Former student settles $150,000 after alleged sexual assault in high school

A Cumberland County school district has reached a $150,000 settlement in a lawsuit after a former student alleged that administrators failed to protect her from a sexual assault by another student, court records show.

The student claimed that a boy followed her into a computer lab at Vineland High School in 2019 and sexually assaulted her.

According to Transparency NJ, a news website founded by John Paff, the Vineland Board of Education finalized the settlement with the former Vineland High School student on February 16. The website reached the settlement through the state's Open Public Records Act.

Representatives of the Vineland school did not respond to a request for comment. The settlement contained standard clauses in which officials admitted no liability in the case and said the settlement was confidential.

Bruce Zamost, an attorney for the plaintiffs, declined to comment, citing the settlement's confidentiality agreement.

“The confidentiality agreement prevents me, as the plaintiffs’ attorney, from going into the matter in more detail,” Zamost said.

The student, who was a minor at the time of the alleged attack, and her parents filed suit in November 2021 against the Vineland Board of Education, Vineland High School, school officials and others, including a male student.

They alleged that school officials failed to prevent the boy from following the girl into an unlocked high school computer lab when she was sexually assaulted on December 5, 2019.

The security station at the school's entrance was equipped with monitors that showed video feeds from cameras inside the school, the lawsuit says.

The defendants took no action to prevent the boy from entering the classroom, the lawsuit says.

“The defendants also failed to take any steps to prevent the alleged sexual assault in that classroom,” the lawsuit states.

The girl and her parents later tried to amend their civil lawsuit to claim the boy had pleaded guilty in a juvenile criminal case, Transparency NJ reported.