Lawsuit says Abington School District failed to stop school resource officer convicted of sexual abuse
Jordan Jones, 31, pleaded guilty to having sexual contact with a student in 2024 and was sentenced to nearly two years in prison.
Two women were sexually abused as minors by a former Abington Senior High School resource officer, according to a lawsuit filed Monday against the Montgomery County school district and the Abington Township Police Department for allegedly failing to catch the abuse.
The plaintiffs, identified in the filing as Jane Does N.B. and J.R., were both 17 and attending the school in 2023 when they were abused by Jordan Jones, who was then 29, according to the lawsuit.
Jones, of Horsham, pleaded guilty last year to one felony count of having sexual contact with a student. In a separate criminal case, Jones pleaded guilty to one felony count of attempting to commit institutional sexual assault.
Months before the arrest that led to Jones’ dismissal from the police department, Abington “failed in its most basic legal and moral duties” to prevent the abuse, the lawsuit alleges.
The suit says Jones’ behavior went unsupervised on school grounds, citing sexually inappropriate meetings he held with one victim in his office and other incidents that led the students to miss or be late to classes.
The filing suggests that faculty members did nothing to probe the unusual behavior.
Jones spent an “inordinate amount of time” with the victims, the suit alleges, including an instance in which Jones, who had no academic role, dropped off one victim at her classroom and told her teacher he had been speaking with the student about her grades.
The suit also alleges that faculty ignored public social media comments posted by students that featured sexual commentary about Jones.
In November 2023, Jane Doe N.B. reported the early stages of the abuse to an emotional support faculty member; that teacher then “failed to report what [the victim] had told her to anyone,” including the school district or Pennsylvania’s child abuse hotline, the filing alleges.
Abington school officials alerted police after the student reported the behavior to a guidance counselor in February the next year, according to the suit.
A spokesperson for Abington School District said the district is aware of the lawsuit and would not comment on active litigation.
“The well-being and safety of our students and staff are of paramount importance, and as such, Abington School District continues to take this matter involving former school resource officer Jordan Jones very seriously,” the spokesperson said.
Besides suing the school and police department for negligence, the plaintiffs are seeking judgment on a handful of civil counts, including vicarious liability, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent failure to rescue, and failure to report suspected child abuse. Jones is also named as a defendant in the suit.
Both students suffered from a range of mental, emotional, and physical issues after the abuse, the filing says. They are seeking more than $50,000 in damages.
“It’s devastating,” said Stewart Ryan, the plaintiffs’ attorney. “Any time sexual abuse occurs, it’s going to cause trauma and damage — especially when you’re dealing with a case that happens in a community where people are going to hear about it and talk about it.”
Jones met one of his victims “numerous times,” sexually abusing her at his Horsham home, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.
The lawsuit says Jones “seduced and manipulated” the minors beginning with inappropriate conversations via cell phone that, for Jane Doe J.R., escalated to sexual touching in Jones’ office, located “in the same area as Abington SD administrators,” according to the filing.
The student said that Jones would walk around school property with his arm on her lower back, according to the lawsuit.
“There was no supervision by Abington PD over Jones and his work in the school setting, allowing him to freely engage in his criminal conduct without fear of professional reprisal,” the suit says.
Abington police assigned Jones to the high school as a resource officer eight years before the abuse began, the suit says, citing that relationship as grounds for suing both organizations.
The department did not immediately return a request for comment.
Abington police stripped Jones of his badge and placed him on administrative leave after receiving the alert and handed the case off to county investigators, according to a February 2024 statement from the Abington police chief.
“As your Chief, I cannot find the words to accurately convey the pain that this betrayal of trust has caused so many, not the least of which is our victim in this case,” the statement said. “These allegations and the subsequent arrest of Jordan Jones are profoundly disturbing.”
Investigators arrested Jones after wiretapping his phone and listening to him acknowledge to one victim that he knew his conduct was illegal.
A Montgomery County Court judge sentenced Jones to nearly two years in prison in March, as well as seven years’ probation upon his release. He will be required to register as a sex offender.