SALT LAKE CITY — Plaintiff’s attorneys are dropping out of a federal lawsuit in which a teenager and his parents accuse the Davis School District of failing to protect the boy from sexual abuse by teacher Brianne Altice.

The teen, now 19, was one of three boys who had sexual relationships with Altice while she taught English at Davis High School in Kaysville. Altice, of South Weber, pleaded guilty in 2015 to three charges of forcible sexual abuse after having sex with 16-and-17-year-old students in 2013. She’s at the Utah State Prison, serving up to 30 years.

Attorneys Matthew Feller and Mark Carlson filed papers in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, seeking to withdraw from their representation of the teen and his parents, who lodged the civil rights suit in December 2015 against the school district, Davis High School and numerous school administrators.

The documents said the attorneys are leaving the case without permission of their clients. Carlson declined to comment Tuesday.

The teen’s father said in a phone interview the attorneys, who took the case on a contingency basis, are dropping out because the case is not worth their investment of time now that the suit nears the time-consuming pre-trial discovery phase and because defense claims of immunity may be difficult to overcome.

The Standard-Examiner’s policy is not to identify victims in sexual abuse cases.

The father also blamed the departure on what he described as a cultural attitude that “people actually think these boys got lucky instead of just got raped.”

Had the victims been female and the teacher a male, the school and justice systems would have reacted much more decisively to early indications that the teacher was acting inappropriately with the boys, the father said.

“I think that this is just a case in which the double standard really is exhibited at its worst,” he said.

The father lashed out at school officials he says were looking the other way.

“They did nothing to inform us or protect the boys,” he said. “After two years of counseling our son is just beginning to put back the pieces of his broken life. For those idiots to think these boys were just having a good time is grotesque.”

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The Farmington man also lamented the system provides immunity to institutions and public employees in such cases. The family first filed suit against the school district in 2nd District Court, but a state judge ruled the defendants were immune from civil action when students are assaulted.

“Involvement with the so-called justice system means that when people work with the government, people are immune,” the father said. “Explain to me the justice in that.”

He said the family intends to hire new attorneys to press the federal case.

“We don’t need the money to survive; it was never about the money,” he said. “It’s the fact that the school district allowed multiple boys to be abused and (the district is) walking off scot free. I want to expose the justice system for what it actually is.”

He condemned what he said was an attitude that “Davis High School’s name is more important to protect at the expense of the psychological health of the children.”

School personnel knew of Altice’s inappropriate relationships with boys while she was a Davis High teacher, and of similar activities even before she was hired, the father said. He said the burden was upon parents to prove a relationship was improper.

“We’re interested in correcting something that is glaringly overlooked by everybody, in correcting double standards,” he said. “Rape is rape, whether it’s girls or boys. The effects are just as devastating.”

Kyle Kaiser, an assistant state attorney general representing the school district, had no comment on the plaintiff attorneys’ withdrawal. He said a hiatus between attorneys would merely delay the discovery phase.

Altice, now 36, is inmate No. 222952 at the state prison in Draper. She is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit and is representing herself. In a handwritten answer to the lawsuit she submitted in March, Altice said the teen’s attendance, grades and behavior improved during the 2012-13 school year when she was his teacher.

She wrote that she encouraged him toward “positive academic results and displayed the importance of continued higher education.”

Altice said the boy’s parents did not attend parent-teacher conferences while she was his teacher.

She also denied she had inappropriate relationships with students before she was hired to teach at Davis High.

A second federal lawsuit, similar to the first, has been filed by the family of a teen who now lives in California.

In court documents, Davis district officials have denied allegations that they created or allowed a “hostile educational environment,” that they violated the boys’ civil rights and that they should be subject to the suit, citing immunity provisions.

You can reach reporter Mark Shenefelt at mshenefelt@standard.net or 801 625-4224. Follow him on Twitter at @mshenefelt and like him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SEmarkshenefelt.