St. Joseph High School Principal Erinn Dougherty has been placed on administrative leave while the Archdiocese of Los Angeles decides what to do after a recording surfaced of her allegedly reprimanding students over a fight video circulating on social media. The move came May 21, after a concerned parent sent the Santa Maria Sun a tip and the recording.

In the audio, Dougherty allegedly told students, “What I saw in that video was some of the most white trash public school behavior I have ever seen.” She also allegedly said, “That behavior is not becoming of a St. Joseph Knight,” “It is not becoming of a person at a Catholic school,” “That is for the people who are not going to own the businesses,” “That is for the little workers,” “They’re going to rent a home,” “It was public school behavior,” “People do not pay $15,000 a year for that,” “It was completely unacceptable,” and “It was disgusting.”

The principal has run the Orcutt Catholic school for the past eight years, making her removal a major leadership shift for a campus that has leaned heavily on continuity. While the archdiocese reviews the case, Tom Mott is in charge at the school. Mott is the athletic director and a defendant in a separate 2024 lawsuit tied to the school.

That earlier case accused Dougherty and the archdiocese of pressuring staff to falsify student athletes’ grades and retaliating against a whistleblower. St. Joseph’s and the archdiocese argued the school qualified for a religious exemption, but the judge was not persuaded by that position. The overlap of the two disputes has put the school’s leadership under a second layer of scrutiny just as the latest recording has forced the archdiocese to decide whether Dougherty can remain in place.

For now, the answer is no. Dougherty is off the job pending the archdiocese’s decision, and the school is being led by Mott while the fallout from the recording and the older lawsuit move forward at the same time.