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SALT LAKE CITY — A former English teacher convicted of having sex with three students has asked a federal judge to toss a lawsuit claiming Davis School District administrators didn't do enough to protect the then-teenagers.
Ex-Davis High School English teacher Brianne Altice argues in a handwritten letter postmarked Nov. 13 that sex with the former student who brought the suit was an isolated incident that happened off school grounds and after the school year was over, court documents show.
Altice, a defendant in the suit, rejects the victim's argument that she was responsible for his care and safety. She wrote that any fiduciary duty she had to the student is low and poorly defined.
The former student sued Altice and Davis School District in 2015, arguing administrators knew she acted inappropriately on and off campus but did nothing to protect the boys. KSL does not typically identify victims of sexual crimes.
The suit claims the student was 17 when he was in Altice's class and confided in her about abuse he endured as a child. It alleges that Altice took advantage of his vulnerabilities and began flirting with him at school.
Altice pleaded guilty in 2015 to three counts of forcible sexual abuse stemming from relationships with the students who were 16 or 17 years old at the time. She was ordered to serve up to 30 years in prison.
Attorneys for the school district have argued that Altice was placed on administrative leave as soon as school officers learned of the inappropriate relationship, and that she was later terminated. The district took steps to investigate a prior claim that she texted inappropriately with a student, they said.
A judge consolidated the case with another suit from one of the other boys Altice admitted to abusing, court records show.
