(WBRE/WYOU) — A cafeteria worker accused of taping students' mouths shut has filed a defamation lawsuit against her former employers.
Dorothy Lanza was accused of placing painters' tape over students' mouths earlier this year.
Lanza is now suing administrators from the school, asserting that the accusations are false and claiming spread of the story has caused irreparable damage to her reputation.
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The lawsuit claims that despite the school principal's claim that the incident was described to him by witnesses, none of the witnesses actually stated that Lanza placed the tape over students' mouths.
The lawsuit asserts that the chain of events began with Lanza reprimanding a group of students for becoming too loud and jokingly asking which students required tape to "keep quiet." Another employee overheard the joke and handed Lazna a roll of tape. The lawsuit states that Lanza then handed out pieces of tape to students for them to play with and the students placed the tape over their own mouths.
A statement from another employee at the school corroborated this course of events, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit states three adult individuals at the school who were present have described the event as such.
The lawsuit claims that the administrators at the school did not do their due diligence and interview any of the witnesses before publishing their statement and alleges that the statement is an example of active malice.
28/22 News reached out to Lanza's attorney and received the following statement.
"We won't make any further comment at this time, but we feel the lawsuit speaks for itself," said Attorney Ryan Campbell.
28/22 News reached out to the Stroudsburg Area School District superintendent for comment and has not heard back at this time.
The full lawsuit can be read here.
