Essex County Correctional Facility
Nicole Dufault, a 38-year-old former New Jersey high school teacher who was accused of sexually assaulting six teenage boys, has now been named three other civil lawsuits filed against her. Dufault and the South Orange Maplewood School District were named in the civil suits
According to the reports, Dufault, a former language arts teacher at Columbia High School in Maplewood, was accused of sexually assaulting up to six male students. She is still awaiting trial on the criminal charges.
The civil suits have to do with the alleged sexual assaults that occured years prior.
via Fox News:
A Sept. 30, 2016 lawsuit, which was filed by the parents of two students, sought $1 million in “compensatory and punitive damages” and court and legal fees. The students in connection with the lawsuit were reportedly victims of Dufault. The suit claims the students were both “intellectually disabled” with “social communication difficulties” and “were vulnerable to sexual harassment.”
The parents claimed in the suit Dufault had sex and oral sex with the two students and the school district ignored the complaints made against the educator. Another lawsuit, filed by a third student in Sept. 2016, accuses Dufault of sexual abuse that began when he was a freshman in 2014. The suit claimed Dufault invited students to “hang out” in her classroom during free periods.
The last lawsuit was filed by a fourth student in October 2017. No damages were sought but it accused Dufault of sexually abusing the male student. The victim claimed Dufault abused him in the summer of 2013 during “Bridge Program” and said the acts occurred in the teacher’s car and different locations around the school.
Dufault was s the latest in a string of teacher/student sex scandals over the last couple of years. In November, Tennessee teacher Janet Smothers was arrested. Former nutrition teacher LaToya Parker was also arrested for a relationship with a student. Florida teacher Caroline Lawson was charged with sexual assault. 26-year-old Allyson Moran was also arrested for similar crimes. The 23-year-old high school teacher Katherine Ross Ridenhour was also arrested for an inappropriate relationship.
Furthermore, Hunter Day, 22, was also arrested after a sting operation. Megan Kotarski was also arrested on similar charges. Michelle Schiffer, a 23-year-old history teacher in Texas, was also charged and arrested for allegedly having sex with a teenage student. 29-year-old Alyssia Marie Reddy was arrested in Maryland for her crimes in New Jersey. Samantha Fitzgerland, a 28-year-old, was most recently arrested and charged. Jordan Ondish was arrested for her inappropriate relationship with a 19-year-old, while 28-year-old Samantha Fitzpatrick was arrested on similar charges.
Nicole Marie Andrews was arrested as well. 32-year-old Jessica Langford was arrested and charged with sexual assault-related crimes as well. A teacher from Oregon, Andrea Baber, was accused of having a sexual relationship with a student. Robin Dunlap, a teacher in Florida, was arrested for sending illicit photos to a 15-year-old boy in Texas. Teacher and tennis coach Jennifer Olajire-Aro was also charged. 42-year-old Heather Butts of California was arrested on a second-degree felony charge. Nancy Leigh Ann Brann, a former Christian school teacher, was arrested for having sex with a student. Coine Audiat pleaded no contest to having sex with a minor in 2016.
