Rooney’s Supporters Continue to Sound Off

It’s been three weeks since the firing of Dudley Rooney as athletic director of Alemany High. The news of Rooney’s departure has since drifted off the front pages of newspapers and has been replaced by news about the very kids he’s coached and taught for 28 years.

This incident should be a wake-up call to all Catholic educators, whether you’ve worked two years or 20 years--your job is never safe. Rooney has no union representation, no legal counsel, no support from the very institution to which he has dedicated his last 28 years.

All Catholic school coaches, teachers, aides and, oh yes, principals and vice principals, if there is a problem at the school in your system of checking the credibility of employees, who’s got your back?

Rooney has been my coach, my athletic director, my friend and my role model for coaching. He has been a model of integrity, a dedicated dad and husband, a respected coach in Southern California, and, when I coached at Alemany, a darn good athletic director.

If it wasn’t for Rooney, I wouldn’t be in the Catholic school system still, 20 years later.

CEIL R. MILLER

Acton

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I was shocked and appalled when I heard of the decision by Dr. Jerome Porath and the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese to fire Dudley Rooney. I had the honor of working with Rooney at Alemany for more than 12 years and was one of his students about 20 years ago.

Throughout my career in Catholic education, I have not met more than a handful of people with as much integrity, honesty and class as Rooney.

To fire a man who dedicated his career to Catholic education and Alemany for more than 20 years would seem appropriate only in the gravest of circumstances. Fortunately, no Alemany student was harmed by the oversight and Darryl McDonald was properly terminated.

Why won’t Porath just take a deep breath, count his blessings and simply see to it that better procedures are put into place so this oversight does not happen again? It seems to me that there is a lot of blame to go around for the negligent hiring of McDonald, and Rooney is being singled out as a scapegoat. To suddenly terminate Rooney seems to be overkill. When will cooler heads prevail?

Perhaps Porath and his administrators downtown should heed the same advice they give their teachers: “To Teach as Jesus Did,” and start treating their employees as Jesus would.

ROBERT PALLOZZO

Northridge