CdM teacher speaks out

The show must go on, Corona del Mar High School drama teacher Ron Martin said.

Although he is still on paid administrative leave, his drama students have been working on their fall production of “The Elephant Man,” set to open in November.

The district confirmed Martin was placed on leave but offered no further details at this time.

The teacher’s last play, “Rent” — as well as its fallout — created a firestorm of debate about what constitutes acceptable student theater, and whether the area has a hidden homophobic streak.

“The play’s going on,” Martin vowed. “They couldn’t close down ‘Rent,’ so they’re trying to shut down this one.”

Martin said a private investigator had been hired three weeks ago to investigate allegations by a parent and a counseling center employee of “alleged statements” that he made to two students about getting then-Principal Fal Asrani fired.

Martin said he doesn’t remember saying such things, and wouldn’t have because Asrani wasn’t fired; she resigned.

He now remains on paid leave, indefinitely. Martin is required to stay in town, not speak to school staff or students, not set foot on campus without prior approval and an administration escort, be available if the district calls him, as well as provide detailed lesson plans daily for his substitute teacher, he said.

Martin claimed the district is not required to tell him when, if ever, he would return to work. He was placed on leave Tuesday, the day before the school’s new Gay/Straight Alliance was to have its first meeting.

The club’s new T-shirts — emblazoned with the phrase “Some people are gay. Get over it!” — had just arrived.

But the club could not meet, as its advisor, Martin, wasn’t there.

“They’ve been investigating for at least three weeks. Why did they choose then to put me on leave?” Martin asked. “It came right at a crucial time for my play, for the GSA — do they honestly think that I’m going to sit back and do nothing?”

“It seems like a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction story. If we wrote a screenplay, I don’t think we could do any better than this,” parent Michael Wiggins said.

His daughter Hail Ketchum, who portrayed exotic dancer Mimi Marquez in “Rent,” was the subject of a Facebook video in which she was threatened with rape and murder by an ex-boyfriend.

“Never in our wildest imaginings would we have thought that Ron Martin would end up in this situation,” said Hail Ketchum’s mother, Karyl Ketchum.

Although Hail Ketchum, now a student at Loyola Marymount University, chooses to turn a deaf ear to how the “Rent” saga has unraveled, her mother and father decided to tell her about Martin’s being placed on leave.

“She is so upset about it, because he was her director and her angel at the school,” Karyl Ketchum said, adding that Martin would leave the theater door open so her daughter could have a safe place to stay if she felt threatened.

Martin said his biggest worry about being put on leave was that what he perceived as a growing culture of student homophobia and misogyny would keep growing. He saw the district’s refusal to expel the students who made the video — and now his removal from the school — as carte blanche for such attitudes.

“They’ve been given this key to the kingdom, that they can do whatever they want to,” he said of the school’s students.

Karyl Ketchum said that after “Rent,” several boys at Corona del Mar High dressed in drag, used “gay talk” and acted effeminately in a video intended for a school rally.

The video was sent back twice before an acceptable version was created, Martin said.

A student was quoted in the school’s Trident Magazine as saying “I don’t think CdM is homophobic; I think CdM thinks ‘gay’ jokes are funny.”

“Rent” was a very personal production for Martin, who lost his younger brother to AIDS in 1993.

“I wanted my kids to know that dignity is not just for those who pass,” Martin said. “Not agreeing with someone doesn’t give them the right to spew hate.”

He recalled when someone asked his brother, “Why would you choose to be gay?”

His brother replied, “Why would I choose to be treated like [expletive]?”