From Judge Jennifer Dorsey's decision today in Evans v. Hawes (D. Nev.):
In March 2022, Las Vegas Academy (LVA) drama teacher Kelly Hawes required her students to write a monologue that would then be performed by a fellow classmate. Hawes reviewed, edited, and approved each monologue, then printed all of them and instructed her students to pick one at random from the pile. Hawes told the students that they could not select their own monologue and "could only exchange a selected monologue one time."
R.E., the minor daughter of plaintiffs Terrance and Candra Evans, did not like the first monologue she picked, so she chose another. Her second pick was written from the perspective of "a girl coming out as a lesbian to her boyfriend." It contained sexually explicit language concerning the girl's interest in her female roommate and her disinterest in having sex with men. "Because R.E. had already used her one and only turn to exchange the first monologue she selected, R.E. believed she had no option but to study, memorize, and perform" the explicit monologue. The plaintiffs allege that R.E. knew Hawes had already edited and approved the monologue and that "her grade was conditioned upon her performing the monologue in front of the class." So R.E. performed the monologue, allegedly not understanding some of the sexually explicit content it contained.
About a month later, Candra discovered the written monologue and confronted her daughter about it. When she learned that it was a school assignment R.E. was required to perform, Candra hightailed it to her daughter's school and spoke to Assistant Principal Joshua Hager. He agreed that the monologue was inappropriate and told Candra that he wanted to meet with R.E. "to let her know that she could tell a teacher 'no'" if she felt uncomfortable with an assignment….
The Evanses sued on various grounds, including that the teacher's actions were an unconstitutional speech compulsion, and the court allowed that claim to go forward:
