Throughout the series, it's clear that the actors/actresses portraying teenagers are actually in their 20s+. This is usually done to get around child labor laws, that won't allow teenagers to work full time on a set due to interfering with their real-life schooling. Plus casting adults adds to the benefit of better acting from the actors/actresses due to having more experience plus the producers are able to sexualize the characters without consequences. Lastly, it gives the general viewing audience who are teenagers (or young people) someone they can look up to.
Akron (Carmel High School/Vocal Adrenaline) is over 150 miles from Lima. Westerville (Dalton Academy/The Warblers) is almost 90 miles from Lima. These distances make many things in the show very unlikely to have happened, though not impossible.