The number of teachers accused of having inappropriate sexual relationships with students continues to grow in N.J.
The recently announced investigation into Thad Alton, a teacher at the Pingry School in the 1970s, last month over allegations of sexual abuse of students at the prep school four decades ago was just the latest in a series of similar cases in New Jersey.
In the past few years, dozens of teachers in the Garden State have been accused of similar impropriety.
Listed below are many of the state's teachers who have recently faced charges involving sexual relationships with students. All of these teachers have been removed from their classrooms:
- Fatima Grupico, a former history teacher at the now-closed Cardinal McCarrick High School in South Amboy, was charged last July with having sexual relations with a 17-year-old student. The 24-year-old Linden woman allegedly had relations with the male student on a number of occasions at the school between May 4 and May 30, 2015.
- Earlier this week in Mercer County, 26-year-old Edmund J. Harman was charged with fondling a student who came to his Notre Dame High School classroom seeking extra credit. The Franklin Township man allegedly fondled the student's breasts, kissed the back of her neck and massaged her back and legs, he also asked the girl to send him nude photos, the Prosecutor said.
- Brian Fogelson, the 61-year-old retired North Warren Regional School District Superintendent, was charged for alleged sex crimes that occurred over 40 years ago when he was a teacher in Canada. A trial is currently underway for the once Warren County Superintendent of the year after he voluntarily returned to Canada and turned himself over on the charges.
- Michael J. Martino was indicted this month on charges that he allegedly sexually assaulted a student for more than two years while he was a math teacher at Hackettstown High School. The 42-year-old East Stroudsburg man is facing up to 30 years in prison as a result.
- Chong-Hwa Chang, a former teacher at a New Jersey State Prison in Trenton was accused in February of having sex at least 20 times with an inmate. Prosecutors said Chang kept a journal detailing the sexual relationship that indicated she twice became pregnant from the sexual encounters.
- Bergen County Academies biology teacher Donald DeWitt was accused last April of engaging in sexual activity with a 16-year-old student and exchanging sexually explicit emails, according to prosecutors. The 65-year-old pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child this February in relation to the charges.
- In Somerset County, Jason Fennes, a former first-grade teacher at a Franklin Township private school, was indicted a third time last April for allegedly sexually assaulting a female student. The Cranford man was indicted twice in 2013 for charges he abused and sexually assaulted students at two separate Morris County schools.
- Elyse Cromwell, an ex-Newark school teacher, was sentenced to five years in prison last May after she pleaded guilty to charges that she had sex at her Jersey City home with a 14-year-old male student on numerous occasions.
- Nicholas DePue, of Jackson, admitted in January to sending inappropriate text messages to students and/or having sexual physical contact with them while he was a teacher at Monmouth Regional High School. The 29-year-old allegedly had a year-long relationship with one of his students.
- The former coach of the girls' basketball team at St. Matthew the Apostle Church in Edison, 40-year-old Darren Ventre of Woodbridge was charged last June with repeatedly performing a sex act in the presence of a 14-year-old girl, Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey said.
- Sharon H. Gonzalez, of Salem, allegedly had sex with a 17-year-old student at Ranch Hope, a Salem County facility for at-risk youth the 32-year-old was briefly employed at. An indictment said Gonzalez allegedly not only had sex with the student but showed the student "obscene material."
Fausto Giovanny Pinto may be reached at fpinto@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @FGPreporting. Find NJ.com on Facebook.