An anonymous source finishes up paperwork after a day of working at their dental office on June 23. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)

APTOS >> A toxic work environment. Excluded from official department meetings. Discouraged from reporting misconduct.

Heather Lawler served as director of Cabrillo College’s dental hygiene program from 2021 to 2025 and described a culture of toxic management from the top-down that worsened over time. She alleged college administrators regularly yelled at her, excluded her from faculty meetings, stalled necessary equipment repairs and asked students to falsify misconduct reports against her.

Her experiences were not isolated. Santa Cruz Local spoke with nine current and former faculty, staff and students, all of whom alleged problematic behavior by college administrators who retaliated against those who raised concerns, discouraged reporting misconduct and disregarded rules required by state law.

Earlier this year, a state investigation into the program found eight violations, resulting in a three-year probation that risks Cabrillo’s ability to prepare future students for licensure. 

Four Cabrillo College administrators denied the allegations of misconduct in a 90-minute interview with Santa Cruz Local on Wednesday. 

The former Dean of the School of Health and Public Service, Heidi Weber, resigned on Sunday. She declined to comment on this story. College administrators said she resigned voluntarily and declined to comment further.

Administrators also noted they could not speak to private personnel or student matters, including closed or ongoing investigations. 

“We as the college take all employee complaints very seriously,” said college spokesperson Kristin Fabos. “All complaints received from dental hygiene faculty and staff from 2023 to the present were reviewed and investigated, or are in progress in accordance with applicable college policies and procedures.”

‘A very toxic atmosphere’

After an increasingly tumultuous final year leading Cabrillo’s dental hygiene program, Lawler resigned on Jan. 19, 2025. Others in the program watched Lawler be targeted by administrators. Michelle Rico, a former instructor and technician in the program, said some administrators spread rumors about Lawler, questioning her credibility and leadership.   

Lawler said the final straw was when administrators allegedly directed staff and students to disregard parts of the dental hygiene student handbook, which laid out program-specific student conduct and educational requirements. Some of the dental hygiene student handbook’s policies are required by state law — ignoring them could have risked Lawler’s license to practice in California.

“I cannot manage a program where we’ve said we’re not going to follow the laws that govern us,” Lawler said. 

Multiple people confirmed they were told to disregard certain procedures in the student handbook, prompting confusion and concerns from students, faculty and staff over what qualified as misconduct. 

Vice President of Instruction Travaris Harris denied that the handbook was suspended and said some parts of it were superseded by the college’s broader Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook. He and other administrators did not acknowledge the lack of clarity voiced by students, staff and faculty. 

Cabrillo’s dental hygiene program has one full-time director, three classified staff and 13 part-time faculty. One of the state law violations found during the Feb. 12 site visit was that the program’s clinic was consistently understaffed.

Rico resigned from the program on Dec. 12, 2024, after administrators allegedly asked her to take on IT responsibilities for the program that were not part of her job description, without additional compensation. 

She also alleged administrators would mislead her and other staff about how to officially report misconduct and was not notified whether reports were being investigated. 

“It just got to be too much and anything you said could be turned on you,” Rico said. “It was a very toxic atmosphere.”

Vice President of Human Relations Angela Hoyt said the position is responsible for providing day to day technical support for dental hygiene hardware, software and equipment, and denied that the role changed during Rico’s tenure. 

Other faculty shared similar stories of miscommunication and a lack of transparency by administration beyond the student handbook confusion, and requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation. They said multiple faculty in the program had been reprimanded by administrators for speaking up about the program not adhering to state dental hygiene laws. 

Another instructor referenced meeting notes that describe current program director Faye Khoury and Weber, the former dean, discussing strategies to remove faculty they don’t like, including asking students to file complaints. Other current and former instructors said they have overheard similar conversations, and that complaints of any kind can be harmful to faculty’s records at Cabrillo and for future jobs.   

“It can’t go on the way it’s been going,” one instructor said. “The administration is just setting people — faculty as well as students — up for failure.”

Khoury denied seeking or encouraging complaints from students against specific faculty or staff, and said her conversations with students have focused on their education. She said she has listened to student’s concerns when raised and encourages students to use official college processes.

Fabos said the allegations of retaliation are false. 

“Our faculty and staff both have union representation, so if that were to happen, they’ve got union representatives to advocate for them and address those issues,” Fabos said. 

Kendall Sooter, spokesperson for the Cabrillo College Federation of Teachers, declined to comment on any grievances filed from the department. 

Former and current faculty members said they reported administrative misconduct to the college’s human resources department and the union, but said reports went nowhere and they were not notified of any updates.

Santa Cruz Local spoke with nine current and former faculty, staff and students, all of whom alleged problematic behavior by college administrators. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)

Impacts to student education 

Multiple students from the class of 2025 alleged that conflict between administrators and faculty affected their learning environment, with managerial strife leading to students being neglected. 

The former students requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. They said there was a lot of tension between fellow students in their cohort, with classmates filing misconduct reports against each other. These reports were made either directly to administrators or through the college’s official Just Report It system. 

Students filed multiple reports against classmates in the cohort’s two years at Cabrillo, alleging  sexual harassment, bullying, vandalism and intimidation. 

Despite the reports, the students said administration failed to follow up with them, downplayed their worries and suggested they were reporting false accusations.

One student alleged there was a meeting in which Weber encouraged the cohort to “just drop” the misconduct reports. At a state board meeting on March 27, Harris referenced the students charged with intimidation and said they “didn’t do what they were accused of doing.”

Harris and the other administrators declined to comment on the student investigations.

Santa Cruz Local reviewed an audio recording of a meeting about the dental hygiene program on May 10, 2025, involving students, some faculty and staff, and at least three administrators. In the recording, an administrator says they have been inundated with false reports and suggested the school could cancel the program’s unofficial graduation celebration, or “pinning ceremony.”

“The pinning ceremony can get taken away if there continues to be any type of false accusations made because that is also a violation of our code of conduct,” the administrator says in the recording.

Another administrator is heard in the recording suggesting the school could “pull somebody’s diploma” as punishment for students who disrupt the ceremony.

During the Wednesday interview with Santa Cruz Local, college administrators declined to comment on this specific meeting but said they host multiple meetings about available support resources and proper reporting procedures for students, faculty and staff across campus. 

“On a regular basis, people from my team, including Samantha and others, might be asked by a dean or a faculty director, chair, etc., to come and support a program because there might be challenges,” Hoyt said.

Former students said they felt the meeting was a threat from administrators, dissuading them from reporting further misconduct. 

“I honestly felt very hopeless,” one student said. “I actually felt like the school was failing me and my other classmates, to actually protect us.”

Moving the program forward

Cabrillo is working to address the eight violations identified by the state board earlier this year. Inspectors have visited Cabrillo six times since the board was created in 2019 — once in 2019, three times in 2024 and twice this year. 

Harris said all conversations over the past weeks between the college and the state board have been positive, and that the board complimented them for the work they’ve done so far to address the violations. He said the college is working on hiring a second full-time faculty for the program to address the staffing gap.

“I fully expect that some of the violations will be resolved as a result of the work we’ve done to give them the information that they requested and also our great conversations,” Harris said.

Anthony Lum, executive officer for the state board, agreed that Cabrillo appears to be “diligently” addressing the violations. The state’s dental hygiene clinical exam was eliminated in 2024, so Lum stressed the importance of holding educational programs to a high standard.  

“We rely on the individual schools to uphold their professionalism, ethical boundaries, and procedures to graduate high quality students,” Lum said. 

The program’s 20 students graduated on Monday, and Lum said the board confirmed that all students completed requirements and are eligible to apply for a California dental hygiene license.

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