Mater Dei High School (Santa Ana, California)

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Mater Dei High School
Home of the Monarchs
Established	1950
School type	Private
President	Patrick Murphy
Principal	Frances Clare
Location	Santa Ana, California
Enrollment	2,400
Colors	Red and Grey
Homepage	Official site

Mater Dei High School, established in 1950, is located in Santa Ana, Orange County, California. Its name is Latin for Mother of God.

Mater Dei is co-educational and has a diverse enrollment of 2,400 students from every city in Orange County as well as surrounding counties. It is known for having one of the top high school athletic programs in the nation (ranked 6th nationally) and since 1990 their teams have won 28 CIF, 7 state, and 2 national athletic championships. Their mascot is the Monarch.

Mater Dei recently added two new fields made of astro turf at about 1 million dollars a field. They have renovated classrooms and are currently building a new larger gym, a pool, and a wrestling room.

One of the requirements for graduation for all students is the completion of at least 80 hours of community service prior to graduation. The class of 2004 completed nearly 65,000 volunteer hours at hundreds of organizations. A famous student to come out of the school is Arizona Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinert

1 Sex Abuse Scandal
2 Statistics
3 Notable alumni
4 External links

[edit] Sex Abuse Scandal

During the past 20 years, the school has been plagued by a sexual abuse scandal. In 2004 the Diocese of Orange settled eleven cases with Mater Dei students who had been allegedly molested by teachers at the school. More than 11 teachers have been publicly named in court documents or have been named by school officials as known or suspected molesters.

In spring 2006, two new sex abuse caseswere filed against the school for alleged crimes committed by teachers in the late 1990s. School and diocese officials filed motions to keep secret the names of additional known or suspected molesters. Although the school lost the motion, they have still refused to turn over names.

Survivors advocacy groups have called the school's actions "dangerous" and consider the continued cover-up of sexual abuse a significant risk to minor students.

[edit] Statistics

Category	Stats
Religious background:	86% Catholic; 14% represent a variety of other faiths
Cultural background:	58% White; 2% Black; 21% Latino; 16% Asian; 2%Pacific Islander; 1% Native American
Academic:	60% of student body attended Catholic elementary school; 18% attended private school
	14 AP and 17 Honors classes; 40% enrolled in AP or Honors classes
	98% continue on to college; 2% go on to work or military; 85% qualify for a four-year college
	2004 SAT scores: 89% took the SAT; 533 average verbal, 541 average math
	Up to 30% receive a total of $750,000 annually in need-based tuition assistance