Photo: Alison Yin/EdSource
May 12 began as a typical school day for Temecula Valley High School drama teacher Greg Bailey.
But when he opened his mailbox, he found a printed copy of an email, sent on May 7, complaining that he taught the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Angels in America” by Tony Kushner, which deals with the AIDS epidemic in New York during the 1980s.
Allegations mounted that Bailey was grooming students and that he forced them to perform a short, explicit scene involving a gay man who makes questionable choices while dealing with the pain of his partner who was dying of AIDS.
Two days later, he was called to the principal’s office at Temecula Valley High School, and about 48 hours after that meeting, he was pulled out of the classroom and placed on paid leave, leaving his students in the hands of a long-term sub and the theater department that he runs in limbo.
“Most kids who take Drama 1,…
