A breast cancer survivor has filed a racial discrimination suit against the private K-8 Wesley School, alleging she is forced to continue working in a hostile environment because she needs insurance for her ongoing cancer treatment and an upcoming surgery.
The plaintiff is identified as Estefania Maruri in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that does not identify her race or the ethnicity of the alleged harassers at the North Hollywood campus. Her other causes of action include whistleblower retaliation, harassment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and multiple alleged state Labor Code violations.
Maruri seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
A Wesley representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit filed Monday.
Maruri was hired as a health aide in August 2023 and her duties included administering student medication and first aid, monitoring diabetic students, conducting health screenings, maintaining student immunization records and providing backup help at the front desk reception area.
A human resources representative added tasks related to workers’ compensation to Maruri’s other duties in January 2024, even though they had nothing to do with her job position, the suit states. Maruri also maintains she was not given rest breaks and that her meal times were often interrupted.
Maruri contends she worked overtime without compensation, often during summer and in the evenings. The plaintiff, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019 and also deals with Graves disease and hyperthyroidism, complained about the workers’ compensation and other tasks given to her outside her job duties, according to the suit. Maruri had breast reconstruction surgery in March 2025, and alleges that management subsequently retaliated and began to scrutinize her time sheets, according to the complaint.
Workplace stress required Maruri to delay a second scheduled surgery to February of this year, the suit states. Two months earlier, she was relocated to another office that did not provide the same privacy and was told the change was made because her previous location interfered with the teachers’ area, according to the suit.
Maruri’s direct supervisor made racially charged comments in private conversations, referring to eating disorders as “white problems,” the suit states. In consultation with her therapist, Maruri, who was worried about losing her job, took a medical leave to deal with her alleged stress, the suit states.
Maruri is still an employee of the school, but faces increasingly intolerable working conditions and is effectively “trapped” in her position because quitting would strip her of her medical insurance, the suit states.