Paramus Party Planner to Pay Former Teen Employee Who Claimed Sexual Harassment

A Paramus children’s party host company will have to pay $15,000 to a teenage employee who allegedly suffered sexual harassment while on the job and was terminated for reporting it, the state Attorney General’s Office announced Tuesday.

Screamin’ Parties, a company which hosts parties for kids under 12 with inflatable slides and bounce houses, will also have its employees undergo anti-discrimination training as a result of the settlement, according to the Attorney General’s Office. 

The former employee, a Paramus girl who is only named in the complaint as A.C., was originally hired to work as a party host and kitchen employee at the Screamin’ Parties facility in West Nyack, New York and was later transferred to the Paramus location, according to a release.

According to the complaint, the girl received unwelcome suggestive text messages from her male supervisor. In one case a text message contained the “f-word,” according to the release.  

The release also states the girl had learned the supervisor made inappropriate workplace comments about her, some which were sexually suggestive.

According to the Attorney General’s Office, the girl brought the harassment complaints to a company co-owner and a month later was told she was no longer employed because she had breached company policy.  

Although Screamin’ Parties denied the allegation, A.C. alleged that she was let go as reprisal for reporting sexual harassment on the job. Earlier this year, the Division on Civil Rights found probable cause to sustain both A.C.’s sexual harassment allegations, and her allegation of having been fired as reprisal, according to the release .