gashes over his eyes. At the time we had the athletic trainer's station set up to my left, which is where Kevin Anderson, who was the trainer on duty, was."
Waters said she encountered Campeau in the quad. Waters suggested to Campeau, the school call an "ambulance,"
"He's got a clear head injury as far as gashes over his head. Can we talk to Kevin and see what Kevin says?, Waters said she asked Campeau.
"Campeau told me to stop talking about it and get to my office."
"So Campeau walked over to Kevin, said something to Kevin that I could not hear. My assumption was 'Leave him alone' because he stopped treating him, and then I went to my office after we had words in the quad about it.”
The following day, Waters in the deposition said, she asked Anderson why he didn't call the player's parents or emergency personnel. "He told me that Geri told him not to call 911," Waters said.
Campeau recently left Mater Dei to take a job at Apple.
...The next morning Waters, concerned about the injured player, went to Rollinson's office.
..."Rollinson", Waters said, "became 'agitated' that I asked, and was inquiring. And at that point I left his office and then that's when Geri came to tell me not to talk about it anymore.
"He didn't like to be challenged, and so when he says he's done talking about it, he will make it very clear he's done talking about it."
Ten minutes later Campeau entered Water's office. Waters said she could tell Campeau was angry as she approached the office.
"And then she got there, shut the door and started yelling at me about how I needed to stop asking questions, this is not----she is over football and that I needed to not go down and talk to Bruce about this any more, ever again," Waters said.
Campeau, Waters recalled, was "very heated. She told me that I am not to talk about this young man ever at all anymore. They were handling it on their own end, and to not touch it."
...Waters took over as Mater Dei's AD in July 2020, only to be informed by Campeau weeks into her new job, that she was not in charged of the football program.
"Because I had to get used to Mater Dei, Mater Dei didn't have to get used to me," Waters recalled Campeau saying.
"That I had to drink the Kool Aid first."
www.ocregister.com/2022/04/26/former-mater-dei-ad-says-school-mishandled-hazing-case/
