An all-boys Catholic high school in New Jersey is facing a lawsuit that basically alleges a culture of sexual and verbal abuse on the school’s nationally ranked wrestling team and a cover-up by the administration.The suit claims that a wrestling coach at Bergen Catholic showed the plaintiff, a minor who is not named in the suit, pornographic images and sent inappropriate texts to him in December and January. Another coach inappropriately watched the student strip naked in front of other students. And when the plaintiff complained to the school’s administration, he was kicked off the team. The administration, in an effort to protect the wrestling program’s prestige, covered up and ignored the student’s allegations, the suit further alleges. For a time during the 2017-2018 season, the team was ranked first in the country.The Oradell, N.J., school and the coaches are vehemently denying all of the allegations, and a number of current and former wrestlers have come to the school’s and their coaches’ defense.“When people fall short far too often rather than taking accountability for their own shortcomings, they look to strike a blow at anyone they perceive is the reason for their failure,” said one of the accused coaches, David Bell, through his attorney in a statement obtained by NorthJersey.com.Brother Brian Walsh, the school's president, issued a statement through a school spokesman denying wrongdoing and claiming that the school has not ignored the allegations.READ: States are trying to make it easier to punish the next Larry Nassar"Let's be very clear that the administration has zero tolerance for the actions alleged in this complaint — and consistent with our zero tolerance policy and protocols, despite not having been served the complaint until today, the administration reported these allegations to the Archdiocese of Newark and the Bergen County prosecutor's office when it first learned of them," Walsh said in the statement, obtained by NorthJersey.com.Still, the charges are serious. The suit mentions up to 100 other victims in anticipation of other students coming forward as the lawsuit moves forward. All in all, it amounts to allegations that there was a culture of sexual violence on the team and that the school’s administration knew about it, and covered it up. The suit calls it a “conspiracy to endanger the welfare of children.”Since the USA Gymnastics national team doctor, Larry Nassar, was convicted of serially abusing the young women who he was charged with caring for, some states, including New Jersey, are looking to reform their statute of limitations laws for sexual assault crimes. These statute of limitations laws set deadlines, which can be as short as a few months or years, on how long a victim can wait before filing a sexual assault claim.And the Catholic Church has spent millions on pushing back against laws that extend the statute of limitations in state legislatures, according to a Guardian investigation.“While it is fair to argue that we should extend the statute of limitations going forward to give victims more time to sue, a wide-open ‘window’ allowing claims that are decades old is fundamentally unjust because the claims are impossible to defend,” said Dennis Poust of the New York State Catholic Conference, according to the Guardian.Correction 4/17 3:43 p.m. ET: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the student's complaint alleged that one of the coaches had forced students to strip naked in the locker room. The complaint, in fact, alleges that the coach inappropriately watched students strip.Cover image: Image from BergenCatholic.org website shows the New Jersey school's wrestling room.
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