![]() But some of Cornwell’s former students viewed their experiences in a different light. The push to name the building for Cornwell garnered significant support at first: The district got more than 200 responses when they asked for testimonials in support of Cornwell’s honor. The resolution, which came before the school board’s final decision, gushed over Cornwell’s performance in running “one of the largest and most prolific theater programs in the state” and bringing the district “national and international recognition.” It stated that Cornwell had “taught and mentored thousands of students … encouraging them to be fine arts advocates and good citizens of the world.” According to the resolution, Cornwell has produced nearly 1,000 shows as an AISD teacher. When students or parents would complain to Cornwell or school officials, the lawsuits allege, students feared retaliation from Cornwell.ĭana Havlin and Annie Haddad Christopher Lee for the Texas Observerīut what finally drove these former students to file suit was the 2022 decision by the Austin ISD Board of Trustees to name the high school’s performing arts building after Cornwell, whose name had become “synonymous with the program.” That’s according to a resolution written by the school’s Campus Advisory Council-a group of parents, students, and community members who advise the district on campus performance and improvements, as mandated by the Texas Education Code. In the suit, she recalls “a constant barrage of abuse.” Andrews served as the theater company’s co-president during the 2011-12 school year. “You are told and taught what to do when another child bullies you, but nobody gives you the tools for what to do when a teacher is doing that,” said Sarah Andrews, a plaintiff in the federal lawsuit. One plaintiff alleges that Cornwell, out of the blue, kissed her on the lips before a performance, and others allege that Cornwell-along with fellow teachers Kris Andrews and Marco Bazan-mishandled reports of sexual harassment and assaults within the theater department. In their lawsuit filings, the plaintiffs in both suits describe closed-door rehearsals where Cornwell would encourage students to be intimate in front of her, other exercises in which students were made to recall traumatic experiences in front of their classmates, and instances of Cornwell inappropriately touching and tickling students. Three of the nine also filed in state court, suing Cornwell personally for alleged indecency with a child and sexual performance of a child, both violations of state law. Nine former students have sued the Austin Independent School District (AISD) in the federal lawsuit, under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act. ![]() ![]() Conditions were so bad, the complaints allege, that several of the students contemplated suicide during high school, with at least two hospitalized for suicidal ideation. ![]() During her tenure, that spirit and enthusiasm for the theater was sapped from many of her students: According to federal and state lawsuits filed by multiple former students, Cornwell subjected them to emotional abuse, encouraged them to perform sexual acts on each other in front of her, and created a hostile educational environment as the leader of the school’s Starlight Theater Company. In 1988, Cornwell moved to the newly created James Bowie High School, where she ran the theater department for more than 30 years. Johnson High School in Austin, she told the reporter that watching them felt like witnessing “the kindling of their enjoyment of performance and creation.” Diane “Betsy” Cornwell was effusive in a 1980 article in the Austin American-Statesman, talking about the joys of watching drama students perform.
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