A Grand Prairie teenager is suing Grand Prairie ISD after district leaders barred her from playing the leading male role in Little Shop of Horrors.
In a lawsuit filed this week, Ana Mota, 17, alleged school leaders violated Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex at institutions that receive federal funds.
“Our leaders are making decisions based on nothing but fear,” Ana’s mother, Nancy Jimenez Mota said. “They should be standing up for us.”
Sam Buchmeyer, a spokesperson for the school district, declined to comment on the federal lawsuit.
Ana, a senior at South Grand Prairie High School, was thrilled when she was cast as Seymour, a nerdy plant shop owner who discovers a bloodthirsty plant, in September. The senior thought nothing of being cast in a male role, because she previously played the male roles of Pinocchio and Jack in Into the Woods. The school’s adaptation had also already scrapped plans for a scripted kiss between Seymour and his crush, Audrey.
But after about a week of rehearsals, district leaders told her she could not portray a man and offered her the role of Audrey, which she declined. Ana and her mother said the district initially cited Senate Bill 12, passed in 2023, which restricted some drag performances.
School Board President Emily Liles later clarified the district meant Senate Bill 12 passed in 2025, which prohibits school employees from assisting in the “social transitioning” of students by adopting different names or pronouns or other expressions that do not align with their sex at birth.
It also bans diversity, equity and inclusion measures in public schools and school-sanctioned clubs based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The law does not explicitly prohibit students from portraying roles of a different gender in theater.
Ana’s mother requested school district leaders explain in writing how Ana’s role as Seymour would violate the state law but never received a response. Jimenez also filed a Title IX complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.
“Everyone in the cast earned their role,” Ana told school board trustees earlier this month. “The district is throwing away those accomplishments.”
When Ana refused to switch parts, Grand Prairie ISD canceled the show and replaced it with Frozen. The lawsuit requests the district restore Little Shop of Horrors and permit Ana to play Seymour.
The suit accuses the district of misinterpreting Senate Bill 12 and applying it too broadly, noting that cross-gender acting has been a staple of theater for hundreds of years.
“Ana Mota is not transgender and was not engaged in any personal gender transition,” the lawsuit says. “She was portraying a scripted fictional character
in an official school theatrical production.”
This is not the first North Texas high school play to face cancellation.
In Sherman ISD, administrators in 2023 called off a production of Oklahoma! after a transgender teenage boy was cast in a leading role. The following year, Keller ISD canceled a performance of The Laramie Project, about the aftermath of the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student in Wyoming. Both districts later reversed their decisions and allowed the productions.