Teachers With Sex Abuse History Still Get Hired In NJ, Report Says

NEW JERSEY - The implementation of a 2018 law created to stop teachers with sexual misconduct and child abuse histories from being hired by other school districts is "rife with weaknesses and deficiencies," a new state investigation found, as problem educators are reportedly still able to hide their past misconduct from their employer schools.

The report, published Tuesday by the State Commission of Investigation, found that problem educators have too much leeway in deciding what information about their past to report to a prospective employer; school officials can also misinterpret rules or simply cover up allegations and findings of sexual misconduct after an educator leaves their district.

Furthermore, there isn't a state agency tasked with ensuring schools and educators are in compliance, nor is there a standardized process for reporting and verifying information about educators with histories of abuse, state investigators said.

“The SCI’s investigation revealed that the self-reporting requirement was easily circumvented by educators seeking to hide their prior histories of child abuse or sexual or indecent contact with a student by either failing to disclose the information or outright lying about it in a written statement required under the law,” the report reads. “As a result, these educators were able to obtain positions in classrooms with school children despite their checkered backgrounds.”

The fine for educators lying about prior histories is $500, a glaringly minuscule fine compared to Pennsylvania's $10,000 penalty, the report adds.

New Jersey's so-called “Pass The Trash” law was signed in April 2018 and mandates school officials to notify other school districts about teachers with documented sexual misconduct and other abuse cases. Under the law, schools are required to determine if a candidate was under any past investigations for sexual misconduct or child abuse; schools where the incidents took place must also respond truthfully to districts seeking to employ the same teacher.

Nevertheless, the 2024 SCI report found several instances of teachers accused or convicted of abuse or sexual misconduct slipping through the cracks and finding new roles across 90 cases of Garden State school employees.

An analysis of school districts’ record keeping practices also found "spotty compliance with the law,” the report reads, noting "all of the districts had missing forms, incomplete information and/or other failures in meeting the basic requirements of the statute.”

Such was the case in October 2018 at one Middlesex County district, which hired a substitute teacher through a staffing agency after he had been the subject of media stories for leaving several teaching jobs amid allegations or investigations into sexual misconduct with students.

District administrators subsequently contacted the staffing agency, which removed the teacher from the school district’s hiring list; the district ended its relationship with the staffing firm soon after.

In another instance, an educator who had been the subject of two sexual abuse investigations and had resigned from his previous school district amidst allegations of sexual abuse was hired to a Monmouth County charter school teaching position in August 2020 after he falsely answered "no" on all three questions on forms concerning sexual misconduct or child abuse. The charter school was only informed about the investigations after his former employer disclosed.

The Monmouth County educator resigned soon after and, in February 2021, he was arrested on aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child charges in connection with allegations of sexual abuse at his former school.

In yet another incident, a Bergen County school district hired a physics teacher in March 2022 who had signed a confidential agreement with his previous Warren County school employer that "enabled him to resign without admitting any wrongdoing" even after the district conducted several sexual misconduct investigations over five years, per the report.

Multiple students in Warren County had come forward to complain about the teacher, noting he made comments that made them feel uncomfortable (including calling female students “cute" and making comments during class about his sex life, including his experience with oral sex). Other students alleged he would purposely drop a pen in front of a female student wearing a short skirt and instruct her to pick it up so he could watch her bend down. As part of a physics experiment, he would have a toy car drop or roll in front of female students for them to bend down and pick up while he watched, students said.

Under the agreement, the Warren County school would give the teacher a neutral employment reference and neither the district nor the teacher would denigrate the other, according to state investigators.

As a result of the report's findings, state officials are now urging legislators to reexamine how to manage situations involving sexually inappropriate or abusive conduct by school employees and closing loopholes left exposed in the 2018 law. The reforms sought include standardizing forms used to request information about former school employees, implementing a statewide database to track educators under investigation or convicted of sexual misconduct or abuse of minor and recruiting the Department of Education to oversee improvement efforts.

“For years, teachers and school employees in New Jersey who engaged in sexually inappropriate conduct with a student were able to move to other school districts by quietly entering into confidential settlements with their employers that kept their past misdeeds secret,” the report adds.

“Numerous reforms are necessary to make the law more effective and less prone to abuse."