James A. Byrne U.S. Courthouse in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA – A former student at Central Bucks West High School can sue its school district over claims it failed to stop a choir teacher now jailed on indecent assault charges.
Joseph Ohrt pleaded no contest in 2022 after prosecutors alleged he assaulted two students and filmed another as the student undressed. He was sentenced to up to five years in prison, while Central Bucks School District is left defending itself from a civil lawsuit by John Calderaio.
Calderaio’s case, filed in 2023, says the district failed to act on information that Ohrt was grooming students and posed a risk of sexual assault. Judge Mia Roberts Perez says the evidence shows a pattern of warning signs that leaves the issue up to a jury.
“A reasonable jury could further find that an appropriate person had actual notice of facts indicating a substantial danger to students and responded with deliberate indifference, and it could find that Ohrt’s misconduct toward Plaintiff began while he was a minor, precluding immunity and requiring resolution of Plaintiff’s negligence claim by a factfinder,” she wrote.
Ohrt started at the high school in 1991. He met Calderaio during Calderaio’s sophomore year in choir – a turbulent period during which the student’s parents had divorced and he became essentially homeless, the ruling says.
Ohrt knew Calderaio was at-risk. The district’s human resources director said she heard rumors of inappropriate behavior by the teacher, who was described as “creepy.”
Ohrt eventually made sexual advances to Calderaio, sometimes while the student played piano, the suit says. Meanwhile, CBSD Policy 824 required teachers to maintain professional relationships and for the district to address grooming.
Allegations of misconduct in the past should’ve been enough for the district to take action, the suit says. In 1992, a sixth-grader said Ohrt grabbed him by the neck. A girl had said the same, but no policy violation was recorded due to inconsistencies in the story.
The same year, he was restricted from working with students one-on-one or in small groups. Former principal Lou Tenaglia was allegedly told that Ohrt pulled a student’s pants down and touched his penis.
In 1996, it was recorded that Ohrt made inappropriate sexual comments to a male student, but that letter was kept out of his personnel file. Three years later, he was warned about concerns from parents. In 2008, a principal directed him to maintain professionalism and avoid vulgarities.
Much of this was kept out of Ohrt’s file. In 2016, Calderaio’s father told officials that his relationship with Ohrt seemed inappropriate, though no action was taken. A subsequent ChildLine report said Ohrt had a history of befriending “trouble male high school students.”
Calderaio’s allegations were sufficient to defeat Central Bucks’ immunity defense, as Perez wrote a jury could show the district’s response to complaints through the years amounted to a well-settled practice that reflects deliberate indifference.
“The record includes reports of boundary-crossing conduct, favoritism toward male students, and allegations framed in explicitly sexual terms, along with evidence of a broader pattern of demeaning and bullying behavior by Ohrt,” she wrote.
