By Sadie York
On our Westmont campus, Chris Haskett, teacher of AP Language and Composition and English 4, resides in his humble classroom, marked by the number 26. A fitting number, as he is blessed to share it with the superior graduating class of 2026, and Haskett himself is superior. Room 26 is never short of being well-decorated, with each piece of furniture, poster, marker holder, etc. holding an intriguing story behind it. Together, we’ll uncover the mystery of Haskett’s extravagant classroom as he takes us through his decor and shares the story behind each piece.
Bathroom Pass:
Haskett: A student named Annie, she was in woodshop, and made it for me. Room 26 was the only class with a custom made bathroom pass. We cannot use it anymore because of the new bathroom color coded policy.
Jersey:
Haskett: The football team got new jerseys and didn’t need the old ones, so they gave me this one because it has 26 on it.
Worst floor:
Haskett: A bunch of pits are on the floor, and it’s always dirty. What happened was, when they put the new tiles in for all the classrooms, this was the room they tested all the sealants on. One was too sticky, and all the desks had stuck to the floor. I had to bang them off with a rubber mallet, and that’s why there’s divots on the floor from chunks of tile coming off.
Heating:
Delaney: It sucks. The AC is terrible. The windows don’t close so it’s either extremely scorching hot when he turns on the heater but it’s lowkey also breezy. In the summer you have to try to take as many layers as possible, and he’ll tell you the AC is on but it’s not. I think it’s broken.
Book carousels:
Haskett: The library was throwing them away, I said “You can’t throw away a book carousel!” and took the two.
Covered up windows:
Haskett: These used to be windows here, but they were covered by walls for the earthquake retrofitting.
R.I.P tree:
Haskett: There used to be a tree right outside this window, but it fell down during a really rainy school day. That was March 14, 2023.
Driver’s Ed:
Haskett: During zero period, they used to teach Driver’s Ed in this room. Taught by Richard Perry. “Do me a flavor” was a phrase he always used, that was kind of his thing.
The Mysterious Josh Hancock:
Haskett: I used to share a room with Josh Hancock, back when AP Lang didn’t exist (2007).
Guest speaker:
Haskett: I had a guest speaker. I’d have this Oakland rapper come in and speak.
62 years, 5 classes, 32 students. About 9, 920 students have been blessed to learn within the walls of Room 26. Haskett has been teaching at Westmont for 23 years, only ever in this classroom, and I couldn’t think of a better person to fill the wonderful space.
