Three New Jersey school districts have quietly settled six separate lawsuits alleging that the same educator, Michael Healy, sexually abused students over the course of roughly two decades, with the six settlements collectively totaling approximately $1.515 million, including a $25,000 contribution from Healy, while the districts' shares totaled approximately $1.49 million. The settlements stretch across Waldwick, Mahwah and South Orange-Maplewood, districts where Healy worked at various points from the 1980s through the 2000s and later served as an assistant principal in South Orange-Maplewood.
The settlements were first reported by TransparencyNJ, a watchdog site created by John Paff, who serves as chairman of the Open Government Advocacy Project. As detailed by NJ.com, reporter Brianna Kudisch found that TransparencyNJ obtained the settlement agreements through New Jersey's Open Public Records Act, revealing a total of approximately $1.515 million paid out collectively across the six cases, with Healy personally contributing $25,000 toward that sum.
Waldwick Cases Stretch Back to the 1980s
The earliest allegations trace to Waldwick High School, where Healy worked as a substitute teacher and lunchroom monitor. Lawsuits filed in April 2021 by the law firm Levy Konigsberg alleged that Healy abused minor students in school bathrooms during the 1980s. Waldwick Public School District ultimately settled three separate lawsuits from former students in April and May 2024 for $540,000 total, according to the NJ.com report, with the district itself receiving $515,000 of that amount and Healy paying $25,000 of the Waldwick settlements.
Those Waldwick cases represent the oldest allegations in the pattern that would eventually span three districts. The lunchroom-monitor and substitute-teacher roles Healy held at Waldwick came years before he moved into administrative positions elsewhere in the state.
Mahwah Theater Program Allegations
A second wave of litigation centered on Mahwah Township Public Schools, where an August 2021 civil lawsuit reported by Patch alleged that Healy sexually abused a high school student over four years during theater productions. The theater program used Mahwah High School's facilities, and the same lawsuit named a second teacher who allegedly attempted to pursue the same student after Healy disclosed the abuse. The NJ.com report notes that Healy worked as a theater program employee at the high school.
Mahwah Township Public Schools settled a claim from a former high school student alleging misconduct by Healy in January 2025 for $425,000, according to TransparencyNJ's records. Healy separately agreed to pay Mahwah $10,000, and he resolved the district's third-party claims against him along with his own counterclaims against the district, per the same account.
South Orange-Maplewood Cases Settled This Summer
Healy's longest tenure came in the South Orange-Maplewood School District, where he served as assistant principal at Columbia High School and South Orange Middle School. He was known there for performing magic shows.
A civil suit filed in Essex County Superior Court in February 2023 alleged that Healy sexually abused a male student between 1997 and 2003 while working in the district, according to the lawsuit as reported by Patch. A former South Orange-Maplewood student alleged the school district failed to protect him from childhood sexual abuse. The district settled that former student's lawsuit in June for $500,000, and settled another former student's lawsuit the same month for $50,000, bringing the Essex County total to $550,000.
Legal Window Opened by 2019 Reform Law
The lawsuits were made possible by Senate Bill 477, which Governor Phil Murphy signed in May 2019. The law created a temporary two-year window, running from December 2019 through November 2021, that allowed survivors of childhood sexual abuse to file civil suits against abusers and institutions regardless of how long ago the abuse occurred, according to a summary from Goldberg Segalla. The same reform stripped public entities, including school districts, of immunity under the New Jersey Tort Claims Act, exposing them to the kind of civil liability that produced the Healy settlements.
Separately, New Jersey's 2018 “Pass the Trash” law was designed to stop educators with troubling employment histories from moving quietly between districts, requiring schools to review job applicants' employment records over a 20-year span and banning non-disclosure agreements that suppress abuse allegations, according to the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association. Lawmakers also introduced legislation addressing employment-history reviews and audits.
NJ.com's report notes that school districts and attorneys involved in the case did not respond to requests for comment. South Orange-Maplewood, Waldwick and Mahwah remain the three districts tied to the settlements. The six lawsuits collectively settled for approximately $1.515 million, including Healy's $25,000 contribution, while the districts' shares totaled approximately $1.49 million.
