"This is a case study in how not to handle a small-town scandal, of how rumor has a way of taking over when lawyers tell everybody to keep their mouths shut. The truth is....
"Duxbury official details attack on students by fired coach" by Todd Feathers | Globe Correspondent October 23, 2014
Duxbury’s schools superintendent on Wednesday night detailed, for the first time publicly, violence inflicted by a high school teacher against two members of the football team, as a large crowd of parents and students gathered in support of the fired coach.
The teacher and assistant high school football coach, Harry Taylor, punched two members of the football team and shouted obscenities at others after finding the students writing on bathroom mirrors in the weight room, Superintendent Ben Tantillo said at a School Committee meeting Wednesday. Taylor was fired following the incident in early September.
“This is the first time I have had to deal with a teacher hitting a student,” Tantillo said. “Everybody in education knows you can’t hit students. If you do, that’s automatic firing.”
The details of the altercation that led to Taylor’s firing had not been released before Wednesday night. Taylor did not attend the meeting.
A group of more than 75 parents and several students gathered at the School Committee meeting to comment on Taylor’s firing, which sparked protests from students and widespread outrage in the community.
“[Taylor’s] body of work for nine years is spectacular, he made a very, very bad mistake, and we know that,” said John Clark, a parent of a Duxbury High student.
Clark asked the School Committee to reconsider Taylor’s dismissal. He also took issue with the way school administrators reacted to student protests.
Some students wore T-shirts with slogans supporting Taylor following the incident.
“Don’t tell them to sit down and shut up, it’s a bad thing to do with students,” Clark said.
Not if they learned the lessons of Occupy Wall Street.
Tantillo said that students who wore clothing praising Taylor were brought to the principal’s office to speak with administrators, and all of them removed the clothing. One student did not comply and served two detentions, he said.
The disciplinary measures were taken to protect Taylor’s victims from bullying within the school, Tantillo said.
The incident was first brought to the attention of the school’s athletic director in an anonymous e-mail from a parent of a football player who observed Taylor punching the students, Tantillo said.
He and other school and district officials reviewed a video of the incident before deciding to dismiss Taylor. That video has since been deleted because the school’s servers lacked storage space, Tantillo said.
What a lame ass excuse for a cover up! At least you kids are learning something.
The superintendent said he considered every justification not to fire Taylor, but he felt he had no choice.
Print ended.
One parent, during the meeting, asked the committee if they had the power to fire the superintendent. A committee member affirmed that they did, and the audience applauded.
Wednesday’s meeting drew some Duxbury residents with no current connections to the school.
Patricia Johnson, whose three children are now adults, said she attended the meeting in order to learn the truth of the rumors she has been hearing.
“I used to teach school and I know the frustration levels,” Johnson said. “But it’s all changed now; you don’t touch a kid.”
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Related: Lenient Treatment For Lunenburg Loony
Time for me to kick back for the rest of the day.
