Former Boston school principal forced to pay $4K in fines for misusing 'Hamilton' tickets
The Boston educators violated the conflict of interest law, according to the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A former Boston Public Schools principal and assistant principal were forced to pay $4,000 in fines for using tickets donated to the school to take their sons to see a performance of the smash play "Hamilton."
In 2023, the Boston Educational Development Fund secured a dozen tickets for Tobin School students to see a performance of "Hamilton" at the Citizens Bank Opera House, in addition to tickets for two chaperones. The tickets were intended for students who would otherwise be unable to attend such a show and were valued at around $149 each, the Boston Herald reported.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Phillipa Soo, Christopher Jackson, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Anthony Ramos attend Lin-Manuel Miranda's final performance of "Hamilton" on Broadway at Richard Rodgers Theatre on July 9, 2016, in New York City. ((Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images))
Ex-Boston Tobin School Principal Natasha Halfkenny and Assistant Principal Coreen Miranda chaperoned the event and admitted to gifting the tickets to their sons, who are not Tobin School students. They have each paid a $4,000 civil penalty for violating the conflict of interest law, according to the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission. The law bans public employees from using their official positions to obtain for themselves or others valuable privileges that are not properly available to them.
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"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 Wilson said in a statement to The Boston Globe.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"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.
("Hamilton" marquee in New York City. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images))
"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 Commission 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."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Halfkenny no longer works at the Tobin School and Miranda still serves as an assistant principal at the school, according to reports.
Boston Public Schools did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}At its peak popularity when "Hamilton" came on the scene in 2016, a ticket was so coveted that wishful theatergoers waited months to get a chance to see Lin-Manuel Miranda live on stage as the rapping Founding Father. However, fans who never made into the theater were thrown a bone when the play started streaming on Disney+ in 2020. The play won 11 Tonys and the Pulitzer Prize for drama during its run.
Another of Miranda's Broadway productions, "In The Heights," was turned into a movie musical in 2021. When asked if he planned to give "Hamilton" the same silver screen treatment, he said he first needs to create more "distance" between himself and the play.
"I have no distance from "Hamilton,'" he told Digital Spy. "It's still happening to me in ways large and small. So it would take a real director with vision to do something that would set it apart from the stage production."