Mater Dei High School president Father Walter Jenkins has stepped down amid a power struggle between Jenkins and Mater Dei head football coach Bruce Rollinson and his supporters.
Jenkins in November commissioned an independent investigation into the culture of the Mater Dei football and athletic programs in response to a series of Orange County Register reports detailing alleged assaults by three Monarch football players on a teammate and classmate.
The Register reports attracted national attention and prompted increasing calls for Rollinson and Mater Dei principal Frances Clare’s firings even as Mater Dei rolled to national championship.
Jenkins’ departure was announced in a letter to the Mater Dei community by Erin C.O. Barisano, Diocese of Orange superintendent of schools.
Barisano said Jenkins has returned to Holy Cross order in South Bend, Indiana where he will “take on a new assignment.”
Jenkins took over as Mater Dei’s top administrator in July. He had previously served as president of Holy Cross High School in Queens, N.Y.
Jenkins took over as Mater Dei’s top administrator in July.
A Register report in November detailed how a current Mater Dei football player punched a teammate, 50 pounds lighter than him, three times in the face during an alleged hazing ritual called “Bodies” on Feb. 4 while other Monarchs players shouted racial epithets at the smaller player, according to two videos of the altercation obtained by the Register.
The Santa Ana Police Department recommended the larger player be prosecuted for felony battery, according to a police report. The Orange County District Attorney’s Office does not intend to file charges in the case. Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said last week the altercation does not meet the legal standards for criminal “hazing” or felony assault, but he is willing to consider additional evidence.
The Register also reported that Chase Hall, a Mater Dei basketball player, allegedly was attacked and beaten by two Mater Dei football players as he left a gathering in Irvine shortly after midnight on May 5, 2019, according to police reports.
Hall’s jaw was broken during the altercation and he will require additional surgery.
“I’ll never forget what the surgeon said,” Mary Hall, Chase’s mother told the Register while discussing the punch that broke her son’s jaw. “He said if it had been a quarter-inch higher.
“He would be dead.”
An Irvine Police Department investigator recommended that the two Mater Dei players be charged with aggravated battery and they along with a classmate, who police allege orchestrated the beating, be charged with criminal conspiracy. The two players were given probation, according to Mary Hall.
The Hall family filed suit in Orange County Superior Court this past May 5 against an All-County linebacker for Mater Dei (Player 1), a senior Monarch lineman who had received a scholarship offer to play at a Pac-12 school (Player 2), and a classmate alleging assault, battery, negligence, civil conspiracy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment. The suit continues to proceed through the court.
Source: Orange County Register
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