LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The Archdioese of Los Angeles Education & Welfare Corp. has been sued by an employee who alleges her principal at Our Lady of Grace School in Encino released confidential medical information schoolwide and throughout the church parish in 2022 stating that she had COVID-19.
Linda Arriola's Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges unlawful disclosure of medical information, public disclosure of private faces, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence. She seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
"Defendants abused their position of authority in plaintiff's religious community to prevent (her) from being able to participate in her dearly held religious practices and to harm her relationships with members of her religious congregation," the suit alleges.
An archdiocese representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit brought Thursday.
Arriola worked in the front office of the school and began having coronavirus symptoms at work in January 2022, so she told her employer and asked for time off, the suit states. She subsequently tested positive and again informed the school administration, after which the principal sent an email to the faculty, parents and the church community telling them about her condition, the suit states.
"I was just notified this evening that Mrs. Linda Arriola in the front office tested positive for COVID...," the principal wrote in the email, a copy of which is attached to the complaint.
The suit states that the letter admits that the school was closed Jan. 3, 2022, so there were minimal contacts with Arriola that day and no other staff member met the medical definition of an exposure, therefore making the disclosure "completely unnecessary and unjustified," the suit states.
Arriola has suffered grief, anxiety, humiliation and shame that the archdiocese and school knew could beset her if her private health information was made public, the suit states.
The school administration did not publicly disclose any other employee's confidential medical information to the community, demonstrating that the intended purpose was to single out Arriola from the group and humiliate her, the suit alleges.