Accused High School Track Pooper Resigns, Seeks $1 Million in Damages from Local PD
Every so often, a media-given nickname comes along that sets expectations far in excess of human capacity to live up to it.
But for “The Infamous High School Track Pooper,” the story is everything one could hope for and then some.
Thomas Tramaglini, now the former superintendent of Kenwilworth Public Schools in New Jersey, has resigned after being charged with public urination or defecation, discarding and dumping of litter, and public lewdness on May 1, USA Today reported.
The arrests came after Tramaglini allegedly took the kind of Number Two finish that doesn’t net you a silver medal on the track at Holmdel High School.
Holmdel High staff and coaches claimed that they found human feces on or near the track and football field “on a daily basis,” according to a police report.
The district where Tramaglini was previously employed said that, “Based on events unrelated to his service for Kenilworth, it has become clear to both Dr. Tramaglini and the Kenilworth Board of Education that his continued service as superintendent of schools has become too much of a distraction to the main mission of the district.”
The notice went on to say “In recognition of this fact, and in an effort to avoid legal fees and expensive litigation, and in the best interests of all concerned, including the faculty, staff and students of the Kenilworth School District, Dr. Tramaglini has tendered, and the board has accepted, his resignation effective September 30, 2018.”
Now, Tramaglini is suing for $1 million.
The kicker? He’s not suing the school district that fired him or the rival high school for planting evidence and saying it was him doing it or any of the other things one might think of first if asked to dream up a scenario for a particularly goofy episode of a police procedural.
No, Tramaglini is suing the Holmdel police department for, and you cannot make this stuff up, having “unlawfully photographed” Tramaglini by making his mug shot public.
The notice of tort claim obtained by the Asbury Park Press says, “The amount claimed is estimated to be in excess of $1 million, which includes, but is not limited to, the reasonable financial loss of income, harm to reputation, emotional distress, invasion of privacy, and intrusion on seclusion.”
I guess being nicknamed the “pooperintendent” would come with some emotional distress, but it’s not like the police department stuck him with that.
You kind of want to take the guy aside and say: “Dude. You are accused, apparently with good cause, of having serially pooped in a public place. Habitually, like a homeless person. What did you expect would happen?”
Tramaglini’s contract would have run through July 1, 2020, so the lost salary here, at the superintendent’s reported rate of pay, would have been nearly $300,000.
Worry not, good people of Holmdel. Tramaglini is of course innocent until and unless proven guilty in a court of law, but it does appear that your heroic law enforcement went out there and caught Public Enemy Number Two.
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