NEWARK (NJ)
NorthJersey.com [Woodland Park NJ]
January 16, 2026
By Kaitlyn Kanzler
Paramus Catholic, the Newark Archdiocese and the Christian Brothers were hit with another sexual assault lawsuit against former teacher and coach Bernard Garris.
A former unidentified student filed the suit Jan. 14, saying they were repeatedly sexually abused by Garris while they were a student. The complaint provides little detail about the alleged incident and does not mention the years the plaintiff was a student.
Maria Margiotta, the executive director of communications and public relations for the Archdiocese of Newark, did not immediately return a request for comment.
This is the second lawsuit in as many months filed against the school, the diocese and the Christian Brothers. Another anonymous student accused Garris and former gym teacher Donn Ernst of sexual assault in the 1980s.
Garris and Ernst have been the subject of several lawsuits by former students. By August 2021, at least 11 lawsuits had been filed against Paramus Catholic, saying the school and the archdiocese knew about Garris’ abuse but did nothing to stop it. Garris was named in a 2011 abuse suit that was later settled for an undisclosed amount.
Garris served as Paramus Catholic’s hockey coach while Ernst was a gym teacher. Garris died in 2016, and Ernst died in 2021.
The lawsuit said the student was “raised in a devout Roman Catholic family,” and their parents had “grown up to instinctively trust the church and its affiliated schools and their staff.”
According to the lawsuit, Garris abused the student on school grounds and said the defendants did or should have known about Garris’ behavior and actions and that they spent years concealing “important information” about the physical and sexual abuse deployed by Garris.
The suit said Garris had his employment terminated in 1987 for physically abusing students.
The suit accused the defendants of negligence. The student is seeking compensatory and punitive damages as well as the cost of the suit and attorney’s fees.
James Sullivan, the attorney for the plaintiff, did not have any additional comment to add regarding the lawsuit but encouraged former students who say they were abused by Garris to come forward as the window to file begins to shrink.
In December 2019, a new state law took effect that suspended the statute of limitations for civil sexual abuse cases for two years. After that, the limit was placed at the victims turning 55 years old and Sullivan said the window to file a civil suit against abuse is closing every day for some.