In a cave you Defenders investigation
tonight, a longtime Austin ISD
teacher is under investigation after
several former Bowie High school
students say she inappropriately
touched students and subjected
them to emotional and verbal abuse,
among other claims.
The alumni say what they went
through was so disturbing they're
now suing the theater director
and the school district so other
students don't suffer as they did.
Here's investigative reporter Jenny Lee.
Diane Cornwell, better known as Betsy
Cornwell with more than 40 years with a ISD,
is on paid administrative leave tonight as
the district investigates the allegations.
The plaintiffs attorney also says they
are cooperating with Austin ISD police.
I sat down with those former students
who told me about private romance
rehearsals that involve groping above
and beneath clothing and questioned
the teachers use of traumatic memories
to trigger emotional breakdowns,
practices experts say should never
happen in a youth drama class.
I felt a lot of shame.
It made me feel small. Looking back,
it almost feels like we were
not humans to her. Students
deserve a place to feel safe.
But safe is far from how these
former drama students say they
felt when they were part of
that Starlight Theater Company
at Austin's Bowie High School,
while all of them loved acting.
They say they're traumatized
by the teaching methods used by
boy's longtime theater director,
Diane Betsy Cornwell.
I was hospitalized for suicidal ideation.
I truly believe that.
That would not have happened if I
hadn't been in this extracurricular
activity in the company,
the theater company.
But the group says it wasn't
until they learned that boy's
new Performing Arts Center would
bear Cornwall's name. And that
didn't sit well with me. It was very
shocking. It was very disappointing to me
that they decided to sue
all those in favor. Please raise your right
hand. In January, the Austin
ISD Board of trustees,
so the motion passes by all those
on the Dyess,
approved the naming of who's
Performing Arts Center after Cornwell.
I cannot think of a better individual
to name this, this facility.
Or I? Can't drive down slaughter
without dissociating and so
the name on the building.
Just was too much for me.
All four alumni say they're in therapy.
They're lawsuit, filed in late September,
accuses Cornwell of inappropriate
sexual comments, inappropriate touching,
harmful and abusive language,
assault, battery, emotional and
psychological abuse and manipulation,
and allowing sexual assaults
to happen under her direction.
What happened to hurt me?
The former students attended
buoy between 2008 and 2015.
I don't. I don't love looking at these.
The Haddad, now 27, says,
looking at old yearbooks.
That's my senior picture bring back
bad memories during a rehearsal
for the Crucible in 2012, and,
he claims, Cornwell instructed
her and her male scene partner
to be intimate with each other,
lie on the floor and kiss,
and to be sensual in front
of their cast mates.
I was encouraged to get
on the floor in the dark.
Make out, kiss, grope, whatever.
Um. We were being egged on.
It made me feel.
Replaceable and insignificant,
25 year old Dana Havlin says it was the
same for her during a private rehearsal
for a 2013 school play the herbal bed.
Dana says the only other people at
that rehearsal were the male lead,
one other student and Cornwell.
And then. The director instructed
us to stop running lines and
to just practice intimacy.
Um, and at that point we laid
down on the ground and. Um.
You know, we're rolling around one
person on top of the other person.
Just practicing intimacy,
simulating sex.
26 year old Walden Hageman claims many
of those intimacy rehearsals took place
in the theater behind locked doors,
and only Cornwell had the keys.
Walden says one of those locked
rehearsals went too far.
She instructed the other
student to stand behind me,
and we were still doing the lines,
and we were making out and
open mouths, tongues, and.
She wasn't satisfied.
And as she was egging us on,
telling us to look Mary and
telling us to look passionate,
he put his hands under my shirt.
He touched my breasts,
he put his other hand sort of
under the band of my jeans
and I would never actually have students
practicing intimacy in a rehearsal.
Caitlin Hopkins is a professor of
practice in the Department of Theatre
and Dance at Texas State University.
She is an award-winning actress,
producer and.
Director who has worked in film,
television and on and off
Broadway for more than 30 years.
Hopkins says intimacy scenes,
especially with youth actors,
should be choreographed under the
direction of an intimacy coordinator.
Hopkins says these practices
have been the industry standard
for about the past five years.
It's based in consent work,
it's based in boundary work,
and it's so that actors can do intimacy
in a way that looks real and effective.
But is keeping everyone safe?
The former students lawsuit also claims
Cornwell instructed students to share
past traumas and use them to generate
emotional outbreaks. And you never
knew. You never knew when those things
were going to be pulled against you.
And that added to the anxiety
and the oppressive nature of
the environment as a whole. I
remember having to be excused
from class because I was.
A mess. Crying. I was,
I was an inconsolable mess.
Ohh, just absolutely
horrible, 28 year old Sarah
Andrews says one time.
She recalls being unable to cry
during a rehearsal until Cornwell
used sensitive information about
her parents to break her. And
just awful insinuations about my
parents' home life and how it might
have been my fault due to some of my,
you know, health and health issues
and theater aspirations that
had taken so much time, Hopkins
says, drawing on past.
Promise to heighten emotions
is not safe for youth actors.
We don't ever want to.
Trigger any type of past trauma or
lived experiences that are not going
to be safe for an actor you know,
then you're navigating mental health
issues and all kinds of things that
that would not be appropriate.
I think it's absolutely essential for every
child to feel safe at school of any age.
Carolyn Mellon Makulu is a
licensed family therapist who
specializes in treating teenagers.
If it's something that a child
is still struggling with,
then having them go through that experience,
that's potentially.
Be traumatizing is then gonna have.
Those ripple effects of, you know,
possibly impacting their peer relationships,
possibly upsetting them when
they're in school so that then
they're not learning as well,
or that they're trying to kind of deal
with these emotions on a daily basis,
Miller Makulu says reliving trauma
can have lasting effects and effects
students trust in teachers. I
was standing with two of
my other fellow actors.
Sarah now says she still remembers
something Cornwell did right
before performance when she was 14.
Years old, Cornwell,
the director, came over to me and
grabbed me and kissed me on the
lips and grabbed the boy next to
me and kissed him on the lips.
And then the third boy she
just slapped across the face.
The group claims in their lawsuit,
Cornwell would tickle and
inappropriately touched students that
she forced Walden to give lap dances
and perform intimate sexual acts.
In the production of Miss Saigon,
students deserve to have their
bodies and their minds be cared
for and. Allowed to grow up.
The lawsuit also claims Cornwell
encourage Walden to get a spray tan,
dye her hair black and painted on winged
eyeliner in order to look the part of
a Vietnamese character in Miss Saigon.
But it wasn't just Walden.
According to the suit,
it claims she took part in racially
and sexually inappropriate musicals
where every student of color was cast
as a black character and told the
darken their skin for their roles.
It's offensive. It's inappropriate.
I almost I'm at a loss for words.
Because just pick a different show
they gave you. Defenders contacted
Cornwell about the allegations.
She referred us to her attorney.
Good afternoon, law office.
Good afternoon.
My name is Jenny Lee.
I'm a news reporter with K View News.
Through her attorney,
Cornwell declined our
request for an interview.
I don't want what happened
to me to happen to any
other children. Opening
up and sharing what they went through
wasn't easy, but the former students
say it's worth it if they can help make
schools and the arts safer for students.
I am here to
make the dramatic change I wish was made
before I got to school.
The group of former students wants
Cornwell's name removed from boy's
Performing Arts Center and hopes
her lawsuit will force a ISD to
institute proper training and
monitoring of theater instructors.
We reached out to a ISD for comment.
A district spokesperson says they
aren't able to discuss ongoing
investigations for the KB defenders.
I'm Jenny Lee.
Thank you, Jenny Bui High School
had counselors available to
students and staff on campus today.
Cornwell's attorney told us she
wants to talk, but the school
district will not allow her to.
We'll be right back.