A former BPS principal and assistant principal have paid $4,000 fines after they had been caught utilizing tickets donated to the college to take their sons to “Hamilton.”
Ex-Boston Tobin College Principal Natasha Halfkenny and Assistant Principal Coreen Miranda have every paid a $4,000 civil penalty for violating the battle of curiosity regulation, based on the Massachusetts State Ethics Fee.
They each admitted that they allotted donated tickets for the musical Hamilton to themselves and their sons, who weren’t Tobin College college students.
“By choosing to allocate three of the donated Hamilton tickets to their own sons who were not Tobin School or BPS students, Halfkenny and Miranda denied three Tobin School students of the opportunity to attend the show and violated the conflict of interest law,” stated State Ethics Fee Government Director David Wilson.
“This case is a reminder that public employees must not use their official positions to get themselves or others special, valuable privileges to which they are not entitled, and that there are legal consequences for doing so,” Wilson added.
Final 12 months, the Boston Schooling Improvement Fund notified Miranda {that a} nonprofit had donated 12 tickets to a efficiency of Hamilton on the Residents Financial institution Opera Home. The tickets had been for Tobin College college students who would in any other case be unable to attend such a present.
The nonprofit additionally donated two further tickets for chaperones. Every ticket would have value about $149 to buy.
Miranda instructed Halfkenny, her direct supervisor and private good friend, that she deliberate to allocate one of many chaperone tickets to herself and two of the Tobin College scholar tickets to her sons — who weren’t college students on the Tobin College or in Boston Public Colleges.
Miranda requested Halfkenny if she want to chaperone. Halfkenny allowed Miranda to convey her sons to the present and agreed to chaperone. No different staff of Tobin College had been supplied the chance to chaperone.
“Rather than making the opportunity to attend Hamilton known or available to all Tobin students, Halfkenny and Miranda themselves chose a group of nine eighth-grade students to attend the show,” the State Ethics Fee wrote. “At some point, Halfkenny and Miranda allocated an extra ticket to Halfkenny’s minor son, who was not a Tobin or Boston Public Schools student.”
By offering their sons with Hamilton tickets supposed for Tobin College college students, Halfkenny and Miranda violated the battle of curiosity regulation’s ban in opposition to public staff utilizing their official positions to acquire for themselves or others worthwhile privileges that aren’t correctly accessible to them.
