This is a series of articles about the year 1996. It holds significance because it was the year I graduated high school, and it is now thirty years ago. In this second article, I look back in great detail at an unexpected turn of events that changed my worldview much earlier than expected.
In high school, even at 17 or 18 in Senior Year, you are somewhat insulated from the ‘real world.’ You still have schoolwork to finish, and childhood isn't completely dead. Even as the days to graduation ticked away, I reveled in the relative normalcy of daily school life. I knew at some point I’d have to start making big life choices, but that day was still in the distance. Then the event happened. As I tell this story, many of you might find it too hard to believe that it was real, but it definitely was. I’ll just get started.
You ever have a favorite teacher get outed for doing something terrible? Having your view of someone you looked up to get shattered can have rippling effects throughout your life. My English teacher was one of my favorites I’d ever had. I took his class in both Sophomore and Senior years at Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School.
He was one of the few teachers who actually had nicknames affectionately given to them by students. The English teacher was nicknamed Bubba. He was heavyset with curly hair and a thick curly beard. He had a jolly demeanor and felt like a classic 1970s Hippie now dealing with middle age in the 1990s.
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| Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School |
Looks and presence aside, what made him special was the way he taught English. The main difference was how he incorporated Pink Floyd’s music into our curriculum. I learned more about that band in class than anyone in my family who had grown up on their music could have taught me. It was quite fitting then that a Pink Floyd song was being played when the illusion of that teacher’s life came crashing down.
We were having, I guess, what could be considered a talent show in class. One student had brought his acoustic guitar and, in an appropriate nod to our teacher, had decided to play Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here. The song was interrupted by the head of the English Department popping her head into the class and beckoning the teacher outside.
Mere moments later, the teacher was walking to his car and waving to us as he drove out of the parking lot. What had happened? The story was wilder than anything we could have imagined.
Our beloved English teacher had been found to not only have been directing and sometimes starring in adult films, but he had also been accused of soliciting one of his students to be in one of the films.
A parent of a student at D-Y had found an adult film that Bubba had produced and brought it to the attention of the school district superintendent. Why the parent was going through the adult films is their business, but still not a squeaky clean person to be pointing fingers.
The fallout was swift and harsh. The story made national news. Our little school in the middle of Cape Cod became a hotbed of news vans and reporters. It was a scene out of a movie.
I will never forget arriving at school the next day and seeing the swath of people out in front. Reporters were stopping and asking any student who passed by if they had any knowledge of what Bubba was accused of. For most of us, we had no idea. We would learn in real time about his adult film secret life.
A problem for many of the news outlets was that the kids they spoke to about Bubba didn’t have anything but glowing interactions and stories of him. There were very few, if any, scandalous anecdotes to be found.
Me, I was interviewed by local news stations like WHDH Channel 7 in Boston and WJAR Channel 10 in Providence. There was also a crew from MTV who briefly chatted me up. Like I said, once they couldn’t find any dirt, they moved on. None of my interviews was even aired.
I was 18 years old and had spent my whole life in the relative cocoon that was Cape Cod. I had never been exposed to a national scandal. Part of me wanted to talk to everyone and try to get my face on the news. Part of me wanted to run home and hide until the worst was over.
In English class, the department head did her best to explain to us what had happened while also keeping many of the details hidden. It was stunning and confusing, but we thought maybe Bubba would return. I can’t fully remember how we spent those class periods. Part of me thinks we had some sort of study hall. Maybe others from my class can remind me.
He was officially fired on January 17th after being a teacher for 25 years. Bubba always denied soliciting a student, but admitted to appearing in eight adult films in the previous six months. He spent his off-time in that world.
The news crews grew smaller, but some remained. They updated the story and even interviewed a few of my classmates who had gone to see Bubba in a show of solidarity. The rest of the Senior Class would show their solidarity in a big way.
Many of us, myself included, staged a walkout the week of his firing. Those who had vehicles decorated them with signs, paint, and balloons. Others crafted large signs on poster board with words of support for Bubba. As for me, being that I was a student in photography class, I took up my first important assignment. I documented what we ended up calling a ‘parade’ in vivid black and white film.
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| The famed D-Y 'parade.' |
We felt like we were making a difference. Or at least we were showing our disapproval in the only way we knew how. Maybe we were naive, highly likely. But in our minds, we had only seen the caring, fun, and engaging English teacher. We never saw someone who would betray the trust of a student by asking them to be in an adult film.
Let me say that being in the adult film world does not make you a bad person. That’s not what I mean. It’s the idea that as a teacher, you build a reputation on being someone your students can trust to have your best interests in mind. We were kids, 15-18 years old, living on Cape Cod, not in the big city. Even the most experienced of us had very limited knowledge outside of our bubble.
I was torn. Bubba was one of my favorite teachers I had ever had. He made me enjoy going to school. Still, I felt betrayed even though it had nothing to do with me personally. There were grainy and blurred images from those adult films being shown on the news, and it didn’t seem real. How could the man who taught me about Pink Floyd be the same one in those movies?
Obviously, despite my only referring to this teacher as Bubba, if you Google it, you will find all of the information in detail. You will find articles from local outlets and from big ones like the Chicago Tribune. You can seek those out if you wish. I also have heard the name of the student who accused him of solicitation. I would never share that information out of respect.
Bubba fought his firing for several years but ultimately never taught again, as far as I know. He remained visible around Cape Cod. I can remember seeing him in a supermarket years later and not knowing if I should approach him or not. Unfortunately, it became impossible to separate the teacher from the adult film creator.
As far as I know, Bubba is still alive today and still on Cape Cod. He is closing in on 80 years old and has now spent more time ostracized from the teaching world than he was a part of it. Crazy how the world works.
1996 began with the real world being dumped on my doorstep. It was the first event to force a perspective change in my life. Bubba’s fall from grace actually did some good for me. I needed a way to process what was going on. It came in the form of writing. I guess you’d call them song lyrics, but it amounted more to a stream of consciousness in the form of prose.
I sat and scribbled words in pencil on a steno pad, sitting in my bedroom with my good friend Barry. I called my first-ever poem ‘Bubba.’ I learned how to process life events in poetry form thanks to what happened with Bubba.
It is kind of fitting, isn’t it? Today, I’ve written hundreds of blogs, had ten books published, and spoken at countless events surrounding my writing. It all got its start thirty years ago with a single poem. I say ‘fitting’ because Bubba was a huge influence on my love of writing, creativity, and expression. His downfall led to my beginnings as a writer. I guess that was his lasting gift to me.
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| In 1996 the future stretched off into the horizon. |
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