The Boston Globe - 30.08.2019

B6 The Boston Globe FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2019

Business

By Allison Hagan
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
Claire Coletti wanted to be seen as a woman
at work, but she held off for months on altering
her appearance because she didn’t feel com-
fortable transitioning from male to female
while employed at a local architecture firm.
She had heard company leaders complaining
about having to change their designs to accom-
modate gender-neutral bathrooms and making
jokes about Caitlyn Jenner. So Coletti — fearing
ridicule — hid the fact that she was transgen-
der.
The closet is still the most comfortable
place in the office for many LGBTQ employees.
According to Human Rights Campaign, the na-
tion’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization,
46 percent of people who identify as LGBTQ
are not out as openly LGBTQ to their col-
leagues.
For some, it’s too much to handle, even in
Massachusetts, which is one of 24 states that
have anti-discrimination protections for LG-

BTQ employees. About 7 percent of transgen-

der people in Massachusetts were unemployed

in 2015 compared with 4.8 percent of other

residents, according to a report by The Boston

Foundation.

“The idea we have to choose between being

trans and being successful, being trans or be-

LGBTQ, Page B

ForLGBTQemployees,acrackinthecloset

SomeMass.firmsadapt

theirpoliciestohelp

Larry Edelman

Facebook, Wells Fargo, Uber, and...

the Massachusetts State Police?

Yes, just like those companies, the

Staties’ reputation has taken a beating.

These days, when you see a trooper on

the Mass. Pike or at Logan Airport, what

comes to mind? Most likely overtime

fraud and phony speeding tickets, or su-

perior officers forcing troopers to rewrite

a police report as a favor to a judge, or

last week’s arrest of the former president

of the State Police union on federal con-

spiracy and obstruction charges.

It’s an unfortunate undoing for the

proud law enforcement agency. Despite

promises 16 months ago to work to earn

back the public’s trust, Governor Charlie

Baker and State Police Colonel Kerry A.

Gilpin are still trying to repair the dam-

age caused by bad actors, poor manage-

ment, and a dated and dysfunctional cul-

ture.

Which raises the question: What more

can they do, as they say in public rela-

tions, to change the narrative?

“This is a classic example of when

the best PR is substantive reform —

and no different from what corpora-

tions that find themselves in trouble

regularly do,” said Geri Denterlein,

founder and CEO of her eponymous

public relations and crisis communica-

tions firm in Boston.

While there are significant differ-

ences between a police force and a cor-

poration, many of the strategies for re-

storing luster to a tarnished brand are

as relevant to the State Police as they

are to Facebook. The problem, as with

so many attempts at institutional re-

form, is execution.

Some examples.

1. The first step after a crisis is to in-

vestigate what went wrong and why,

and to make the findings available to

the public.

Former secretary of public safety

Kevin P. Burke reviewed the incident in

which Colonel Richard McKeon, Gil-

pin’s predecessor, was accused of try-

ing to suppress embarrassing informa-

tion on the arrest of Alli Bibaud, the

daughter of a Worcester judge. Burke,

who was brought in by Gilpin, said in

his public report that the culture of the

State Police “must be transformed,

starting with management,” and

pressed the agency to “assist in the de-

velopment and implementation of new

leadership standards.”

Separately, Kathleen M. O’Toole, a

EDELMAN, Page B

Restoring a

tarnished badge

PRpros

assessthe

efforts

tohelpthe

StatePolice

rebuildits

once-strong

reputation

GLOBE STAFF PHOTO ILLUSTRATION; ADOBE STOCK IMAGES

JonChesto

CHESTO MEANS BUSINESS

We sure have enjoyed plenty of

duck boat parades in this city. When

was the last one? February seems so

long ago now.

But what about winning the race to

become the next sports tech hub? Can

Boston win that title, too?

Janet Holian and Rashaun Wil-

liams sure hope so. They have joined

forces to launch a new venture here

called Drive by DraftKings that aims

to build a support system for sports

tech entrepreneurs as well as pro ath-

letes interested in investing and work-

ing in the field.

Drive’s launch, unveiled Thursday,

has been in the works for months.

DraftKings, the Boston-based tech

company best known for its fantasy

sports competitions, had wanted to

launch a “venture studio” to foster the

next generation of sports tech firms.

Holian stepped down as chief market-

ing officer at DraftKings, which em-

ploys more than 700 people in Boston,

to help make that happen. Holian con-

nected with Williams, an Atlanta-

based venture capitalist and DraftK-

ings investor who also coaches pro

athletes about investing and entrepre-

neurship. Together, they decided to

fold his work into this new venture, of-

fering classes and other kinds of sup-

port to athletes and startups.

The venture will be based at Draft-

CHESTO, Page B

DraftKingsspinoffaimstomake

Bostonasportstech‘TitleTown’

By Katie Johnston
GLOBE STAFF
A woman who worked at a Hyde
Park day-care center for more than 20
years is suing the Massachusetts De-
partment of Early Education and Care
after the state agency barred her from
working in the field because of her in-
volvement in a fight when she was 16
years old.

A new state law requiring enhanced

background checks at state-regulated

child-care facilities imposes a lifetime

ban on workers with certain juvenile

court records being employed in the

industry. The law was enacted to bring

the state into compliance with new

federal regulations, but lawyers for the

plaintiff say those regulations do not

mention juvenile offenses.

Tara Gregory, 49, was part of a

group of teenage girls who got into

what she describes as a “big battle” at

Ashmont Station in Dorchester in

1986 .Allofthemwerecharged,and

Gregory entered a plea of delinquent

to the charge of assault and battery

with a dangerous weapon — her shod

foot — and received a two-year sus-

pended sentence, according to the

complaint.

She had forgotten about the inci-

dent until her employer, New Begin-

nings Academy, received a letter from

the state in April stating that Gregory

had a “mandatory disqualifying back-

ground” and had to be removed within

14 days, or the school risked losing its

funding.

The charge had been sealed but was

accessible to the state’s early education

department because Gregory works

with a vulnerable population. She had

her record temporarily unsealed so she

could review the charge.

Gregory, who did administrative

tasks and worked as a driver, as well as

assisting in the classroom, said she

had passed her background check at

the center every year. She had never

been disciplined and her employer had

no complaints from parents about her,

according to the suit.

“I haven’t had any problems until

now,” Gregory said.

Lawyers for Gregory, who is black,

are seeking class-action status for the

lawsuit, filed Thursday in Suffolk Su-

perior Court, noting that the use of

such far-reaching background checks

has resulted in mass terminations of

BACKGROUND CHECKS, Page B

1986 charge costs child-care staffer her job

Suitchallengesnewbackground-checklaw

thatbarsherbecauseofteenagers’fight

BARRY CHIN/GLOBE STAFF

Brian Ventura

(right) and

Bryan Kaufman

are part of the

LGBT employee

resource group

at CarGurus in

Cambridge.