A Sussex County school district has agreed to pay $735,000 to settle a lawsuit from a man who says a special education teacher sexually abused him more than 25 years ago, when he was a 12-year-old student with documented learning disabilities. The settlement closes out a case that traced back to the 1999-2000 school year at Stillwater Elementary School, though the teacher herself was not a party to the deal and denied wrongdoing to police in 2000.
A Lawsuit Years in the Making
The man, identified in court papers as John Doe, filed suit on April 6, 2023, naming teacher Wendy Clothier, the Stillwater Township Board of Education, former Superintendent William Shelton and former Principal Anna Memmelaar as defendants, according to Jersey Vindicator. The lawsuit alleged that Clothier used her position at the school to groom and sexually abuse the student, per NJ.com. The man claims he had multiple sexual encounters with the teacher and told his mother about them, NJ.com reports.
In May 2026, Judge Stephan C. Hansbury dismissed several of the claims against the school defendants but allowed claims under the Child Sexual Abuse Act and the Law Against Discrimination to move forward, Jersey Vindicator reported. The following month, the school board, Shelton and Memmelaar agreed to resolve the claims against them for $735,000, a figure that includes the plaintiff's attorney fees and costs. The agreement explicitly states it “does not constitute any admission of liability on the part of Defendant as to any matters whatsoever,” according to the outlet. Clothier was not identified as an individual settling party in that agreement.
Gifts, Visits and a Mother's Suspicion
According to NJ.com, the teacher allegedly bought the student gifts, paid him more attention than other children in her class, and visited his home uninvited. Among the items she gave him were a Sony Walkman CD player and money to buy sweatshirts, per court papers cited by the outlet. The boy's mother told detectives she found the teacher alone with her son at their home on August 14, 2000, and she separately reported that Clothier made several unannounced calls and visits and gave her son inappropriate gifts.
Then-Superintendent William Shelton contacted police on August 17, 2000, after the mother reported alleged sexual advances toward her son, NJ.com reports. School officials have maintained they had no prior knowledge of sexual misconduct and said they promptly contacted law enforcement after receiving the mother's report, according to the same account from Jersey Vindicator. That position was complicated by a July 2, 2025, deposition in which Memmelaar acknowledged that she and school psychologist Dr. Van Tamagnini had previously discussed Clothier's relationship with the student, the outlet reported.
Charges Filed, Then Dismissed
In a statement to police on August 18, 2000, Clothier denied wrongdoing but acknowledged giving the boy gifts and spending more time with him than she ordinarily spent with students, the Jersey Vindicator account states. According to NJ.com, she told police she did nothing improper with the student, while also admitting that giving him gifts was a mistake and expressing regret for giving him more personal attention than other children. Police wrote that she acknowledged this also was a mistake, per the outlet's report.
Clothier was charged with third-degree endangering the welfare of a child in January 2001. NJ.com reports she entered a pretrial intervention program that required her to resign from teaching and enter sexual offender therapy. The endangering charge against her was dismissed in March 2003 after she completed that program, and she was not convicted, Jersey Vindicator confirmed.
Years later, the New Jersey State Board of Examiners accepted Clothier's voluntary surrender of all her teaching certificates in February 2007, an action the board's own document says carried the same legal effect as a revocation.
Terms of the Settlement
As part of the confidential settlement agreement, which NJ.com reports was signed June 3, 2026, the man agreed to drop his legal claims and release the district from further claims, including civil rights claims. The agreement also bars him from making disparaging statements about district officials, according to the outlet. Stillwater Superintendent of Schools Danny Papa and Business Administrator Rene Metzgar were not immediately available to comment, NJ.com reported.
Part of a Wider Pattern in New Jersey
The Stillwater case is one of several recent New Jersey school abuse settlements making headlines. A September 2026 NJ.com report described six sexual-abuse lawsuits filed against the same educator across multiple districts, with settlements reportedly totaling $1.49 million; that report indicated one district settled in June while two others settled in 2024 and 2025. In a separate case reported this month, NJ.com detailed a Burlington County woman's allegations that a tennis coach and math teacher abused her on school grounds between 2012 and 2016, a case that ended with the district agreeing to pay $150,000.
