S31 E7: Club no one wanted to join | The Banned Teacher
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How did the internet go from this? You could actually find what you were looking for right away, buying. To this. I feel like I'm in hell. Spoiler alert, it was not an accident. I'm Cory Doctorow, host of Who Broke the Internet from CBC's Understood. In this four-part series, I'm going to tell you why the internet sucks now, whose fault it is, and my plan to fix it. Find Who Broke the Internet on whatever terrible app you get your podcasts.
This is a CBC Podcast.
The Markham High School Band, more than 35 years ago.
It is a cassette tape from 1987.
Ali flips the cassette case over in her hands. They made copies for students. Allie played trumpet in that band. In grade 11, her strawberry blonde hair was permed. She had fair skin and freckles, often wore a baggy jean jacket. But this event was formal. The performers wore white shirts under navy blazers. The music teacher sported a tuxedo. I've seen the photos.
June 2nd, 1987, and it was our final day. band concert at the Markham Theatre.
This was the music teacher's swan song. He was leaving the school.
Yeah, there's a couple of songs here that I think really meant something to Doug Walker, and that's why he included them. I know the RAF March Past would be connected to his history with the Royals.
The Wind Ensemble will now play Man and Bean.
He was very, very emotional about this piece called Man and Bean. And he closes his eyes and gets very swept into it and gets teary-eyed when he conducts that. So I know that was his big, big finish that night. Yeah. He was 39. I cannot imagine getting sexually involved with a 17-year-old. Ali was that 17-year-old. I just wanted to get through this year. And I was having trouble attending classes. I don't think I was attending rehearsals anymore. I just did what I had to do to get it over with because there was no way for me to not be in the band and participate in the concert without my parents asking why. But I was at the concert, yeah. And then it was just going to be over.
It's been more than three decades. It will never be over for Ali. That concert was a pinnacle moment. He was leaving Markham High because of Ali.
Three weeks after I reported him. So he would have just found out that he'll be leaving the school and this was going to be his last concert at the school.
So after you reported him, he didn't have to leave the school or anything. He got a big farewell. Yeah. Right, yeah, he finished out the school year and... And went on. To another band. At another school. The band teacher. I'm Julie Ireton. This is season two of The Band Played On. In 1987, Ali blew the whistle. She was shunned and shamed. He made me feel terrible. that he was leaving the school. What was he going to tell his wife? The complaint came five years after Jackie Short reported the band leader's bad behavior to an administrator. Nothing was done. By 1987, the music teacher had already worked at three different schools. He would go on to move schools four more times before he left teaching. These ladies all reported him, but he kept teaching.
Just this feeling of anger that he was able to do this to so many people.
Now, decades on, survivors are getting together for an inaugural meeting.
Now I'm a member of a really bad club, and I just get angry that what brought us together was him.
Episode 7, The Club No One Wanted to Join.
I'm back in Toronto. It's a hot July afternoon. Beyond this front door and the two dogs and a cat is a group of women I've come to know very well, but mostly from a distance. This is not very nice wrapping, but that's for you. I wish you hadn't eaten. We have so much food.
I hand over a coffee cake, grip my microphone. I plan to keep recording for the next several hours. Today, we get to meet, chat, and eat cake together.
I did. I had something. Can I get you something to drink?
No, I'm good for now. This is Ollie's cozy 1930s-era home with original wood trim. As a real estate agent, these are the kinds of things she'd notice. An upright piano sits on one side of the room, a fireplace on the other. The women are here from all over.
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