Camden City school district and Wasim Muhammad agree to settle sex-abuse lawsuit

CAMDEN – The Camden City School District and its advisory board president have agreed to a $2 million settlement of a sex abuse lawsuit against them.

The settlement came after a jury last month awarded $1.6 million to a woman who claimed a teacher sexually abused her when she was a Camden student in the 1990s.

It was announced Monday, shortly before the woman’s attorney was to seek punitive damages from the judge in the civil case.

It also came as the district and the former teacher –– then named Don Walker and now board president Wasim Muhammad — were asking the same judge to overturn the jury’s verdict or to grant them a new trial.

Jeffrey Fritz, a Cherry Hill attorney for the woman, said his client now “can focus on her healing journey.”

Attorney calls for Muhammad's exit

But he also asserted “true healing cannot occur” until Muhammad leaves the board and the district re-examines its policies and training.

“His continued presence is a reminder of institutional failure and the urgent need for accountability,” Fritz said of Muhammad.

The woman, identified in court papers as Jane Doe, urged the district “to make sure that no other student faces the horrendous victimization I endured at the hands of a teacher.”

The district and Muhammad have denied wrongdoing.

“By way of this settlement, the district does not take liability for any of the allegations made by the plaintiff from 30 years ago,” the district said in a statement.

It added the district “underscores its commitment to the health and welfare of our students, staff and families.”

The statement also asserted the district’s “number one priority, as it has always been, will be serving our community and educating the youth of this city.”

The settlement also came almost a year after an arbitration panel said the district and Muhammad should pay $1 million to Doe.

That August 2023 decision, which noted Muhammad "denies and disputes all allegations," was non-binding.

Suit: Assaults began during middle school

The lawsuit asserted the sexual assaults began in 1992-1994, when Doe, now 45, was in seventh and eighth grades at Hatch, where Muhammad was a history teacher.

It claimed a district employee failed to report suspicions to authorities, and that others did not act on warning signs.

After a two-week trial, the jury found the school district liable for negligent supervision and for creating or permitting a hostile school environment.

But in seeking a new trial, the school district noted the jury “found that Muhammad did not sexually assault Doe when she was under 18 years of age and that he did not engage in ‘nonconsensual contact’ with her.

It said those findings “fatally undermine” the lawsuit's claims that the district was negligent “and that it created or permitted a sexually hostile educational environment.”

The trial took place before Superior Court Judge John Kennedy in Camden, who was hearing the post-verdict motions.

The defendants dropped their new-trial motions on Monday, court records show.

Doe’s lawyers similarly withdrew a request for the defendants to pay about $485,000 for her legal expenses.

Doe sued in September 2021 under a state law that opened a two-year window for survivors of sexual abuse in previous decades.

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: The district and the head of its advisory board deny liability