Jim Walsh

@jimwalsh_cp

A student's mother claims in a lawsuit that Highland Regional High School administrators "actively frustrated" her requests for an investigation of alleged sexual misconduct by her son's counselor.

The lawsuit challenges administrators' handling of Anthony Williams, a former counselor and social worker at the Gloucester Township high school.

Williams was arrested in September 2013 on a charge of endangering the welfare of a child in a case involving another teenage boy. The lawsuit — filed by a different youngster, a 2008 Highland graduate, and his mother — alleges Williams engaged in sexual misconduct years before his arrest and conviction.

The suit identifies the plaintiffs only as B.P., a special-education student, and his mother K.P.

The complaint alleges school officials "knew or should have known" that B.P. "was sexually harassed, sexually manipulated and exposed to sexually explicit acts as a minor while a student at Highland." It also claims administrators' inaction created a climate in which Williams "believed he could act with impunity."

Defendants include the Black Horse Pike Regional School District and its former superintendent, Ralph Ross, as well as former Highland Principal Frank Palatucci. Also named are Williams and Thomas Sullivan, who formerly supervised special education services at Highland.

A lawyer for the district denied the claims, saying the student's mother expressed dissatisfaction with Williams as her son's counselor, but did not complain of sexual misconduct.

"We don't believe there's any merit (to the suit)," said attorney Jeffrey Shanaberger of Princeton, who also represents Ross, Palatucci and Sullivan. Court records do not identify an attorney for Williams.

Shanaberger also said the statute of limitations expired long before the suit was filed this month in federal court in Camden.

Under state law, B.P. had to file suit within two years of his 18th birthday. The former student now is around 24 years old, said Shanaberger, who noted the lawsuit does not give his age.

According to the suit, Williams frequently texted or phoned the third-year student "both during and after school hours," when he became B.P.'s counselor in the spring of 2007.

It also alleges Williams invited B.P. and other boys to his Clementon home, sometimes for overnight stays.

"These visits served no educational purpose and consisted entirely of playing video games, eating pizza and engaging in sexual conduct, sexual contact, sexual abuse and sexual harassment with B.P. and other students," the suit alleges.

Shanaberger, the district's lawyer, noted a teenage nephew lived with Williams and that his presence may have been a factor in B.P.'s visits.

The suit says the boy's mother learned of the visits during the summer of 2007 and told Williams she did not want her son in his home. The visits continued, the suit says.

The mother then expressed concern about the visits to Palatucci and Sullivan, the suit says. It alleges Palatucci responded "by asking (K.P.) if she was accusing ... Williams of being gay."

The suit alleges the school officials did not investigate Williams' behavior at that time.

The suit says B.P. and Williams continued a relationship during the boy's senior year, which he spent at Brookfield School in Cherry Hill. The two exchanged "eight full pages of text messages, including several picture messages, over the winter holidays in December 2007 and January 2008," the suit says.

When the mother produced those messages in January 2008, Palatucci and Sullivan "performed a wholly inadequate investigation of the relationship," the suit alleges. It says Williams, when asked about the messages, "blamed B.P. for initiating contact by text message and attempting to cultivate the improper relationship."

The mother then went to the district's school board, leading to a closed hearing in March or April 2008. Williams did not attend but was represented at the session by an attorney, says the suit.

The suit alleges Palatucci "was again angry and combative," blaming K.P. for her son's visits to Williams' home. The suit contends the principal acknowledged knowing Williams had hosted B.P. at his home, but that no one from the district "reported this information" to child welfare or law enforcement officials.

It contends board members "focused their questioning on K.P. (and) refused to consider that defendant Williams was subjecting B.P. to sexual abuse, manipulation or harassment."

The suit says Williams continued to text B.P. "throughout 2009 and into 2010," and that the two maintained contact at least through October 2011.

According to the suit, the mother learned of Williams' sexual misconduct in September 2013, when investigators from the Camden County Prosecutor's Office accused the counselor of endangering another child. Investigators contacted B.P. and his mother as part of that case, the suit says.

The suit also asserts that B.P.'s "emotional, cognitive and learning disabilities caused him to repress memories" of Williams' misconduct until the counselor's arrest.

Williams, who admitted guilt to lewdness, was sentenced in December 2013 to a year's probation and was barred from contacting his victim, according to the suit.

The suit seeks unspecified damages, as well as payments for B.P.'s legal and medical expenses. It's the latest allegation of sexual misconduct by staffers in the Black Horse Pike Regional district.

Among other cases, three teachers and an administrator admitted guilt after they were arrested in October 2012. Authorities said the male teachers had engaged in romances with girls at the district's Triton High School in Runnemede, and the school's principal ignored complaints about their conduct.

Reach Jim Walsh at jwalsh@courierpostonline.com or (856) 486-2646. Follow him on Twitter @jimwalsh_cp.