Drama students’ suit unmasks dramatic twists, turns

A school district in Pennsylvania is now asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by three high school drama club members who said their being booted from the school musical — over drama involving a drama teacher they disliked — violated their constitutional rights.

A play-by-play account, as published on Monday’s Pennsylvania Record news site, chronicles a story with more twists than Shakespeare, involving: poor conduct, retaliation, professional ruin, police, defamation, and at least one instance where the drama teacher at Oley Valley High School locked students in a room during rehearsal and demanded they tell her what the other students had said about her.

Cast as defendants in the suit filed in May by three students are the teacher, the district superintendent and the principal, according to the article. The students are claiming 14th Amendment violations of due process requirements and failure to supervise the protection of First Amendment rights, among other charges — emotional distress being one of them, according to the news site.