TOMS RIVER, NJ — A second student has filed a lawsuit against the Ocean County Vocational Technical School District and its former superintendent alleging she was sexually assaulted by a teacher at the Performing Arts Academy.
In the 50-page lawsuit filed Aug. 12 by attorneys Jeffrey and Brad Russo, the same attorneys who filed the first lawsuit, the former student accuses Douglas I. Bollinger of repeatedly sexually assaulting her from 2015 into 2017, during her junior and senior years at the Performing Arts Academy, while promising to help her gain entrance to college.
Bollinger pleaded guilty to sexually touching a student and was sentenced in February; that student filed the first lawsuit against Bollinger and PAA on Aug. 4. That lawsuit alleges conditions at the school and the mindset of the school's administration created the environment that allowed Bollinger to operate and prioritized protecting PAA's reputation over stopping predators, and that those conditions had existed for more than 20 years.
The new lawsuit repeats those allegations and, like the first one also names as a defendant Karen Homiek, the superintendent of the Ocean County Vocational Technical Schools, saying Homiek turned a blind eye to inappropriate relationships between staff members and students.
Homiek was the principal at PAA when Bollinger was hired in 2015 and remained in that position before taking over as superintendent in 2019. She retired in June after nearly 30 years in the vocational district.
Requests for comment to the Ocean County Vocational Technical Schools on both lawsuits have gone unanswered.
The student who filed the new lawsuit alleges Homiek "had discussions with Bollinger ... regarding Bollinger's open relationship with the Plaintiff ... (and) did not want the relationship with the Plaintiff to be discussed throughout the school" as a situation with another teacher and student was discussed. Both lawsuits alleged that relationship between the unnamed teacher and student was widely known.
"The results of said discussions were simply that Bollinger had to try not to make the relationship so obvious," the second student's lawsuit alleges.
The second student alleges Bollinger's abuse began with grooming her and in September 2016 escalated to repeated sexual assaults that included oral, vaginal and anal penetration, according to the lawsuit.
"Bollinger insisted that the Plaintiff now call him 'Daddy' or 'Dad' in private, as he dangles a role in the school play in front of her, knowing the Plaintiff has a rocky home life, is of humble means, and a role may be the Plaintiff's only chance to get into college," the lawsuit alleges.
Many of the assaults at the school happened in what the lawsuit referred to as "the 'black box' dressing room," and alleges that while Bollinger used condoms initially, after a while he stopped, despite knowing the student had no access to birth control at home because of her family's religious beliefs, according to the lawsuit.
"Bollinger makes certain to instruct the Plaintiff to not tell anyone as the Plaintiff would 'lose everything', the Plaintiff's family (Bollinger knew they were religious) would think the Plaintiff is a 'slut' or 'refuse to believe' her, or 'hate' her, or 'kick her out of the house'," the lawsuit alleges.
The student alleges Bollinger set up a "school-sponsored and school-approved internship" that allowed him to exercise "complete control over the timing, frequency, and nature of the abuse, subjecting Plaintiff to sexual acts whenever he demanded," according to the lawsuit.
When the student tried to form "normal, age appropriate, relationship" and date her peers, Bollinger "held her captive until the Plaintiff promised not to pursue any other relationships," the lawsuit alleges.
"Not a single day of the Plaintiff's 'internship' was without a forced sexual act or acts inflicted upon the plaintiff," the lawsuit alleges in capital letters. "On many occasions, this horror occurred multiple times a day."
In one instance, the lawsuit alleges Bollinger told the girl to make up a story that she would be dogsitting at Bollinger's home all weekend, with the premise that she would stay at his home. She alleges Bollinger assaulted her repeatedly during the weekend.
Bollinger also was "moonlighting as a realtor," the lawsuit alleges, and used one of the homes where he was the listing agent to assault the student.
Bollinger also operated a bicycle shop, the lawsuit says, and after the student's "internship" ended, "hired" her to work at the shop as a pretense to continue to sexually assault her, the lawsuit alleges.
The sexual assaults finally ceased when the student graduated from PAA, according to the lawsuit.
It does not specify the amount of damages sought.
Previous reporting:
Ex-OCVTS Performing Arts Teacher Sentenced For Sexual Contact With Student
NJ Performing Arts Academy 'Breeding Ground' For Sexual Predators, Lawsuit Says-lawsuit-says
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