Former Abby Lee Miller student Paige Hyland, 13, has alleged some awfully serious misconduct in a lawsuit filed against Lifetime’s Dance Moms firebrand.
As we reported last week, Paige Hyland is suing Abby Lee Miller for making her life a living hell, and in court documents, she goes into shocking detail.
Miller, she claims, “engaged in conduct that caused Plaintiff….to reasonably believe she was about to be touched or harmed in an offensive matter."
As a result "of Defendant’s wrongful conduct, Plaintiff has suffered emotional distress, anxiety, frustration, anger, humiliation, post traumatic stress and anguish.”
Among the specific allegations of abuse? That Miller threw a chair during an argument with the teenager, pushed Paige’s mother Kelly Hyland and more.
According to Paige, Miller pinched another student until she bled. That’s only the physical abuse too. The mental side of things was even worse, supposedly.
“Miller insulted and abused Paige on an almost daily basis, including cruel name calling, insults about Paige’s physical appearance," Hyland’s attorneys claim.
While "making offensive false and defamatory accusations about Paige’s family,” she continues, "all of this abuse was done for the sake of drama during the show.”
There’s no question that major drama makes people want to watch Dance Moms online more than Abby being a caring, nurturing, patient and kind soul.
Would there even BE a Dance Moms or Abby’s Studio Rescue on TV if she were? No chance, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t way, way over the line.
Watch Dance Moms Season 4 Episode 31 OnlineHyland’s lawyers actually place much of the blame for Miller’s outrageous behavior on the show’s producers for pitting Miller against the moms and kids.
To support this claim, the attorneys also claim that Miller was “caring and nurturing” toward Hyland and her sister before the reality show began filming.
No longer. They are also overworked to a brutal and bone-weary extent.
“The girls on the show often work long hours without receiving all required breaks in violation of Pennsylvania Child Labor Laws,” they claim in the lawsuit.
“The average week involves rehearsals on Tuesday through Thursday from 4 p.m. to at times past 10 p.m.," which does not even include the competitions.
"Fridays the girls generally travel many hours, usually by bus, to competitions and they spend 12-hour days on Saturdays competing before returning home.”
Hyland is seeking unspecified damages, and for Abby Lee to stop all forms of abuse. So far, Miller has shown no signs of backing down or apologizing.
In her new book Everything I Learned About Life, I Learned In Dance Class, Miller says, "I know just how to push a kid’s buttons to get the results I want."
"Nobody is going to embarrass them and upset them more than I am.”
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