Two civil claims dismissed against former teacher
By Jennifer Broadwater
Posted 9/23/08
A judge today dismissed two of five civil claims against a former Howard County teacher who is being sued by an 18-year-old Columbia resident for emotional distress stemming from a sexual relationship the two had in 2004.
The former teacher, Kirsten Kinley, had requested the entire case be dismissed.
In 2007, Kinley pleaded guilty to a third-degree sex offense for having sex with the plaintiff when he was 15 and she was a 25-year-old teacher at Hammond Middle School.
She is serving an 18-month term in the Howard County Detention Center.
Kinley was a special education teacher at Hammond Middle from 2002 to 2005. She taught at Marriotts Ridge High School from 2005 until her arrest in February 2007. The school board fired her later that year.
In February, the former student, now 18, filed a civil lawsuit against Kinley, accusing her of battery, negligence and causing him emotional distress. The plaintiff, who was never Kinley’s student, attended Hammond High School in Columbia and withdrew in January 2007, school officials said.
The Howard County Times is not naming the plaintiff because it is the paper’s policy to not name victims of sexual assault.
The civil suit also named as defendants the school board, Hammond Middle School principal Kerry McGowan and the state of Maryland and accused each of negligence for their roles in hiring and supervising Kinley. Circuit Court Judge Lenore Gelfman dismissed those defendants from the case in June.
At a hearing Sept. 22, Judge Joseph Manck, a retired Anne Arundel County judge who was filling in at Howard County Circuit Court, dismissed a claim against Kinley for punitive damages and a claim that holds an employer responsible for actions of an employee, which was no longer applicable to the case since the school board had been dismissed.
Kinley still faces accusations of negligence, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Kinley’s lawyer, Andrew Dansicker, argued that the accusations against Kinley were off-base because Kinley and the plaintiff did not have a pre-existing relationship, she was not his teacher, and because she did not intend to cause him distress.
“There’s no evidence she intended to inflict harm on him,” he said.
The plaintiff’s lawyer, Loyd Byron Hopkins, argued that Kinley, in her position as a teacher, owed a duty of care to his client.
“She’s a teacher in the system,” he said. “She has a duty not to harm students, period.”
A trial date has yet to be scheduled.
The former teacher, Kirsten Kinley, had requested the entire case be dismissed.
In 2007, Kinley pleaded guilty to a third-degree sex offense for having sex with the plaintiff when he was 15 and she was a 25-year-old teacher at Hammond Middle School.
She is serving an 18-month term in the Howard County Detention Center.
Kinley was a special education teacher at Hammond Middle from 2002 to 2005. She taught at Marriotts Ridge High School from 2005 until her arrest in February 2007. The school board fired her later that year.
In February, the former student, now 18, filed a civil lawsuit against Kinley, accusing her of battery, negligence and causing him emotional distress. The plaintiff, who was never Kinley’s student, attended Hammond High School in Columbia and withdrew in January 2007, school officials said.
The Howard County Times is not naming the plaintiff because it is the paper’s policy to not name victims of sexual assault.
The civil suit also named as defendants the school board, Hammond Middle School principal Kerry McGowan and the state of Maryland and accused each of negligence for their roles in hiring and supervising Kinley. Circuit Court Judge Lenore Gelfman dismissed those defendants from the case in June.
At a hearing Sept. 22, Judge Joseph Manck, a retired Anne Arundel County judge who was filling in at Howard County Circuit Court, dismissed a claim against Kinley for punitive damages and a claim that holds an employer responsible for actions of an employee, which was no longer applicable to the case since the school board had been dismissed.
Kinley still faces accusations of negligence, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Kinley’s lawyer, Andrew Dansicker, argued that the accusations against Kinley were off-base because Kinley and the plaintiff did not have a pre-existing relationship, she was not his teacher, and because she did not intend to cause him distress.
“There’s no evidence she intended to inflict harm on him,” he said.
The plaintiff’s lawyer, Loyd Byron Hopkins, argued that Kinley, in her position as a teacher, owed a duty of care to his client.
“She’s a teacher in the system,” he said. “She has a duty not to harm students, period.”
A trial date has yet to be scheduled.
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