Predator teacher ‘faked students’ attendance records so she could have sex with them’

A teacher filmed carrying out a sex act on a teenage student now faces a flood of lawsuits as multiple complainants each demand $50 million.

Nicole Dufault was handed a suspended three-year jail sentence in March after she was found to have groomed a pupil.

But now NorthJersey.com reports that three more of her former students are also alleging abuse by the former Columbia High School teacher.

They each seek $50 million in damages from the district and other defendants. The news outlets says two of the fresh lawsuits were filed in the state Superior Court two weeks ago, and a third filed on Tuesday.

They all claim the South Orange-Maplewood School District and others failed to identify or act on knowledge of Dufault’s abuse, which came to light when a video of the teacher performing oral sex on a student spread on social media.

At the time, that sordid video caught the attention of students and administrators at the high school and led to Dufault’s arrest in 2014 on charges of sexual assault. She pleaded guilty to criminal sexual contact in January 2020.

John Baldante is the attorney representing the plaintiffs in the new lawsuits, and he claims Dufault’s actions were so widespread, blatant and systematic that it would have been difficult for administrators not to notice.

He told NorthJersey.com: “She was just out of control with her behaviour. The question here is: What did the school know directly, or what should they have known?”

All the new complaints follow a similar lawsuit filed last month by another former student who also claims to be among Dufault’s victims.

All four accuse Dufault of “grooming” multiple freshman boys from 2011 to 2014, in some instances offering victims presents and favours.

“Dufault customarily solicited and seduced [one plaintiff] by indicating that they were lovers and telling [the victim] that she ‘loved him,'” one of the lawsuits says.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday sees the alleged victim claim the teacher first abused him when he was just 14 in the summer of 2011.
It is claimed the grooming “escalated” during the student’s junior year of high school, when Dufault allegedly sent explicit text messages and nude images to the victim.

The next day, Dufault and the victim left the school together and went to a nearby parking lot, where Dufault performed oral sex on the victim in her car, the lawsuit said.

Another plaintiff, also aged 14 at the time, says Dufault began to abuse him as soon as he arrived at Columbia during the summer of 2013.

The suits suggest the teacher was able to change computer records to show the students had attended class when in fact they were having sex with her and that she even boosted their grades.

One instance speaks about her buying a student some trendy trainers and then telling him: “I want you to take me right here and now.”

She then took his virginity, it is alleged in the legal documents. That student claims the teacher told him she had been having sex with pupils for nine years.

NorthJersey.com reports that plaintiff alleges in his complaint that Dufault engaged in sexual activities with him at least three times a week throughout his freshman year at Columbia, and accuses the teacher of abusing him on more than 200 occasions, many of which he said occurred on school grounds, in the teacher’s car or her classroom.

That same student’s mother asked about the trainers but didn’t initially believe her son’s claim it was for repeated sex romps with Dufault until she saw the oral sex video. The alarm was then raised with the mother contacting the school.

Another student represented by Baldante makes similar claims of sexual abuse in his lawsuit, and alleges eight or nine instances in which he had sex or oral sex with Dufault.

Dufault was sentenced to a suspended three-year sentence and served no prison time after pleading guilty as jury selection was underway for what would have been her criminal trial, according to court records and Katherine Carter of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.

She is also required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and forfeit her teaching license and will be subject to lifetime parole. At that time, she blamed her brain surgery which resulted in wrecking her sexual impulse control.

Baldante told the news site he believes two of his clients are among the six student originally known to law enforcement investigating this case.