New Jersey district settles sex abuse lawsuit involving former teacher for $6 million

WINSLOW TOWNSHIP, NJ — A southern New Jersey school district will pay $6 million to settle a lawsuit filed by two students who allege they were sexually abused for years by a former high school teacher.

The male students had filed separate lawsuits weeks apart claiming they were assaulted between 1998 and 2003 by Nicholas Zaccaria, a social studies and history teacher at Edgewood High School, now known as Winslow Township High School. Zaccaria was also a theater consultant. and the students participated in the stage crew club as teenagers.

Both men claimed they were targeted by Zaccaria for sexual abuse. They said he took them out individually to eat at fancy steakhouses and Italian restaurants and gave them money from the stage crew’s petty cash account.

The Winslow Board of Education approved the settlements in December, without any admission of liability. District Superintendent H. Major Poteat and Matthew J. Behr, a Mount Laurel attorney who represented the district, declined to comment on the settlement, as did Zaccaria.

“These are significant settlements,” John Baldante, a Haddonfield attorney who represented the two students, told The Philadelphia Inquirer. He said each man will receive $3 million in a structured settlement.

“These victims of child sex abuse now have a voice,” Baldante said.