This story was updated on November 22, 2024 with a comment from the students’ attorney.
According to NJ.com, a panel of judges for the state Appellate Division found that the South Orange-Maplewood School District cannot be found “vicariously liable” for abuse in three claims filed by victims of former Columbia High School teacher Nicole Dufault.
John Baldante, an attorney for the students who sued, told Village Green, “We have already filed our Motion for Leave to File Appeal to the NJ Supreme Court.”
The NJ.com report stated, however, “The appellate court decisions [which were handed down on October 8 and included a decision related to another school district] did not clear the school districts of being legally responsible for allegedly failing to supervise the accused teachers. But, the court did say the school districts could not be sued for the teachers’ conduct when they allegedly sexually assaulted students.” According to NJ.com the school district declined to comment. [Village Green is following up.}
In September 2014, Dufault was arrested and charged with multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault relating to multiple students. Dufault was accused of committing the sex acts on school property and in her car. All of the victims were 15-year-old boys attending Columbia High School. The divorced mother of two young sons had been a language arts teacher at Columbia High School for nine years. Prior to coming to Columbia High School, she taught at several other public schools in Passaic and Bergen counties.
In 2020, Dufault pled guilty to three counts of aggravated criminal sexual contact. Dufault was sentenced in March 2021 to a suspended three-year sentence without prison time and was required to surrender her teaching license and register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law.
