Matthias Masimba Kabete, 19, of Norwood, was arrested Wednesday night at the Norwood Police Department and charged with aggravated criminal sexual contact and criminal sexual contact, said Michael Mohel, the deputy chief of detectives for the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.

Kabete, a native of Zimbabwe who is attending the Old Tappan school on a student visa, allegedly sexually attacked an unconscious 18-year-old woman in the early morning hours of June 5 at an after-prom party in a hotel in Seaside Heights, Mohel said.

The alleged attack, which Mohel said did not involve intercourse, was disrupted when friends of the woman entered the room and intervened, Mohel said.

Mohel declined to say whether the alleged victim was a classmate of Kabete’s at Northern Valley’s Old Tapan campus, but several students interviewed outside the school on Thursday afternoon said the girl is a student there.

Jan Furman, superintendent of the Northern Valley Regional High School said counselors were on campus Thursday, available to students who were troubled by the incident.

“If the allegation is true about one of our students, then we are, of course, very concerned for him and very, very concerned for the victim,” Furman said. “We have done programs for the students and the parents about post- prom behavior and weekend party behavior that occurs after prom, but unfortunately we can’t stop what happens when the students leave our campuses.”

The alleged victim was examined by the Bergen County Sexual Assault Response Team at Englewood Hospital some time after the attack. The Norwood Police Department notified the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office about the incident on Monday.

“The investigation is ongoing and all avenues will be investigated,” Mohel said.

Northern Valley held its prom on June 4 in Mahwah. After the dance, many attendees drove down to Seaside Heights for a night of partying that several students said has become an annual rite of summer.

“After prom, that’s where everybody goes,” said one girl, a junior, who like other students interviewed Thursday declined to give her name. “All the schools go there. Cresskill, Tenafly, Demarest.”

The girl said she also was in Seaside Heights on Friday night but with a different group of students. Students rent hotel rooms and many spend the night party hopping, she said. Alcohol and drugs are prevalent, she said.

“It’s crazy,” she said. “Not everyone even gets a room.”

The manger of the Seaside Sands Inn, where the attack is alleged to have occurred, said Thursday that he was not aware of any incidents at the hotel last weekend.

“You would think if something happened it would have been reported to the motel,” said the manager, who declined to give his name.

The hotel, on Sumner Avenue, sits about a block from the beach and was full of prom-goers last weekend, the manager said.

“These weekends in June are all prom weekends,” he said.

Kabete was among a half-dozen prisoners who appeared via video link from the Ocean County Jail before Judge Stephanie Wauters in state Superior Court in Toms River on Thursday afternoon. In a brief exchange with Wauters, Kabete said he understood the charges and his rights. He then asked the judge to reduce his bail from $125,000, explaining that his mother could not afford to pay it.

Wauters denied the request. She also issued a restraining order barring Kabete from having any contact with the alleged victim or visiting her home, school or place of employment. Kabete also was ordered to surrender his passport.

Kabete’s petition to be assigned a public defender was approved on Thursday, but an attorney did not appear on his behalf and he did not enter a plea.

A woman who identified herself as a relative of Kabete’s declined to comment after the hearing. Another woman who answered the door at Kabete’s Norwood address said she had met his mother in church and that she had invited them to stay with her.

“He’s a good boy,” the woman said, referring to Kabete. “He’s innocent. He’s an OK student. He’s very into sports. That’s his thing. He does soccer and track.”

The woman said Kabete came home from the shore with “an enormous black eye.”

“He didn’t remember how he got it,” she said. “He was drunk. Everybody was drunk. We’re assuming the kids made up stuff about him. He’s a gentle kid.”

Staff Writers Deena Yellin and Ashley Kindergan contributed to this article. E-mail: naanes@northjersey.com

By Staff reporter and agencies