District Settles Lawsuit Claiming Grooming Of Ex-Ocean City Student

OCEAN CITY, NJ — The Ocean City School District settled a lawsuit where a former student alleged sexual grooming and abuse by a substitute teacher for $485,000.

The Board of Education approved the settlement at their Nov. 21, 2024 meeting, according to meeting minutes and initially reported by open government advocate John Paff.

In the lawsuit, the former Ocean City High School student says that she was “sexually groomed, abused, and sexually assaulted by a substitute teacher” starting in spring of 2007 when she was 16 and the teacher was in his mid-20s.

She said that she met the teacher when he would frequently substitute in her gym class, and their relationship grew from interactions in class to chatting online via AOL Instant Messenger and text messages.

According to court filings, during the school day the teacher would text the student “sexually charged messages” to meet in empty classrooms and make advances on her.

This culminated in an incident where the teacher got the girl drunk at his parents' house and then sexually assaulted her as she was intoxicated, according to the lawsuit. She then broke off the relationship with him.

The teacher was charged with sexual assault, criminal sexual contact and enticing a minor with alcohol in 2008, according to media reports from the time.

After this, the girl faced bullying at school, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit claims that the district did not do its due diligence to protect the student and instead was motivated by protecting its own reputation.

The settlement agreement says that the district admits no wrongdoing, and none of the student's statements have been proven or disproven.

Ocean City School Business Administator Timothy E. Kelley told Paff that “the settlement payment was made by the district’s insurance carrier” and not by the district itself.

No information was available regarding a criminal complaint for the teacher, Paff reported. This could indicate that he successfully had the matter expunged from his record.