'Hamilton' tickets were donated to a Boston school. The principal and assistant principal brought their sons. (original) (raw)
Now, the two have each paid $4,000 civil fines.
Evan Agostini / AP
A former Boston Public Schools principal and assistant principal have each paid a $4,000 civil penalty for violating the state’s conflict of interest law when they used “Hamilton” tickets donated to their school to take their children to see the show.
Natasha Halfkenny, the principal, and Coreen Miranda, the assistant principal, admitted to using the tickets that were gifted to the Tobin School for “use by its students and their chaperones” for themselves and their sons, who were not students at the school, according to the State Ethics Commission.
Halfkenny and Miranda were “personal friends and socialized together outside of work,” according to Halfkenny’s disposition agreement.
Last year, the Boston Education Development Fund emailed Miranda, letting her know that 12 student tickets and two chaperone tickets to “Hamilton”at the Citizens Bank Opera House had been donated by a non-profit organization for use by Tobin School students who “would otherwise be unable to attend such a show.” Each ticket would have cost about $149, according to the commission.
Miranda forwarded the email to Halfkenny five minutes after receiving it with a “two-word expression of her excitement about the donation,” the disposition says.
Miranda told Halfkenny she planned to use one of the chaperone tickets and two of the others for her sons, who were not Boston Public Schools students. She also asked Halfkenny if she would like to chaperone, according to the commission.
Halfkenny agreed and eventually gave a ticket to her son as well, who was also not a BPS student.
“No other employees of Tobin School were offered the opportunity to chaperone,” the commission said in a statement. “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.”
Miranda asked the executive director of BEDF if her sons could use the tickets, and they told her it “would not be a problem,” the disposition says.
By providing their sons with “Hamilton” tickets intended for Tobin School students, Halfkenny and Miranda “violated the conflict of interest law’s prohibition against public employees using their official positions to obtain for themselves or others valuable privileges that are not properly available to them,” the statement says.
“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,” State Ethics Commission Executive Director David A. Wilson said in the statement. “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.”
Lindsay Shachnow
Lindsay Shachnow covers general assignment news for Boston.com, reporting on breaking news, crime, and politics across New England.
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