Jenna Sciabica, Marlboro, NJ teacher lawsuit: Parents of alleged 14 year old molest victim seek damages against female educator, her employer and school district as teacher insists claims are baseless and an attempt at money grab.
The parents of a 14-year-old New Jersey girl reportedly molested by her female teacher and mentor have filed a lawsuit against the educator, the alleged teacher’s employer along with the school district.
Jenna Sciabica, 38, a special education language arts teacher, according to the lawsuit is alleged to have fondled the girl on March 13 in Marlboro Memorial Middle School.
Court papers filed May 1 in Monmouth County Superior Court purport the educator having groomed their daughter with sex talk, before proceeding to grope the teen girls’ breasts in a school hallway.
Lurid allegations of groping, poking and sex talk
The teacher has maintained her innocence and her attorney says the molestation accusations are false.
At the heart of the suit’s contentions are claims that the school and police mishandling the case along with being slow to act.
The suit alleges the 14 year old walking to class when Sciabica ‘just happened to be standing in the doorway of her own classroom’ and calling the student over, News12NJ reports.
The teen according to court papers, walked over to Sciabica, ‘who then began fondling and rubbing the girl’s breast with one hand. She was poking, touching, massaging, and rubbing the breast.’
The teacher is then alleged to taken the back of her hand and placed it on the girl’s forehead ‘to imply [the girl] was getting hot.’
Sciabica then ‘used both of her hands, and began rubbing . . . poking,
and inappropriately touching both of [the teen’s] breasts,’ court papers state.
‘As this was occurring, Jenna Sciabica had a gratifying smile on her face while [the teen] was frozen still, with her hands at her side completely frozen in shock,’ according to court papers.
The girl then blocked Sciabica’s hands, ‘pulling them off her breasts,” and ran down the hallway, where another teacher who witnessed the incident heard Sciabica yell for the girl to “come back here I want to feel and touch them again.’
The assault ‘was . . . caught entirely on camera,’ according to the filing.
Teacher calls lawsuit outrageous and a money grab
Sciabica ‘was already familiar’ with the girl because she had been tutoring her younger siblings, who have special needs, for more than a year, the complaint states.
But there’s more.
The suit also alleges Sciabica, ‘routinely and openly engaging in sexually explicit and flirtatious conversations with female students at the school in her classroom and in front of other teachers.’
Another girl, who has not joined the lawsuit, claimed Sciabica repeatedly tried to get her phone number, the filing claims.
That student alleged Sciabica would discuss other teachers’ and men’s p***s sizes and ‘would openly talk about her own sex life to her 10-14 year old students,’ the complaint states.
The second girl reported Sciabica’s ‘inappropriate conversations’ to the school guidance counselor, but nothing was done, the suit alleges.
Sciabica who was described as a ‘predator,’ by the alleged victim’s mother during a April 16 public meeting involving the Marlboro Board of Education. The board, the mom alleged, ‘failed to prevent the atrocity that happened down that hallway.’
A day after the meeting, and more than a month after the incident, Marlboro Police charged the suspended teacher with one count of harassment of unwanted touching — a misdemeanor, the Asbury Park Press reported.
In addition to Sciabica, the lawsuit filed this week names the school district, the school board and Marlboro superintendent.
It seeks unspecified damages.
Additional defendants are accused of lying about the incident and the probe or making defamatory or libelous statements.
‘We believe this lawsuit clearly . . . is a baseless defamatory accusation which is nothing more than a money grab,’ Sciabica’s attorney, Mitchell Ansell, told the nypost. ‘The woman who filed this frivolous lawsuit welcomed my client into her home and treated her like family for the past three years. She wanted my client to be actively involved in helping to raise her daughter. They treated my client as if they were her aunt.’
The attorney called the parents’ claims that Sciabica was ‘sexually grooming’ their daughter ‘absolutely outrageous.’
Added the lawyer : ‘My client has faithfully and professionally taught students for the better part of 15 years. She has an unblemished record and has received countless messages of support since these charges have been brought. We are confident that when all of the facts and relevant evidence are heard in a court of law, and not on social media, the truth will come out and my client will be completely exonerated.’
If convicted of the harassment charge against her, Sciabica faces up to 30 days in jail.
The Marlboro Township School District is home to over 4,500 students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
