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The man identified as “D.H.” in court papers contends that he was groomed as a victim, beginning when an Engle Street School teacher tackled and held him down on a 6th-grade overnight trip to Montreal in 1967.
The teacher "held him down with the full weight of his body," the plaintiff contends.
The same teacher then got him and other students to drink booze and smoke cigarettes with him in his apartment, the suit alleges.
The teacher -- identified as “Mr. Durkin” -- later began showing him porno mags while suggesting that he could make money selling nude photos of himself, “D.H.” contends.
It wasn’t long before the teacher took the photos in exchange for a watch and then began sexually assaulting him, the unidentified plaintiff alleges.
Several photo sessions involved him by himself and having sex with “Mr. Durkin” before stopped cooperating, his suit claims.
It looked like the teacher would pay, it says, after police investigating a burglar the teacher’s home by students found nude photos of the boy.
“(D.H.) gave a statement to the police and testified before a grand jury,” the lawsuit on file in Superior Court in Hackensack says.
Although the grand jurors indicted the teacher, a judge tossed the charges because city police who found the photos didn’t have a search warrant, it says.
The alleged victim said this made him an easy target for another teacher who cornered him and fondled his genitals at Dwight Morrow High School in 1973.
The man said he learned about the photos found by police around that same time and “was terrified that other students and members of the community would find out” that it was him in the images.
He said he sought solace from a guidance counselor who, instead, asked him about his sexual preferences.
The man said he dropped out of school and, since then, “has been and remains confused, traumatized and ashamed as a result of the acts.”
His lawsuit accuses the Englewood Public School District of violating state lawn by not protecting him from the alleged predators, as well as being negligent in hiring and supervising staff and failing to enforce policies against sexual abuse of children.
It seeks a jury trial and monetary damages.
District officials haven’t commented since the lawsuit came to light.
The New Jersey Child Sexual Abuse Law, enacted 14 months ago, allows sex abuse survivors to sue their alleged attackers and/or employers -- including churches, schools and community organizations– up until they turn 55 or within seven years of realizing that the abuse harmed them.
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