Melissa Gabriel Toole

Bank Street School for Children '84

The School for Children is a unique school. I’ve tried to explain it to people who have had a more traditional school experience, and it's hard for them to understand. At Bank Street, they really focused on and nurtured my creative side, which has paid off for my sister and myself.

At the age of five, Melissa Gabriel Toole and her family moved from California to New York just a week before the start of the school year. With no time to spare, her parents started looking for a school, and when they found Bank Street School for Children, which was the second school they toured, their search was complete: Melissa’s mother knew it would provide the creative and nurturing atmosphere they wanted for both Melissa and her younger sister, Andrea, SFC ‘87. 

Reflecting on her years at the School for Children, Melissa said, “I remember distinctly that the transition into school was easy. It was so cozy, loving, welcoming, and nurturing at Bank Street. It was a nonconformist environment that promoted imagination.”

She remembers “loving the short, supervised enrichment sessions called minis.” In her 11/12s year, Melissa and her best friend, Samara, asked for permission to teach a mini in acting and they were approved. They wrote and directed scenes for their peers.

“That’s the kind of creative license they gave us, which was very empowering,” she said. “The School for Children is a unique school. I’ve tried to explain it to people who have had a more traditional school experience, and it’s hard for them to understand. At Bank Street, they really focused on and nurtured my creative side, which has paid off for my sister and myself.”

Both of Melissa’s parents were soap opera actors—her mother, Sandy Gabriel, played Edna on All My Children and her father, John Gabriel, was Dr. Seneca Beaulac on Ryan’s Hope. Inevitably, Melissa’s creativity led her to follow in her families’ footsteps with a career in entertainment. She starred on an MTV show and later authored a children’s book. Her sister, Andrea, also pursued acting and played Nadia on ABC’s Lost and Kebi in Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn-Part 2.

Melissa said, “I always knew I wanted to pursue acting. I worked on soap operas and commercials, but my best gig was when I was the co-host for an MTV show called Oddville MTV where people would perform odd or unusual talents. Growing up, my home was infused with creativity, and many of the people who visited were actors, directors, choreographers, and writers. Then, going to Bank Street on top of that, where we would sing Beatles songs in the morning assembly and do fun skits and plays, I really had an unusual upbringing.”

Melissa also remembers the challenges of childhood. Reading didn’t come easy for her, which has played an important role in her current work as a preschool teacher in Bedford, New York, where she lives and raises her family.

She said, “It took me a long time to learn how to read. It didn’t come to me like it did for my friends, but my teachers were so patient and understanding, and eventually, it clicked. I got it at my own pace in Edna’s class, and then I was just reading all the time and soon after that, I fell in love with writing. Now I’m the teacher and I take a lot of my lessons from my experience at Bank Street and apply them to the four-year-olds who I teach. I let them draw themselves with purple hair, even though my boss doesn’t like it.” 

The tenacity Melissa developed as a child who struggled with reading has stayed with her. In 1999, she wrote a children’s book about time and perseverance called Time is on Your Side.

She said, “I tried sending the book out to publishers, and it was unanimously rejected. So I put it aside, continued with my acting career, got married, had kids. And then I thought about my teenage boys who are growing up way too quickly. They’re not my ‘little’ guys anymore. And I thought about that book I had written, which is about the subject of time. It was relevant to me as a mother, as well as to the little kids I teach who may be afraid to go to kindergarten because it’s a big change. So, I resubmitted the book last summer, and right away, a publisher picked it up.”

Today, Melissa, now a published author, still treasures the childhood notebooks that contain stories she wrote when she was seven. The joy of writing that Bank Street instilled in her as a child is one of the reasons why Melissa volunteered as a 2024 School for Children Class Delegate for Bank Street’s Alumni Weekend, which celebrates milestones from five to 50 years, including the Classes of 2019, 2014, 2009, 2004, 1999, 1994, 1989, 1984, 1979, and 1974.