Abducted by My Teacher: The Elizabeth Thomas Story Review: A Real Life Story Done With Compassion

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.

It’s necessary to take a delicate approach when creating fictional accounts of true crime stories. Abducted by My Teacher: The Elizabeth Thomas Story’s director Shawn Linden and screenwriter Kristine Huntley do an excellent job of presenting this story compassionately and educationally. Lifetime often uses a heavy hand with over-the-top villains and melodrama.

However, it often tries to treat its based on true story films with a gentler approach. This comes across clearly in Abducted by My Teacher. The film especially excels at showcasing how Tad Cummins grooms Elizabeth Thomas. To start, the movie, in a short span, establishes her less-than-ideal family life.

Additionally, it gives enough of her background that you understand how Tad can prey on her so easily. She’s an instant outsider at school, and she feels alone at home. This makes her the perfect target for predators like Cummins.

Also, the film then does an excellent job of showing how men such as Tad start their grooming. He presents himself as just this friendly churchgoing man, then it escalates into exploitation.

We watch the two sides of their relationship. The one where Elizabeth appreciates his kindness and the one where she fears him. It’s important that Abducted by My Teacher shows this because victims often have complicated feelings about their abusers.

This is a story of survival, abuse,  compassion, and understanding and that means showing how victims suffer in more ways than one. This includes their treatment by others.

Abducted by My Teacher really helps foreshadow the town’s treatment of Elizabeth even before she returns home. It starts with Mrs. Cummins not being as upset about her husband being a pedophile, groomer, and rapist, but that he leaves her for Elizabeth. It then does it again with the way the media handles this story.

They focus more on Elizabeth’s role in the events and not enough on Cummins being fully to blame.

Moreover, the film makes sure to imply things (like a sexual relationship) without needing to go too far. The kiss is hard to watch, but even that doesn’t go too far. Summer H. Howell is 19 but she looks even younger, so this helps emphasize the creepy, inappropriate, gross, and illegal nature of the relationship between Elizabeth, 15, and her 50+-year-old teacher.

Summer H. Howell very much looks like a young teen being abused and used in this movie.

Pacing is the main issue with Abducted by my Teacher. I wish the movie spent more time showcasing Cummins’s grooming of Elizabeth so that people who may find themselves in similar situations can be educated on what that looks like.

Films like this can be used as a tool to enlighten and educate when done right. I wish the film leans a little more toward that. However, this Lifetime movie does a lot right, like highlighting the importance of therapy in her life, especially after such a traumatic event. Therefore, it’s admirable to see the director and writer include these scenes.

The movie’s narrative could have been stronger if it focuses more on the grooming aspects and what happens when Elizabeth returns home. The actual abduction scenes feel a little disjointed as it seems that there isn’t enough time in the movie to explore all the depth of such a tragic ordeal, but maybe that’s a good thing.

Covering true stories isn’t easy, but Lifetime does a respectable job of presenting the story in a way that doesn’t feel like exploitation. It allows a version of Thomas’s story to reach those who may be unaware of it. It also allows those who may need these stories not to feel alone or to know when they’re being the target of similar figures as Cummins.

Summer H. Howell and Michael Fishman play their parts well. You feel for Elizabeth and you despise Cummins.

This isn’t Lifetime’s best version of this type of movie, but it proves why Abducted by My Teacher: The Elizabeth Thomas Story and others like it are necessary.

What did you think of Abducted by My Teacher: The Elizabeth Thomas Story? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Abducted by My Teacher: The Elizabeth Thomas Story is available to watch on Lifetime. Check your local listings. 

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