On the first day of trial in an $8-million lawsuit against Sunriver Preparatory School, an attorney representing a former female student said the school is responsible for exposing the girl to sexual abuse when her father visited her during spring break in 1998 and raped her three times.

But an attorney for the school told the Deschutes County Circuit Court jury that it was poor judgment on the part of a Sunriver Prep teacher who was hosting the student that led to the abuse.

In opening statements Tuesday, Portland attorney Kevin Strever, representing the now 20-year-old woman, said the school failed to tell police the father had taken his daughter to dinner and a motel even though school employees had been told to alert police if the man showed up.

The father, who has been charged with rape, visited his daughter March 20, 1998.

Five days before the father’s visit, the student told her host mom, Kim Wheeler, also a part-time physics teacher at Sunriver Prep, that her father had sexually abused her for years, Strever said.

Wheeler contacted police and tried to protect the girl by faxing the father a message that his daughter was ill, Strever said. The father then canceled his visit. Police told Wheeler to contact them if the father did show up, Strever said.

But when the father did visit, Wheeler failed to tell police, Strever said.

The suit before Judge Michael Adler asks for $3 million for physical and mental abuse and $5 million for expelling the student shortly after the abuse occurred.

Strever said the school was liable because Wheeler was acting as an agent of the school. He said the student was living with Wheeler, who had received instruction on housing students from the Sunriver Prep staff.

In addition, Strever told the jury, Wheeler said she told Sunriver Prep Principal Trish King of the abuse, but King reacted angrily and forbade her from telling others.

Sunriver Prep’s attorney, John Hart, told the jury that Wheeler was a ”bold face liar,” and it was her poor judgment that led to the student’s abuse. Wheeler told King the problem was taken care of, and King never heard of the abuse until weeks after it occurred, Hart said.

Hart also said there was no contract between Wheeler and the school for the student’s care, and Wheeler and other families hosting students were not agents of the school.

Days after the abuse occurred, Wheeler told King that everything with the student went fine during spring break, Hart said.

Strever said the girl tried to commit suicide a month after the alleged rape and soon after was expelled from the school.

Hart said the school was forced to expel the girl because of her depressed mental state and the chance she could harm herself or others attending the school. He said Sunriver Prep refunded her tuition so she could be tutored privately the rest of the year.

A Deschutes County grand jury indicted the then 46-year-old father on counts of rape, incest, sodomy and sexual abuse in December 1998. A warrant has been issued for his arrest, but he remains at large.