Uncover - S31 E8: The punch | The Banned Teacher

Episode Date: January 6, 2025

Robinson meets Sam, the man behind the punch. He said in 1975, when he found out his 16-year-old daughter had sexual encounters with her high-school music teacher, he went to the principal. When Walker moved schools, he told Robinson about the punch — it made her feel sorry for him. But now she knows what really happened.

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I was flabbergasted. This is Sam. He's 88. He has sad eyes. As I say, it took me totally by surprise and I was kind of startled that you even knew about it. That was a private thing between him and me and not something that I blabbered about. But he did. The music teacher did blab, told Anne-Marie Robinson. Doug Walker told her about that private thing. He said a father had punched him for something he didn't do. It made Anne-Marie stay silent about what the teacher was doing to her

and feel sorry for him. Now all these years later, I found the father who delivered the punch and Anne Marie Robinson is sitting in his living room, drinking tea. You did something very, very understandable. I never said a word till this day. The Band Teacher. I'm Julie Ierton. This is season 2 of The Band Played On. Up until now, we've talked to a lot of people who were still kids when a teacher was having sex with teen girls. She had no adult in her corner.

Every adult failed her. How does that happen? Like, where were the adults? Now we hear from the adults. Doug Walker by the way was an excellent music teacher. Kids just seemed to adore him. I just told him, I said, Doug you gotta stop that and I said you can't do that. No physical contact. They said they were gonna dismiss him or at least move him out of the school. And I foolishly accepted that.

The pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. Episode eight, The Punch. Episode 8, The Punch. Mason Street Blues, and it features our very own soloist, Alison Hall. Won't you come along with me To the Mississippi Come along with me Do the business with me Allison 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.

It's my dad that videoed it. Allison Hall posted this YouTube video. The music teacher, Doug Walker, plays trombone alongside his teen students in this band. You'll see him and you'll see that he was right in there, popular, you know, well liked. 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 Allie 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. We went out to the bars in Montreal. It was very exciting for us. There was a whole group of girls. They ran into the music teacher.

And as I walked by Doug Walker, who was sitting at the bar drinking, and smelling of beer and watery eyed, he grabbed my arm and he said very wetly into my ear, I want to fuck you. And I looked at him and I pushed him off, you know, pushed his arm back and I just said no and walked away, you know, just like angry at him and disgusted and walked out on the street and just thought like I was so disgusted but I wasn't surprised. Hall says some of them went back to the hotel but she lost track of Ali. Another former Markham High band member Leslie McMill, picks up the story from later that night.

And I was walking past and Doug Walker's room opened and he said, Leslie, can you come in and help me? Ali's passed out drunk in my room. Leslie now lives outside Toronto. She and Ali still get together when they can. Leslie kept this story secret for decades. He was really trying very hard to figure out a way to spin this at why Ali was in his room. And there she's lying on his bed like on her back like totally passed out, pants undone.

So I knew, I mean I knew in my gut, like I knew what had happened but I just, he goes, can you help me get her out of here? And I said definitely. So I got her up and she was so drunk she didn't even know, you know, where she was. Like she just had no clue about what was going on. She was that inebriated. And as I'm taking her out, she told me that they had had sex. And then she begged me not to tell anybody. She just, please don't say anything. Like, you know, and so I got her to her room. And quite honestly, that's the last time we talked about it until this article came out and she had no memory that I got her out of that room. 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 Ali ended up in her teacher's hotel room. The timing freaked them out. Leslie talked to Ali. Then Leslie spoke to her mother. When this recent article came out and I forwarded it to my parents and I was having a conversation with them, they said, yeah, like Leslie, when you started high school, James... That's her brother. He was older, also in Walker's bands. James warned us to watch out for him, not to ever let you be alone with him. I'm like, wow. So it was just like this known, I guess, known thing about him in the band community anyway.

Leslie says her mom paid attention to what was going on with the music teacher. She made sure that she made her presence known. That I wasn't just, like he knew that there was parental oversight. 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. My mom is 88. She has a better memory than I do

about everything. And she said, oh yeah, I was there. I remember. I was not about to allow you to talk to the principal or the administration in any way without me being there. Hall answered the administrator's questions, although she doesn't really remember what was said. My memory would be that my mom was, you know, grateful it was over, angry that it happened. I don't remember her standing up in rage against Doug Walker. 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 Ali's parents. But Ali had begged the administration not to tell them. So the principal asked Ali 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. The school board though, they're equally if not more culpable in my opinion because they enabled him, they could have stopped this and they didn't. Or they could have, I don't know if they could have stopped it but they could have got him out of the school system at least.

She had no adult in her corner. You know, every adult failed her. in her corner. Every adult failed her. 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 counselor. I try to track her down. After several weeks, I find a relative of that former guidance counselor. I try to track her down. After several weeks, I find a relative of that former guidance counselor on Facebook. I'm told the counselor died a few years ago. Allie 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 Ierton 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.

And I told him, I said, I know that Doug Walker has been carrying on with students. 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. I told him about Rita. I mentioned to other girls that I thought.

I told him that he had propositioned me a couple of times. I just spilled it. I said that he had propositioned me a couple of times. I just spilled it. I said that he always was buying drinks for all the students. But Howard Christie is not easy to locate. I do find a phone number and an email address. Neither work. Then my searching produces a mailing address.

So I go old school. I send him a letter with my contacts and a brief explanation. To my surprise, he calls me weeks later. I know Doug Walker well. Christie's call catches me off guard, but I start recording with him on speakerphone at my desk, and he agrees to that. Yes, it won't do me any harm.

The quality of the phone recording isn't great, but it's good to hear his voice, the recollections of a 93-year-old widower and former vice principal. Doug Walker, by the way, was an excellent music teacher. The kids just seemed to adore him. And he won his band over the years, won many prizes at the Qantas festivals. He was a wonderful teacher and leader. So, you know, there's, well, there isn't two sides to a story like this, but he certainly was a well-respected teacher during his career at Markham. I tell him about my research and about the survivors. More

than a dozen women alleged sexual exploitation, assault, abuse involving the music teacher. Do you ever recall on one of those trips a Jackie Short telling you about some things that Doug Walker was doing with students? Jackie seems to recall it was even she even remembers it was on a boat trip on the Alba River and she said that she went up to you and told you about some of the things that Walker was doing with girls. This conversation that Jackie said she had with me on the boat. I recall, and there were four or five of the girls, and they talked to my wife more than they did to me, and I guess they felt more comfortable talking

to her, you know, because of the subject material. My wife was also a chaperone on that trip. also a chaperone on that trip. My wife got the impression that these girls were all kind of jealous of any attention that Doug gave to any of them. And yet you don't recall Jackie telling you anything about what Walker was doing? No, I don't. I don't recall anything specific that she said that would indicate that he was having sex with any of them. If you had found out, what would you have done? What would have the protocol at that time have been? Well, my protocol would have been to certainly take it to the principal and the superintendent and inform them. And certainly, you know, he would have been dismissed at that time, I would think.

You think he would have been fired? Oh, yes. Well, there certainly would have been an investigation. Hmm. I know that five years later in 1987, Allie told the administration what had happened to her. Walker had sex with her on a band trip to Montreal, but the teacher moved. He wasn't fired. Christie was part of that administration too. It

is, I do find it interesting you say that it would have been cause for dismissal because you know in 1987 when it happened to another girl he was just moved to a different school when Nicky Fork was in charge. Yeah well there was nothing that happened at Arkham District High School that was ever drawn to my attention. Right yeah. Oh I never heard any of that. If there was anything done there in 1987, I didn't hear anything about it. And yet I was the vice principal there at that time. So what did you hear was the reason that Doug Walker was leaving the school? It just seems that he wanted a change. Thank you very much. I dialed Jackie short soon after I get off the phone with Christy.

I tell her what the former vice principal said. And I remind her he's elderly. And we're talking about 40-year-old memories. I did tell him all this because it did happen. Jackie is adamant about what she told Christy in 1982. No, I remember going to the front of that boat and he was standing there. And I remember telling him that Walker would buy alcohol, that he had been sleeping with a former student.

So the first student I mentioned to him was Rita. I'm not, you know, I have to say, I'm not sure if I mentioned Jeannie by name because we were still in school together and I probably didn't want to get her in trouble. But it was such an important moment in my life and I probably didn't want to get her in trouble. But it was such an important moment in my life and still resonates with me 40 years later. I remember almost the air about it, like the sun and the whiteness of the boat and the hemming and hawing of Mr. Christie and him saying things like, well, hmm, well, you don't say, like, but being very noncommittal about it. 40 years ago, he would have been 53. So he would have been younger than I am now. I really doubt that at that time, he wouldn't have known what I was talking about. Now, mind you, has time passed and he's forgotten or does he not just not want to get in

trouble yeah can't answer those questions right but they're it's important to raise them Jackie is disappointed in Christie's response to say the least it wasn't what she wanted or expected to hear but I'm not finished searching for other adults who were around at the time. The lack of oversight by people in charge continues to baffle Anne-Marie Robinson. I mean how does that happen and how do people not like wear with the adults? Then Anne-Marie finds a lead. Uncover from CBC podcasts brings you award-winning investigations year-round. But if you want to listen ahead, all episodes of The Band Teacher are available right now.

Binge listen to the entire series by searching The Band Teacher wherever you get your podcasts. You can also listen ad-free by subscribing to the CBC True Crime Channel on Apple Podcasts. Uncover the best in true crime. Anne Marie recently discovered she actually knows the person who became Doug Walker's boss in 1987. That was right after Ali reported him. Walker moved to Stouffville District Secondary School, not too far from Markham High in the same School board district, and someone else was in charge of the music department there. He was just, I feel like he was kind of used and in the dark in this whole thing. Anne-Marie met that man when she treated herself to a new French horn. I wanted to buy the best French horn that I could and it's just for me so beautiful

and so symbolic of me taking back my power. And so I talk to people about where do you buy a really good French horn in. She was referred to an instrument dealer. And so there's this man in Toronto named Peter Samuelson. So I bought my horn from him. To Anne-Marie, Peter Samuelson was just a man who knew a lot about French horns. But Peter was also the head of music at Stouffville District Secondary School in 1987. And yes, he does know Doug Walker. And another kind of strange coincidence in this whole story,

I'm shamefully rational in my thought process, but I do kind of feel like in this story there is some magic in it because there's just so many coincidences. She called Peter to explain the connection. I could hear in Peter's voice that he was kind of shaken by what I had to tell him. I think he knew that Walker was in some sort of trouble. Then Anne-Marie told him to expect a call from me. Hello. Hi, is this Peter Samuelson?

Yeah. Hi, it's Julie Ierton calling from CBC. How are you? Yeah, good. He's happy to chat, but he has trouble hearing the result of teaching music in small, echoey rooms for decades. We do our best to communicate over the phone. In 1987, Peter Samuelson was not told why Doug Walker was leaving Markham District High School and why he was coming to his school. I just know where he came from and where he went

after he was at my school where I was the head of the music at Stouffville and I didn't know what had happened. He means what had really happened. Peter tells me what he knew back then. He gave me a story that he had taken a trip with his band to Montreal and he had been drinking beer in his room with the students and that one girl told her parents and that he got in trouble for having beer on a high school trip. And my principal didn't really tell me anything. But then something else about this new music teacher caught Peter Samuelson's attention. A few times I saw him either going up and hugging a girl or a girl coming over and hugging

him. I just told him, I said, Doug, you got to stop that. And, and I said, you can't, you can't do that. I said, you got to, no physical contact. To me, that's a big thing that you don't touch girls. And so I did watch him, but I'm busy teaching myself. I couldn't follow him around all the time. It was in the two years he was there. Other than that he was well behaved and he did his job well. Walker went on to lead four more music departments. Of course this pattern of moving from school to school all started decades earlier. It all started at Port Credit Secondary School, his first job. Former students say he left before that school year was over.

We're about to meet the man who knows why. The man survivors refer to as Punch Daddy. It's late fall 2022. I'm in the driver's seat. Anne-Marie is the navigator. You go straight. It's been a long drive. We're fueled on fancy lattes and both a bit nervous about where we're headed next. So we must be close.

Yeah, I think we're about a kilometer away. I'm feeling sick now. Are you really? Yeah. I just don't know what to expect. So you turn right at the next stop sign and then left. Yeah, what's the... At the next stop sign, turn right. You're just one step ahead of the GPS. After the survivors and I met up last summer,

I started my search for the man who punched the music teacher. It took me a few months to make contact. We fondly call him Punch Daddy. Sam still lives close to Port Credit Secondary School. It's the same house he's lived in for decades. In 1975, Sam's daughter was 16 and in Walker's band. She had sexual encounters with the music teacher. She recently died.

I really feel sad for him. I sent Sam an email. Then he called me. Only a week has gone by and here we are. Go past this stop sign. Then at the next one, turn right. Before we get to Sam's, Anne-Marie has a quick errand. She doesn't want to arrive empty-handed. I got little cupcakes. Yeah.

He's such an important part of the story to us. And yeah, it's hard to understand why. I just think because we, yeah, I know we see him as a hero, but yeah. He did something. Turn left onto the yellow road east. Finally, an adult who reported the teacher. Here we go. Hello. Please come in.

So nice to meet you. Sam greets us with warm handshakes. He's about six feet tall. He wears leather moccasins and a fleece sweater. He's quite limber for someone in his late 80s. This is Anne-Marie. Anne-Marie, have a little cold one. I'll just check on the tea.

Okay, thank you. Sure. Sam heads to the kitchen. Anne-Marie and I sit down in the living room, look at each other in disbelief. It seems surreal that we are here but we both dread the conversation that's to come. We know it will be painful. I just take mine black. I take black too. Sam's house is spotless.

He's a widower and now lives alone. He brings out a pretty porcelain cream and sugar set, mugs, napkins, a plate of cookies and our cupcakes. And my children. Sam's voice cracks as he talks about his family, points to all the photos around the room. His grandchildren, his daughter who died. She can't tell us her story, so I'm protecting their privacy. Sam is a pseudonym.

We chat for a while, then it's time to discuss why we've come. Anne-Marie tells Sam her story. I was abused by Doug Walker. And he told me that he was punched in the face by a father at a previous school. He admitted that. Well, yeah, but he told me that he didn't do anything. So he made himself sound like a victim, which I've never forgotten that. And I told Julie this

story a couple of years ago. So when we found out that it really did happen, it made me so happy that we found you because it was just, it was a way that he tried to trick me. But an understanding that it really happened. First of all, thank you for that. Cause there's now a whole group of us who were abused by this man. And you are the only adult in our story who did something about it. And so we, we wanted to just say a huge thank you for that. Like all of us, we we've been talking about you for months. Yeah. It's just, just... Sam collects his thoughts. Our children never ever lied about anything and that was something that we insisted on. If you tell the truth, there's no trouble and it doesn't matter what has happened you will not be in trouble.

He says that's why his daughter spoke up. And told me what had happened and of course I went up like a rocket. I mean I was so upset about it. He says sexual encounters had occurred between the music teacher and his daughter. Soon after Sam found out, he and his daughter went to the high school. They met with the principal. They said they were going to dismiss him or at least move him out of the school. And I foolishly accepted that.

When they left the principal's office, Sam was fuming. What the teacher had done with his daughter was unforgivable. Sam, his daughter, and the music teacher walked across the school parking lot. Then Sam says he swung around in fury. His fist met the teacher's face. Afterwards I kind of regretted in my own mind that that I did that because that's not the way a human should act but my emotions just got the best of me and and foolishly I reacted yeah it's interesting because I'm an absolute pacifist too and would never condone violence but you stood up to him and I feel like you saved her by getting her out of it and believing her. But we now know the teachers next move was to Anne Marie's school.

Anne Marie does not blame Sam for that. She only has gratitude. Can I give you a hug? I've wanted to give you a hug for so long. Thank you for punching that asshole in the face. Honestly, thank you. You're so welcome. If I could do it again, I would have hit him with both.

If I could do it again, I would have hit him with both. Sam shakes both bony fists in the air. Normally, Anne-Marie doesn't show emotion. She doesn't cry, seems robotic at times. But today, I see a shift. She's letting her guard down. I see a grateful, empathetic, strong woman. My circumstances were such that I didn't have a father, and so I would have loved to have had a dad like you would have punched him in the face.

And I'm sure she knew that meant that you loved her and you did the right thing. This is out of my past. It's like something coming back to haunt you that you don't want to talk about. I'm totally surprised by any attention regarding this, you have to know. I never said a word till this day. I think also the thing I want to get straight is he presented it to me as if he was a victim. He was not a victim. The children, the girls, the students that he abused were victims. And there's more than a dozen that we know of and probably more. Oh my goodness. You know, having met you though, you just don't, I bet you that's the only man you ever punched. Absolutely. Well, that, I'm sorry, that's not really true because I was a

hockey player and at times you got into beefs on ice, but it was always on ice and not elsewhere. We help clean up the mugs and plates. Sam insists we take some cookies for the road. Thank you so much. Great to meet you. Say how much you love your loved ones because it ends far too soon. Yeah, for sure. Very good advice. It's hard to leave him. Yeah, we will. Bye. You take care.

As they say, I didn't want to do this, but I'm certainly glad that I did. That's good to hear. Okay, bye-bye. Be careful down the steps. Bye-bye for now. Bye for now. We're so fortunate that we found him. It's 2022 and he says to me, We found him. It's 2022 and he says to me, how did you know about the punch? And I've known about it since 1976. Which is, yeah, it's just

surreal in a way. What a sweet guy. It's ironic because we positioned him as a hero just because we have so much anger towards Walker that we had never been able to express. But he's such a decent human being he saw the punch as like he knew he shouldn't have done it because he you know and he we know he didn't really want to have to be in a position where

but it's perfectly understandable what he did. So yeah he's important to us and important part of the story and of course it's a shock he has to get over by like he said how did you know? It's almost like Sam was ahead of his time. In 1975 he says he saw a man, a teacher, take advantage of his teen daughter. Sam did something. He told authorities. But it appears the administration did not investigate further to see if anything had happened to other girls at the school.

Chiffon, the girl the music teacher called Jailbait, says no one reached out to her. Then Walker got a new job at a new school. The punch didn't stop him. Next time on The Band Teacher. Hearing Sam's story gives another victim the confidence she needs to take a big step. And if I'm the only person who falls under the new laws, then I do have a responsibility. I do.

It's bigger than me. You've been listening to The Band Teacher, ad-free on Apple podcasts. Thanks for subscribing. The band Teacher is Investigated, Reported, Written and Hosted by me, Julie Ireton. Alison Cook is the story and script editor, producer, sound designer and mixer. Felice Chin is our executive producer and story editor. Ev Saint Laurent is our legal advisor. Jennifer Chen, Amanda Pfeffer and Jen White provided valuable production advice. Special thanks to the folks at CBC Podcasts for their support, and the managing editor of CBC Ottawa is Drake Fenton.

If you like this podcast, I have another original investigation that might interest you. That's the band played on Season 1. All of the episodes are available right now wherever you get your podcasts. If you or someone you know has been sexually abused, community resources can help. Reach out to a trusted person, sexual assault centre or rape crisis centre in your area.