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On Thursday, May 7, 2026, Nicholas Ricciardi, 48, a former teacher for the Solomon Schechter private Jewish day school in West Hartford, was sentenced for inappropriately touching students at multiple Connecticut schools.
Ricciardi was sentenced to five years in prison, suspended, with five years of probation. He will not serve any prison time. The judge also issued protective orders barring him from going near the victims or their families for 50 years. Additionally, the 20-year veteran teacher was required to surrender his teaching license, and will receive mental health, sex offender and substance abuse evaluations.
The mothers of the young girls harmed by Ricciardi delivered powerful victim impact statements in court, describing the ongoing emotional distress caused by the unwanted touching. They described the contact as "much more" than just "tickling." The contact was so “hard” it knocked the girls off their chairs, was "painful" and “felt like an animal clawing.” The judge seemed moved by the victim statements, and even acknowledged this is a "parent's worst nightmare."
One of the mothers, Samantha, offered a brief statement after the sentencing. She and another mother, Jaclyn, then answered questions from WTNH News 8.
Samantha stressed that Ricciardi was doing far more than just “tickling” the girls. He was “testing the waters” and “pushing the boundaries” — classic grooming behavior. “The best that we could do as mothers was to help someone else going forward,” Samantha said.
She's absolutely right.
Her child was not the only student at Solomon Schechter whom Ricciardi inappropriately touched; there were three other victims from the school, though one mother declined to press charges.
Samantha also highlighted failures by the Department of Children and Families (DCF). Ricciardi was not unknown to the agency. He had a page and a half of prior unsubstantiated claims against him — including allegations from Jaclyn that he had inappropriately touched her daughter while teaching at St. Gabriel’s, his previous school.
Here is Samantha's full statement and interview after the sentencing:
Had DCF conducted a thorough investigation at St. Gabriel’s, four other girls — including Samantha’s daughter — might have been spared this trauma. It is unclear what background checks Solomon Schechter performed or whether the school asked Ricciardi to release his full DCF record before hiring him.
What is clear is the disturbing national pattern of schools attempting to conceal sexual abuse allegations by simply moving accused perpetrators to new locations (see here, here, here, here). Just this week, the Department of Justice launched an investigation into the Los Angeles Unified School District — the largest in the country — for policies that reportedly involved automatically reassigning teachers accused of sexual misconduct with students to other schools.
It's not just happening in schools.
Religious institutions have been accused of trying to hide abuse allegations. It's called "priest shuffling" in the Catholic Church. Jewish institutions — particularly in certain Orthodox and Conservative communities — have faced similar accusations of relocating suspected predators to protect reputations over students.
Last month, survivor Alex Kaufman detailed alleged grooming at a Jewish summer camp, Camp Ramah in Wingdale, New York, describing it as “the perfect environment to groom young boys for sexual abuse” due to unchecked access to impressionable campers. A former Solomon Schechter student, encouraged by the school and synagogue to attend the same camp, said any positive experiences were overshadowed by a “culture of sexual violence and harassment.”
The Centinal had an opportunity to speak with Samantha and two other mothers involved in the case before the sentencing hearing. A summary of key events is included below.
Parents from both Solomon Schechter and St. Gabriel’s reported that school administrators downplayed their concerns, protected Ricciardi, delayed his removal, discouraged external reporting, and publicly attacked parents who spoke out. Some parents allegedly feared losing scholarship money if they complained too forcefully or pressed charges. The schools appeared more focused on protecting their reputations than on student safety.
For example, after Ricciardi's arrest, Berger emailed the school community to express his "extreme disappointment" with a specific parent, calling her out by name for sharing facts and asking questions about Ricciardi in the "Anafim What'sApp" parent group chat.
In the same email Berger tried to portray Solomon Schechter as a hero — claiming it was “the first school to have actually done something about the concerns.”
While technically the school eventually acted, a closer look at the timeline shows it did not respond strongly when first made aware of the allegations in November 2025. Instead, the school conducted an internal investigation, consulted its lawyer, filed an anonymous complaint with DCF days after Samantha’s report, and even tried to convince Samantha to allow her daughter to participate in a “restorative justice” session with her adult abuser on December 9, 2025, after two additional reports of inappropriate touching had surfaced.
Samantha refused, and instead enrolled her children in public school. A mandated reporter at the public school immediately filed a report with DCF on December 12, 2025. West Hartford Police received notification the following day. On December 17, 2025, police informed Solomon Schechter of the investigation, and the school placed Ricciardi on leave.
The real heroes in this story are the mothers — like Samantha and Jaclyn — who refused to stay silent. They fought not only for their own daughters, but to protect other children from being groomed by Ricciardi.
"It's the silence that gives them power," Samantha said.
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