Former Tobin School administrators fined for taking their kids to a play downtown with tickets meant for students at the school

The state Ethics Commission yesterday announced that former Tobin School Principal Natasha Halfkenny and Assistant Principal Coreen Miranda had both paid $4,000 fines for taking their sons to a performance of "Hamilton" downtown using some of the tickets a local charity had donated to the school for its students and their chaperones last year.

None of their sons was a Tobin student, and the tickets had face values of about $149 each, the commission said.

Miranda informed Halfkenny, her direct supervisor and personal friend, that she planned to allocate one of the chaperone tickets to herself and two of the Tobin School student tickets to her minor sons, who were not students at the Tobin School or in Boston Public Schools, and asked Halfkenny if she would like to chaperone. Halfkenny did not prohibit Miranda from bringing her sons to the show and agreed to chaperone. No other employees of Tobin School were offered the opportunity 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. 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 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. ...

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.