At the School Dances Mr Ballard would sit with the student taking the dance tickets, If a student showed up trying to get in to the dance with the smell of alcohol on his breath he expel you. Not just for the rest of the year, but for ever! If you got caught smoking in a wash room you were expelled for the rest of the year.

Wow! I had heard of this guy's fearsome reputation decades after the fact. No wonder they called him "Tank" Ballard. I was told that next to Tank, Les Chapman looked like a milqetoast.....

In the late 50's, one of the teachers assigned as a chaparone for a school dance forgot to go. The next morning Mr Ballard called him into his office and asked him why he was not there. Ken said " I forgot!" and Mr Ballard replied, "Then why did you not phone me to tell me you forgot so I could get some one else?"

Mr. Ballard was feared by most of the teachers as well as the students. If a male student so much as touched a female student Mr. Ballard would expell him.

The reason he was called 'Tank' was because of his shape.