An Upper St. Clair teacher resigned her position after school officials learned that she and her husband had filmed portions of a horror movie they are producing, “The Killer Inside You,” at the high school.
Julie Cantrell, 34, of Peters, a high school math teacher in the district for four years, resigned effective today, four days after the school board approved her resignation without comment at its Monday meeting.
Her husband, Brooks Cantrell, 35, said she was forced to resign or face dismissal and a possible loss of her teaching certificate.
He said no students acted in the film, but one 18-year-old student whose parents had signed a release ran a sound meter. He said the shooting was done on several occasions last summer and on weekends last fall.
Mr. Cantrell said some players had carried chain saws into the school, but the saws were not activated. In one scene, he said, an actress named Brenna Lee Roth, who is no longer in the film, is shown entering a classroom and shooting Mrs. Cantrell in the head using a 9 mm handgun loaded with blanks.
Mr. Cantrell said there was no nudity.
“I felt really good about shooting a horror film using no nudity to tell a story,” he said.
A promotional photograph for the film that was on the Internet, however, shows two women with their jeans pulled open, revealing their underwear.
Mr. Cantrell said his wife was told by school officials that she had violated the school’s morality code by appearing in the film, which he promoted at the Dark X-Mas Convention in Austinville, Ohio, in November and at the Eerie Horror Film Festival in Erie in October.
He claimed the school district had given his wife permission to use the school building when classes were not in session.
“We had a contract,” Mr. Cantrell said last night.
Acting Superintendent Terrence Kushner said there was no contract and the Cantrells did not have permission to film.
“She used our building without permission,” Dr. Kushner said yesterday. “Prior to the conclusion of our investigation, she resigned.”
Dr. Kushner would not address the comments about a morality code that were raised by Mr. Cantrell. He said district administrators were informed by an anonymous source that the high school building was being used for filming and that clips of the film were on the Internet.
Mrs. Cantrell had no comment.
I actually go to this high school. I’d do ANYTHING just to see a little bit of this film!