LEWES, Del. — A highly acclaimed teacher and theater director at a high school in Delaware near Rehoboth Beach who served as faculty adviser for the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance Club was forced to submit her resignation earlier this year based on what students and parents believe to be anti-LGBT bias.
Martha Pfeiffer, who heads the theater department at Cape Henlopen High School in the city of Lewes, is scheduled to end her seven-year stint at the school when the spring 2017 semester ends on June 16.
Her departure follows a stormy two-year period in which students, parents and others who know Pfeiffer say she was hounded by school administrators for what her supporters say was her outspoken support for the school’s LGBT students in her role as a committed straight ally.
“They were out to get her for years,” said a former school employee who spoke on condition of not being identified. “I think it was pretty much a trumped up charge against her.”