Pro-life teen in NJ says teachers allowed assault at abortion protest

📣 A pro-life student claims she was assaulted at a pro-choice protest in a new lawsuit

📣 Video shows her being grabbed and students chanting 'F**k this b***h' at her

📣 The suit claims teachers 'stood idly by' and watched the abuse

A student who brought a pro-life sign to a pro-choice school protest was grabbed, harassed, and assaulted while teachers and security failed to intervene, according to a new lawsuit.

The protest at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Raritan Township was organized on May 16, 2022, in response to the leaked U.S. Supreme Court decision for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that would overturn Roe v. Wade.

Student Nichole Pagano, who was 16 years old at the time, brought her own sign to the protest, reading "Equal Rights For Babies in the Womb." New Jersey 101.5 is naming the minor student, who is Catholic, because she has previously done public interviews on the protest.

The lawsuit filed late last month by her family's attorney John Coyle states that she was assaulted and taunted by around 200 other students at the "school-sanctioned-riot."

District spokesperson Nancy Tucker told New Jersey 101.5 that "Hunterdon Central’s Board of Education and District cannot comment on ongoing litigation." Last year, the district, which includes only the four-year high school, released a statement after the protest last year calling it "unsanctioned."

"We are deeply distressed by the behavior between students who engaged in verbal and, in a very small number of instances, physical aggression during this gathering," the district said in May 2022.

📣 Slurs and abuse at Hunterdon Central abortion protest

Videos and photos of the protest at Hunterdon Central showed a large crowd of students verbally accosting Pagano.

More than one video provided by Coyle showed students starting a chant directed at Pagano saying, "F*** this b***h." Another video showed one female student repeatedly calling Pagano a "c**t."

At least one student ripped Pagano's sign away from her. Another student later bragged on Snapchat about "slapping" the sign out of her hands and stomping on it. Another Snapchat called Pagano "scum of the earth" and a "bottom feeder," according to the lawsuit.

At one point, Pagano was standing on a platform holding her sign. She was grabbed from behind by a student, who pulled on her and caused her to fall, the lawsuit said.

📣 Did staff and security watch student's assault?

Court documents claim that teachers allowed students to make posters for the protest during class time and encouraged them to attend. The teachers and administrators then watched "but did nothing to intervene" as Pagano was berated and attacked, according to the suit.

A week after the demonstration, Superintendent Jeffrey Moore gave a presentation to the public at a May 23, 2022 school board meeting. He said the protest was full of "distressing moments and aggression."

A school resource officer and two Class III officers were already at the school, according to Moore. They called in three other officers from the Raritan police. About an hour after the protest began, the seven officers were able to disperse the protest.

Also managing the crowd were 12 administrators plus other teachers and staff, Moore said. He said that any students who displayed "physical aggression" were removed.

The lawsuit lays out claims of negligent supervision, assault, battery, and defamation. It seeks a jury trial.

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