Court Opinion

ID: 9786857
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 00:03:49.512126+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:49.234183
License: Public Domain

Justice WALTERS,
Dissenting.
I would affirm the district court’s dismissal of all claims in this case. As recognized by the foregoing opinion, both Ms. Hei and Mr. Holzer were adults at the time they consensually engaged in the sexual liaisons that formed the basis for the plaintiffs’ claims for damages against the defendants. There is no evidence that they were other than legally competent when they consummated their affair. I disagree with the majority’s determination under the facts in this case that there is a “duty” which should give rise to a cause of action to recover damages for negligence against the school district when the alleged underlying tortious conduct was between consenting adults.
The ruling in this case will create liability for illicit affairs between adult students and adult instructors not only in Idaho’s high schools but also in its colleges and universities. The fact that one of the parties is a student and the other is a teacher when, as adults, they fall in love and engage in sexual activities should not be the basis for liability between them nor on the part of the educational institution where one of the participants is enrolled as a student and the other teaching, under the guise of some kind of negligent supervision by the institution or its governing body, whether it be a local school board of trustees, a university’s Board of Regents, or the state Board of Education.