OCEAN CITY – The Board of Education has approved settlement of a 2020 lawsuit in which a student alleged sexual misconduct by a substitute teacher and lack of adequate response by the school district.
The amount of the settlement paid by the district’s insurance carrier was $485,000. The board resolution to approve the settlement was unanimous.
As the Herald reported in 2008, on May 13 of that year detectives from the State Police Woodbine Barracks arrested a substitute teacher accused of having sexual relations with a minor at Ocean City High School. The female student, age 16 in 2006, alleged that the teacher “groomed” her for the relationship, which turned romantic at the end of that year.
The New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services learned of the situation and reported it to the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office. That office in turn requested an investigation by the State Police.
The victim’s civil complaint in Superior Court was filed in March 2020. The settlement, reached in November and agreed to by the onetime student, includes an unconditional release of “all claims and rights which I may have against you.” The release goes on to state that “in consideration of my releasing the claims enumerated” the plaintiff will receive “a total of $485,000.” The settlement contains the often included stipulation that “nothing contained herein may be used or viewed as an admission of liability by the releasees.”
The release promises a stipulation of dismissal of the case with prejudice as soon as the funds are paid. That filing for dismissal with the court happened on Dec. 30, 2024.
The Ocean City School District has had other similar problems in recent years. In 2023 a former Ocean City police sergeant pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child by sexual conduct. The victim told police that the officer began his sexual liaisons with her when she was 15 years old and attending Ocean City High School.
In 2022 a former Ocean City high school teacher was sentenced to five years in New Jersey state prison for having sex with a student. The teacher left Ocean City High School in 2016. He was arrested on the New Jersey charges while serving as a teacher in a school district in Houston.
