High school was an important part of Katrina Munting's life.
It was where she would get the marks to go on to be the first person in her family to go to university.
But it was also the place that destroyed the happy and safe position she had as a child, a court has heard.
One of Ms Munting's teachers at Rose Bay High School on Hobart's eastern shore sexually abused her when she was a student in the late 1990s.
Marcus James Pollard pleaded guilty in August 2020, in the Supreme Court in Hobart, to persistent sexual abuse of a young person. He was sentenced to three years' jail.
Ms Munting is now suing Pollard and Tasmania's Education Department for damages.
Ms Munting is alleging Pollard breached his duty of care as a teacher by grooming her to facilitate his sexual misconduct and that the Education Department is vicariously liable for Pollard's acts and was negligent.
The school's principal in the late 1990s, who had been named as a defendant in the case, was removed from the court case on Monday.
The judge-only civil trial, before Acting Justice David Porter, is understood to be the first historical child sexual abuse case involving the state of Tasmania that has gone to trial.
Since the limitation period for such cases was removed in 2018, some others have been settled out of court.
In his opening comments in the Supreme Court in Hobart on Monday, Ms Munting's barrister, Ken Read SC, said Pollard's abuse of Ms Munting had significant consequences.
He said Ms Munting had been diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder and had experienced periods of depression.
Mr Read said Ms Munting was intelligent and diligent and graduated from the University of Tasmania with a Bachelor of Sciences with honours.
However, he said, "opportunities that were significant" for someone of her intelligence were "forever closed off to her" because of Pollard's abuse.
"Her sense of safety evaporated … She has had powerful feelings of self-blame, shame and guilt," Mr Read said.
Pollard was not present at Monday's opening day of the trial and was not represented by a lawyer.
The trial adjourned early so that Acting Justice Porter could consider the legal questions around Pollard's lack of participation.
Pollard did file a defence in the Supreme Court. In it, he denied that he, on repeated occasions, sexually assaulted and battered Ms Munting and that the sexual assaults and battery occurred during school hours on school premises, on a school camp at Maria Island, and at Pollard's home.
Pollard denied he had an unlawful relationship with Ms Munting.
He admitted some physical contact, including kissing and touching Ms Munting on several occasions in 1998, at school and the Maria Island camp.
He admitted those allegations constituted battery of Ms Munting.
In an amended statement of claim, Ms Munting's instructing solicitor, Roland Browne, wrote:
"The conduct of the defendant's defence has demonstrated a continuing contumelious disregard for the plaintiff's rights, by the first defendant continuing to deny the conduct the subject of proceedings heard and determined in this court where the Honourable Chief Justice Blow determined facts against the first defendant which are in contention in this action, and where the first defendant continues to deny those facts by the pleading of his defence, requiring the plaintiff to engage in a … trial to vindicate her right to damages."
Pollard's then-lawyer, in his defence, said Pollard "denies that his conduct has demonstrated a continuing contumelious disregard to [Ms Munting's] rights".
The Education Department has made admissions, in line with the findings in the criminal case against Pollard, but Ms Munting is arguing the Education Department's liability goes further than that.
Former Australian of the Year and victim-survivor advocate Grace Tame was in court to support Ms Munting.
The trial continues on Tuesday.
