NEWARK (NJ)
NJ Advance Media - nj.com [Iselin NJ]
December 23, 2025
By Richard Cowen
Another former student at Paramus Catholic High School has filed a lawsuit claiming he was sexually assaulted by a gym teacher and a hockey coach at the school more than 30 years ago.
The plaintiff, whose identity is withheld, alleges he was the victim of “unpermitted sexual contact” by two employees identified in the lawsuit as former gym teacher Donn Ernst and former ice hockey coach Bernard Garris.
The alleged violations occurred from 1986 to 1989, when the student was 14 to 17, the lawsuit says.
The teenager came from a “devout Roman Catholic family,” and was vulnerable to the power that adults had over him, the lawsuit says.
“The culture of the Catholic Church over Plaintiff created pressure on Plaintiff not to report the abuse,” the lawsuit says.
The complaint, which was filed on Dec. 17 in Essex County, is the latest in a series of lawsuits that accuse Ernst and Garris of sexually abusing students.
Garris left the school in 1986, moved to Minnesota and has since died. Ernst also is deceased, according to published reports.
The new lawsuit names the Archdiocese of Newark, the Brothers of Christian Schools and Paramus Catholic High School as defendants.
Archdiocese of Newark spokeswoman Maria Margiotta said the archdiocese does not comment on matters that are in litigation.
The complaint does not give details of the alleged incidents of sexual abuse. But the plaintiff alleges the defendants failed to properly supervise the two employees, didn’t establish policies to prevent child sexual abuse and failed to warn parents about the risks.
Richard Cowen is a Breaking and Local News reporter with NJ Advance Media. New Jersey born and bred, Richard has covered the state for nearly 40 years. He’s won numerous awards, including the National Press Club’s First Amendment Award for a series of stories on how municipal governments all over New Jersey routinely abused the state’s Sunshine Law protecting the public right to know. He’s written thousands of stories with datelines all over New Jersey–covering crime, the courts, education, the environment, and all things politics–and loves doing the work of finding out what he doesn’t know.rcowen@njadvancemedia.com