Newton resident Tom Davis — who is exploring running for mayor in 2017 — has an interesting background, as he has outlined more than once on this blog.
But here’s a story that I don’t think Tom has shared here about the time he was fired from his job in 2011 as the Westwood High School track and field coach for refusing to enforce the school’s shirtless runner rule.
Read WBZ’s store here and about the subsequent investigation here.
Clickbait. Not a big deal
So what?
@Greg: As I’m sure you can tell from the news coverage, this was an unfortunate situation for most involved. As a result of how I was treated at Westwood, I sued – including for defamation – and the case was recently successfully settled.
Really? You just dug this up?
@Marti, Jeffery and Yuppie: I guessing –but I’m not sure — from your somewhat cryptic comments that you’re saying you don’t think this is worth posting. (Or Marti are you saying that you’re surprised I just dug this up, as in, “everybody knows this”?)
Or am I missing your point(s)?
Greg, I don’t think it is worth posting. Tom has not even put his hat in the ring. Even if he did, I do not see anything in the article that questions his ability to be mayor. Even if there was something significant, people learn and grow up. 30 year-olds have learned and grown up a lot more in the last 6 years, than people of our age.
One more thing. Whatever Tom did when he was 24, Jeff Pontiff did worse when he was 24.
A few thoughts:
1. Tom Davis has made it clear that he’s exploring a run for mayor and has actually gone to great lengths on this blog over the past year or more to tell his personal, and frankly inspiring, story about growing up poor in Newton, working against adversity to attend college and law school, etc. I don’t think he’s ever mentioned this chapter in his life, which I quickly discovered after doing a Google search on Time after posting this link about his exploratory efforts. I was busy that day and didn’t get to this until yesterday.
2. While folks have jumped to the conclusion that I was picking on Tom, after this past national election, I’m not so sure any more. Yes, some readers might conclude he’s a misogynist, immature hot-head who doesn’t respect authority. Others might think he’s a confident individual who is willing to stick up for others, refuses to be politically correct and is willing is risk his job on principal. We share. You discuss and decide.
3. Yes, the headline was a little flip although very far from the best or most inflammatory I’ve written. (It really wasn’t much different from the Globe or WBZ headlines either). As I’ve said before, I don’t do Village 14 for clicks, I do it to have a forum to talk about Newton issues. If I’m being accused of writing a headline that would spark interest and start a conversation, then consider me both guilty as charged and successful.
5. Finally, and most importantly, why should we not want to know as much as we can about someone who is actively considering a run for mayor? This isn’t fake news. It was not based on rumor or gossip. I linked to professionally reported, sourced, material. Why wouldn’t anyone who cares about our upcoming election not want to at least know about this?
Greg, I’ve had comments removed recently just for suggesting someone read a prososed ordinance because it didn’t say what they thought it did. Your post is dragging out unflattering info from 5 years ago about an individual resident who has not declared as a candidate for mayor. A listening tour is not a declaration. Give him a chance to become a candidate before you start digging up dirt and posting it. In addition, in the interest of good journalism, did you check to see if any lawsuits were filed, by whom and did they go to trial or were settled out of court? If you’re going to dig up so-called dirt on a Newton resident, at least follow through.
Perhaps Tom is deciding what he might be running for – mayor, city council or school committee – or not at all. Once he declares, I agree he is fair game but until he is, he isn’t.
If the president likes to grab women by the *****, then this is surely not a problem for being the mayor of Newton.
Greg, And what’s with the headline? It is truly click bait. Topless runners gives off a whole different vibe. At first I thought you were joking; then I hoped you were joking after I read the story. I was disappointed that you were not. Topless runners has a different connotation than high school track guys running shirtless, which I see all over Newton. What was your point blasting that across the title? From the articles linked, all I see is he said, he said, she said.
Then there is the new taking offense over anything such as the girls’ track team feeling uncomfortable by guys running shirtless.
“A celebrated boys’ track coach in Westwood, Mass., was fired and ordered off school property last week for letting his runners train without wearing shirts. Tom Davis led Westwood High’s 4×800-meter relay team to the New Balance Indoor Nationals less than two months ago and had his outdoor team off to a 5-0 start this season when he started hearing about complaints regarding boys going shirtless.”
Westwood Public School Superintendent John Antonucci says “It is my responsibility to ensure that our employees implement programs in a way that is consistent with the overall mission of the Westwood Public Schools.”
http://www.athleticbusiness.com/staffing/track-coach-fired-after-boys-run-shirtless.html
From masslive:
Just when you thought you had heard it all . . .
Tom Davis, the boys track coach at Westwood High School, has been fired because his athletes were . . . were . . . were . . . were running without shirts.
High school boys running without shirts? Someone call the cops!
There’s more to the story, of course, and really, the coach was fired because he stuck up for one of his athletes and the school’s athletic director acted like a dope. However, the firing did stem from boys running without shirts.
Davis, who also served as the cross country and indoor track coach, was fired April 29.
According to stories at wicked local the situation started to fester a few weeks ago. The topic was brought up among the school’s administration. Davis said, due to the Westwood administration, the track members risked being kicked off the team if they ran without shirts.
Rules need to be followed, especially in a school system, but that seems a tad harsh of a punishment, doesn’t it? Kicked off the track team for not wearing a shirt? What’s next, expulsion for kids using cell phones in the cafeteria? Hats in the hallway – 30 days in the hole.
And if this ‘boys running shirtless’ topic was such a pressing matter in Westwood, why wasn’t it in the school handbook?
Maybe this should come into play and maybe it shouldn’t, but in the least this is an interesting note: in August of 2008, Fogel made physical contact with a student in the school’s locker room.
In a press release dated September, 2008, Westwood Superintendent John Antonucci stated: “A staff member reacted angrily to a remark by a high school student and momentarily made physical contact with the student.”
Isn’t that a wonderful phrase: momentarily made physical contact? That’s a good one. The Westwood Police Department confirmed the staff member mentioned in the press release was Fogel.
A month later, after Fogel had returned from a suspension, in another press release, Antonucci said: “I also ordered an independent, professional evaluation of the staff member to assess any likelihood of recurrence. The evaluator has advised us the staff member does not pose a risk to students . . . and accordingly he has been reinstated.”
Doesn’t pose a risk? Really?
Any (would-be) candidate for any public office is subject to scrutiny.
Jeezas, Greg. What’s next? One weird trick for getting rid of love handles?
“Chamber of commerce president now in middle of topless athlete controversy”
I agree with Greg. You don’t get a free ride, just because you haven’t announced. Tom has done enough to step into the public arena, and as such, is subject to legitimate scrutiny. The reader can decide the relevance and the level of importance.
“If I’m being accused of writing a headline that would spark interest and start a conversation, then consider me both guilty as charged and successful.”
Yes you are and yes you did. But it was clickbait, for sure. Sort of like those “sponsored” websites that try to trick people into clicking on stories with photos of buxom women in scanty outfits and salacious headlines.
Now, if you wanted to get Village 14 bloggers really hot and bothered, why didn’t you highlight the following excerpt:
“Holyoke-based attorney Edward R. Mitnick conducted the investigation, Antonucci said, one that began in April, when Davis was fired after one of his athletes was spotted running shirtless during practice.”
I am pretty sure that name will sound familiar to regular V14 bloggers.
I’m going to respectfully disagree with the two professional journalists here [Greg and Andy], along with my friend, Neal . This is local politics. Tom Davis shared his thoughts with us about potentially running for Mayor. As far as I know, he hasn’t announced his candidacy, raised a dime, started a campaign website, printed campaign materials, filed with the Elections Department, or gathered any signatures. In other words, he’s still a “civilian,” not a candidate. And no one [including Tom] is even sure if he’s going to be a candidate. This “topless” story is old. It’s not “breaking news.” And it would have been just as effective [perhaps more effective] to wait and see if Tom Davis actually decided to run before posting it on Village 14. I worry about this type of early scrutiny turning off potential candidates for all our local offices.
Running for mayor is not on par with any of our other local offices. And if this is all it takes to help filter out skittish candidates (and Tom is giving no indication that he’s skittish), then let’s do that and not waste voters’ time or anyone who can not stand up to a little heat.
My friend Mike Striar just enunciated my concern as well in the last line of his post.
As far as criticisms go, this is pretty mild. It’s a story that’s been in public for a while but hasn’t been in this context and it’s about a person who has suggested that he may run for Mayor.
If a slightly negative story discourages someone from running, then did they have what it takes to put up with political fights once in office?
This isn’t about spreading lies or engaging in rumor, the above story references multiple, reputable news reports
This is now out, Tom can offer his take on it (or not) and we can move on.
@Greg: Having litigated this for nearly 2.5 years, had you reached out to me before posting, you likely would have framed it in a way that paints a different picture in the minds of V14 readers than the one you’re trying to convey. While you are entitled to share news coverage and offer us your opinion, you are not entitled to convey false facts.
For example, let’s give some context: the Athletic Director who fired me had previously – unprovoked – punched a student-athlete in the face in the boys locker room. That should raise a red flag in your journalistic mind. There also was no rule, nor is there to this day, that Westwood student-athletes can’t run shirtless, which as Marti correctly pointed out, is the norm. My job was first and foremost to look out for the best interests of the kids under my supervision, which I took very seriously.
From a performance perspective, my results as a coach at Westwood speak for themselves. In a single year, I was able to develop one of the worst programs in Massachusetts into one of the best. In my first outdoor season, we won the league meet for the first time in nearly 2.5 decades, for which I was awarded “Coach of the Year.” In my first cross-country season, we made the All-State Championships for the first time in more than a decade, and had the best team record recorded. After coaching at Westwood for only one year, we won the All-State Championship in the 4 x 800m, coincidentally breaking Newton North’s 13-year-old State Record, which earned us a top ten national ranking. In my second and final outdoor season, we were undefeated. We did all of this despite having one of the smallest programs in the Commonwealth. I’d also add that the work I did at Westwood is reflective of my leadership style and abilities. In the words of a former athlete:
“I just wanted to let you know that I learned so much more than just track during my time on your team. I learned not put limitations on myself, and that i could do anything I wanted if I put in the effort. This is something that I will carry with me for the rest of my life and is certainly something that has contributed to an amazing freshman year of college.”
Notwithstanding politics being a contact sport, I believe that we should strive to treat each other with the baseline integrity we all deserve. In my opinion, before posting about something that involves a topic you know little to nothing about, that means contacting me first.
@Tom: Thanks for taking the time to respond. I appreciate and respect that.
Now let me explain where I’m coming from and then call you out about something.
I’ve been blogging about Newton for about a decade now. Over the years (either by choice or by necessity or both) I’ve adopted a blogging approach that I’m comfortable with: I raise a topic, link to reporting from legitimate sources and then crowd sourcing does the rest.
I do it this way this many times a week, some times more than once a day. Look back, you’ll see literally hundreds of such threads.
Are there other styles that are better? Arguably. Are there better bloggers? Yes. Do I sometimes stray from that with longer posts that involve reporting and more commentary? Sometimes.
But generally, this is a style that works for me (and my busy life) and that I believe has generated a lot of interesting discussions over the years. And readers keep coming back so I guess they find it useful.
That’s what I did here. I shared something that was the second thing that came up when I Googled “Tom Davis Newton.”
Then I opened it up for comments.
I was pretty sure you’d comment and share your perspective because you’ve been active here so I felt no need to call you first. I was pretty sure some people would scold me for being mean while others would defend me saying this was information worth sharing.
Like I said, I’ve done this for a while.
(BTW, I always hope something good could come out of it; although I never would have guessed that would be another gem of a Bob Burke story! That alone was worth having some folks mad at me.)
Now here’s where I will call you out. It seems to me that you are accusing me of falsely relaying the facts of this story. If anything, that beef belongs with the Globe, WBZ and Patch. All I did was link to these previously published news accounts.
Other than my flip “click bait” headline (guilty!) my post plays it entirely straight. Nowhere do I say this should disqualify you from being mayor, that you must be a bad guy, or anything else positive or negative. I just shared links and opened up the opportunity for anyone who wants to discuss it.
It’s something I do. And then I give you and everyone else a chance to tell me why you disagree. Your turn.
Tom Davis, I think you will do fine handling scrutiny. And if you ever need it, I am happy to give you some unsolicited fashion advice about t-shirts.
@Ted – good one!
@Tom – don’t take t-shirt advice from Ted!
@Tricia, I was going to suggest going shirtless. Why, what did you have in mind? 😉
When I first saw the headline, my thought was that this incident involved young women running topless for the pleasure of Tom Davis. Turns out it was far more benign with just guys running topless, perhaps because the weather was hot. I might have cautioned Tom about having students run topless because of the dangers of skin cancer, but I hardly think this, in any way, disqualifies him as a viable candidate.
I’m somewhat sensitive to things like this, but I’m going to break the mold of that sensitivity right now by confessing a major transgression from my past, albeit from a period when I was very young. I’ve never been arrested or stopped for any infraction, traffic or otherwise, but I have a single stain on my record that may still be housed somewhere in the bowels of the School Department’s archives wherever that might be. I was in the Second Grade at Hyde School at the tail end of World War II when the rationing of meat and other commodities was in high gear. I started eating paste that tasted a bit like ice cream and nibbling at crayons, particularly the deep purple crayons that tasted a lot like hot dogs. A lot of kids were into the paste, but I was the only one chewing on the purple crayons. I started to hoard them in the back corner of my desk, but the day inevitably came when Miss Knowles would ask the class about why she couldn’t find a single purple crayon. There was silence until Jackie Benchley (I’ll never forgive that little twit) blurted out— “the’re all in Bobby Burke’s desk and he’s been eating them.” There was pandemonium in the class because I was pretty popular, but Jackie rubbed people the wrong way. Miss Knowles said I would have to go see the principal, Mr. Clarence Churchill. To the rest of the world, the real Churchill was Winston, but in our little world, Clarence ruled the roost. Clarence was more perplexed than angry, but I just honestly told him I liked the purple variety because they tasted like hot dogs. My folks got called in on this and I think their major concern was that people would think I wasn’t getting enough to eat at home. I assured everyone there that I was getting more than enough and the matter more or less receded to the background. I also lost the craving for crayons. But I know that someone out there has dug this up and will use it against me in the next round of Area Council elections. I just beat them to the punch.
@Tom Davis…
Checkmate.
Bob Burke,
Way to be pro-active!!!
Tom Davis,
Nice post!!!
And, Tom, this is something that should be done when an individual who expresses interest in running for mayor – or any office.
Personnel matters are confidential, but something’s not ringing true here. The news articles indicate that there was more to this story than meets the eye.
Yes, politics is a contact sport, but you shouldn’t expect to be contacted whenever someone has a concern about you. That’t not the way it works.
Whatever happened to Tom in Westwood, the use of the word “topless” in the headline seems petty.
@Mary: I’ve already plead guilty to the crime of writing a click bait headline, happy to expand that to: petty click bait headline.
In my previous post, I didn’t use the testimonial intended.
” Athletes looked up to Tom, not only because he was a great coach, but because he instilled confidence in them; a type of confidence that they had never experienced before. Tom was very unique opposed to a typical coach. Tom cared about everyone. He cared just as much about the very un-athletic kids that were struggling, than he did about the very successful point winners. He even cared about the throwers and routinely asked us how it was going. As I near my senior year at Providence College, concluding my four years here as a Division 1 Track and Field athlete, I look back and cannot think of any coach that has been a better leader, teacher, mentor, or motivator than Tom Davis has been for me. Tom’s accomplishments as a leader on the track are sure to carry over to his professional career, wherever he may end up.”