Education: Storm in Saugus

The Bishop Misbehaves was the play given last month by the high-school dramatic club at Saugus, Mass, (pop.: 15,000). What the townspeople of Saugus have been talking about ever since, however, is the behavior of the club’s 25-year-old coach, honey-haired English Teacher Isabelle Hallin. An experienced summer trouper who spent three seasons with the Garrick Players at Kennebunkport, Me., Saugus-bred Miss Hallin wears attractive, form-fitting dresses, makes adroit use of cosmetics. Moreover, six Bishop rehearsals had been held in the cellar of her home. Were cigarets served? Cocktails? What happened?

No one ever said, exactly. But questions beat fretfully on the mind of one citizen, Spinster Maria Smith, 74, a retired teacher and the only woman on Saugus’ School Board. Last week Miss Smith could stand it no longer. At a School Board meeting she persuaded two of her four male colleagues to vote with her that Teacher Hallin’s contract should not be renewed next year.

Invited to resign, Teacher Hallin asked what the charges against her were. Tight-lipped Miss Smith would not say. Cried Miss Hallin: “I know it is those silly rumors about the drinking. And they’re not true. Those children are only 17. There never was any liquor served.” Teacher Hallin asked for a public hearing, which the Board refused. Pouted she: “Everything is going wrong at once. My parents are sick, and now my job has been unjustly taken away from, me. I’m blue.”

When School Superintendent Vernon Evans and Principal Carl A. W. Pierce sprang to Teacher Hallin’s side, her father, C. Fred Hallin, recovered sufficiently from his illness to begin circulating a petition demanding her reinstatement. Snorted Father Hallin: “Isabelle had rehearsals here in the house because the school hall was too cold. But there were no drinks. I do all the drinking in this family.” Also eager to support Teacher Hallin were the parents of students who had attended the rehearsals. Snapped Charles M. O’Connor: “Why didn’t the school committee come to the parents? Instead they took matters in their own hands and gave everybody the impression that terrible things went on.” Echoed Mrs. Grace Whittredge: “Gossip! The reputation of our family in town is beyond reproach.” Asked repeatedly to tell what her charges were, old Miss Smith let it be known that she had not investigated and would not press them in detail, but still wanted Miss Hallin to resign for “professional reasons.” Students began to picket Miss Smith’s house with such placards as WE WANT FAIR PLAY! GIVE THE HOME GIRL A CHANCE!

With over 1,000 names signed to the pro-Hallin petition at week’s end, Board Member Paul Haley promised a special board meeting to reopen the case. Meantime, well aware that her pretty face had been appearing daily in metropolitan prints, in one shot ostentatiously sipping milk, Isabelle Hallin mused: “An agent who handles Tyrone Power asked me to take a screen test. Of course, I would like to go to Hollywood, but first of all I want to clear myself with the people here in Saugus. . . .”