SEATTLE — Washington state law does not bar teachers from having sex with 18-year-old students.

That’s the decision of a three-judge panel of the Washington Court of Appeals, which on Tuesday ordered the dismissal of a case brought against Hoquiam High School’s former choir teacher.

The teacher, Matthew Hirschfelder, was charged with first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor. He challenged a judge’s refusal to dismiss his case. The appeals court unanimously agreed that the state law is vague, and that the Legislature only intended to forbid sexual contact between school employees and students who are 16 or 17.

Hirschfelder was 33 in 2006, at the time of the alleged relationship with the young woman. He resigned the next year.

Back story, April, 2007:

MONTESANO, Washington — A former Hoquiam High School choir teacher accused of having sex with one of his students in his office last year pleaded not guilty to first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor Friday in Grays Harbor Superior Court.

Matthew Hirschfelder, 33, made an initial appearance in District Court, where a preliminary charge was filed last month. But, the case was re-filed in Superior Court after Hirschfelder declined to accept a plea bargain that was offered.

Details on the offer were not disclosed, but the charge would have been a misdemeanor, rather than a felony, Deputy Prosecutor Megan Valentine said.

A few former or retired Hoquiam school teachers were in court Friday for Hirschfelder’s appearances.

Hirschfelder was released on his own recognizance and ordered not to have contact with the victim, or any current or former students who could be potential witnesses. He was also ordered not to have any unsupervised contact with minor children, other than his own.

Valentine had requested Hirschfelder be restricted from having any contact with minor children, but his attorney, Rob Hill of Olympia, contested the restriction.

“It seems incredibly unwieldy,” Hill said, noting that Hirschfelder could run into children at church or the grocery store. “There hasn’t been any allegation that he’s had sexual contact with anyone who is not an adult.”

Hirschfelder, who is married with three children and a fourth on the way, plans to move to Oregon next month to live with his in-laws, his attorney said.

According to court documents, Hirschfelder is accused of having sex with an 18-year-old student on June 2, 2006, on the floor of his office, next to the choir room. The student graduated later that month and the two continued to have an intimate relationship until late 2006, court papers say.

The legal age of consent in Washington is 16, but criminal charges apply because Hirschfelder was a school employee and the teen was a student.

Hirschfelder, who taught at HHS for 11 years, resigned in March after the School Board agreed to pay his salary and benefits through the end of the school year.

He had been on administrative leave since December, when school officials first learned of a potential relationship between the popular choir teacher and student. School officials were investigating a kiss between Hirschfelder and the student during a senior recognition night in May of 2006.

Hirschfelder told school officials the student kissed him unexpectedly. He said he was embarrassed about it and didn’t report it until the parents of a friend of the student questioned him about it last fall.

Court documents, however, say Hirschfelder kissed the student when she went to his office to get a Band-Aid. A couple of weeks later, during book signing night, the student went to his office to have him sign her yearbook, they talked and he kissed her again. They then had sex on his office floor, court papers say.

Three classmates reported seeing Hirschfelder’s van parked near the door to the music room around midnight that night, and said the teen had disappeared from the book signing and dance. The three students also told police that they were aware Hirschfelder and the student had sex before graduation.

Hirschfelder’s attorney declined to comment after Friday’s court hearing. He previously told The Daily World in an e-mailed statement that “there are at least two sides to every story, and unfortunately Mr. Hirschfelder’s side of the story was not heard.”