Amid attention, teacher makes dramatic exit

Darleene Barrientos

With the end of the school year approaching, the hustle and bustle

has intensified in Room 100 at La Canada High School. Seniors are

turning in their final assignments, and juniors are deciding who will

be the drama program’s next president.

But underlying the energy, laughter and joy, students say there is

a sadness that the beloved drama program will never be the same again

with 12-year drama instructor Gale Caswell retiring this year.

As students in the advanced drama class rehearsed for the

program’s “Academy Awards” event, Caswell, 60, reminded her class

that she would be cleaning out her classroom in a matter of days,

prompting groans from students who did not want to be reminded of her

impending departure.

“I’ve learned more from her than any other teacher I’ve had here,”

said Alexis Schaetzle, 17. “She’s a really special lady ... She’s so

passionate about what she does, even the kids who didn’t have her [as

a teacher] respect her.”

Tracy Clavin, Ramona Convent Secondary School’s drama teacher,

will step in to lead the program next year.

Tearing herself away from the renowned drama program at La Canada

High School will be hard for Caswell, who has for years supported art

education. She earned her credentials and started teaching English,

social science and math in 1967, but quit when she had children.

Caswell volunteered her time in the 1980s, making sure there were

music programs at her children’s schools.

That volunteer work expanded to all of La Canada’s schools,

leading to her hiring in 1987 by the district. Caswell became the

drama teacher for La Canada High School in 1993.

The year has been a bittersweet one for Caswell. When she selected

“Bat Boy: the Musical” as the spring musical, she never thought her

drama program or students would come under fire, or that parents

would threaten to sue the district because of the play.

“The Bat Boy controversy was really unforeseen,” Caswell said. “I

had no idea it would become so controversial.”

The contemporary musical follows a boy who is half-human, half-bat

who seeks acceptance in a small town. The production is edgy and

dark-humored and its original script alludes to rape, bestiality,

drug use and violence, but was edited to be more suitable for a high

school audience.

But this wasn’t the first time Caswell chose an edgy,

thought-provoking production for her students. In previous years,

students have performed “Bang, Bang You’re Dead,” a story that reads

much like the real-life Columbine shootings, in which several

students and teachers were killed by two embittered students, who

later committed suicide.

“When we did Grease, I felt there would be a problem because Sandy

goes bad to get the guy,” Caswell said with a laugh. But there was no

problems, she added.

The Bat Boy episode led to a school board meeting in which a

minority of parents questioned the wisdom of choosing such a

production and criticized Caswell for choosing it. But at the same

meeting, a much larger group of students and parents expressed

support for Caswell and her legacy of passion for the arts.

For Caswell, it was an unexpected opportunity to teach her

students how to fight for something they are passionate about, to

question the status quo and to examine what a teacher says.

“The ordeal of Bat Boy was a gift,” she said. “As horrible as it

was, I had the opportunity to teach something that couldn’t have been

taught without a struggle.

“I saw passion from the kids on the stage because they had to

fight for it,” Caswell said.