Julie Ireton
speaker
251 appearances
10 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Jan 2025
Julie Ireton’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
The pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. Episode 8, The Punch. Alison Hall sways to the music, holds her microphone like a crooner. She's 16 and she's got the solo. It's 1987. The Dixieland band at Markham High plays backup.
Alison Hall posted this YouTube video. The music teacher, Doug Walker, plays trombone alongside his teen students in this band.
There are a few Allisons in this story, so I'm going to refer to Allison Hall by her last name. Hall lives in Alberta. In 1987, this crooner was good friends with Allie. She's the strawberry blonde. She told us her story about being slut-shamed in the last episode. Back in 87, both Ali and Hall were on the high school band trip to Montreal.
And Hall remembers the night Ali ended up in the music teacher's hotel room.
It was very exciting for us. There was a whole group of girls. They ran into the music teacher.
Hall says some of them went back to the hotel, but she lost track of Ali. Another former Markham High band member, Leslie McMillan, picks up the story from later that night.
Leslie now lives outside Toronto. She and Ali still get together when they can. Leslie kept this story secret for decades.
She says none of them talked about it again until May 2022. That's when my online and broadcast stories came out about Anne-Marie Robinson and Jeannie McKay. In fact, the article was published 35 years to the day Allie ended up in her teacher's hotel room. The timing freaked them out. Leslie talked to Allie. Then Leslie spoke to her mother.
He was older, also in Walker's bands.
Leslie says her mom paid attention to what was going on with the music teacher.
Hall, the crooner we heard from earlier, says her mom knew something too, but only after her friend Ali's sexual encounter with the teacher. Right after, Ali told the administration. In fact, Hall was called to the principal's office as a witness. She says her mom was also at that meeting.
Hall answered the administrator's questions, although she doesn't really remember what was said.
No one did. But it takes a special kind of person to take on the school system, especially if your child isn't involved. In this case, no one notified Allie's parents. But Allie had begged the administration not to tell them. So the principal asked Allie to sign a document to that effect. The school board has no records or documents to share.
Leslie McMillan doesn't understand why in 1987, none of the adults in positions of authority did anything.
Since this investigation began, I've been trying to find teachers, parents or administrators, people who knew what went on with this music teacher. How did adults perceive the situation between this teacher and teen girls? We now have a pretty clear picture of what was actually going on. But did anyone know then?
In 1987, Ali reported what happened in that Montreal hotel room to the administration. Ali has given me all the names related to her case. I saw help from my guidance counsellor. I try to track her down. After several weeks, I find a relative of that former guidance counsellor on Facebook. I'm told the counsellor died a few years ago. Ali had confided in her.
Then... She told our principal, Mr. Nicky Fork, who told the superintendent of the York Region District School Board, Mr. Houston. I soon discover the superintendent, Wayne Houston, is also dead. The search continues. Hi there, I'm looking for John Nicky Fork. My name is Julie Ireton and I'm calling from CBC. Then I find John Nicky Fork, the former principal at Markham High. He's still alive.
I wondered if you had any memory of a teacher named Doug Walker. Unfortunately, John Nicky Fork's family says he's in ill health. He can't contribute. But there is one other person I want to find, the vice principal. Ali says he wasn't in those meetings in 1987, but he was the second in command. So maybe he knew. His name is Howard Christie, and he was at the school for a long time.
In fact, five years before Ali went to the administration, Jackie Short had told the same vice principal about the music teacher. Jackie told me she reported to Howard Christie.
Jackie Short, our diary keeper. She told me the story about the band trip to Germany in 1982. They were on the Elbe River between East and West Germany. She says she revealed it all right there on the boat.
Showing 161–180 of 251 · page 9 of 13
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