No, a Newton Councilor Was Not Fired From His Day Job for Refusing Trump Event Request

NEWTON, MA - A story making headlines about a Newton city councilor being fired from his position as executive director of the Hyde Community Center for refusing to hold a Trump event, is an April Fool’s prank.

The story has all the makings of a headline-grabber: a local politician, the refusal to compromise one's morals, standing up to a bully and punishment by the establishment.

If only it were true.

According to Newton City Councilor John Rice, he was not actually asked to resign from his post at the community center. And no, the Trump campaign did not make Rice an offer he couldn't refuse - payment of $10,500 in rental fees that could be used to make a series of repairs at the center.

And Rice certainly did not circumvent protocol in the interest of partisanship.

"It was all just a joke," Rice told Patch over the phone. "Once I went through the shock of sitting here at work and hearing that I was fired, I found it rather amusing."

Rice's story is one of many April Fool's jokes on local website Village 14's homepage, ranging from the believable ("Crystal Lake Climate Change Planning") to the absurd ("NPS to Add Safe Spaces for Left-Handed Students to Meet State Mandate").

And while many of the stories can be debunked with a cursory glance - an environmental official quoted in the Crystal Lake story doesn't realize she's being asked about a lake - Rice's is unique in the number of people who have fallen for it.

"This is a travesty. Donald Trump is a monster, and John is a good man. What kind of a world do we live in that Donald Trump gets a man like John Rice fired?" wrote one commenter.

Another protested, "As a newton highlands merchant, I agree that John should have discussed it with the board, but he absolutely should not have been fired for it!"

The original report of Rice's firing garnered more than 30 comments and was shared by multiple people on social media.

He said for the first two hours of Friday morning he had to contend with the fallout of being fired, fielding calls from concerned friends, family members and colleagues. Multiple news outlets - including Patch - reached out to him wondering if it could be true.

And of course, he had to tell the Hyde Board of Directors that they hadn't actually canned him.

But he said the majority of responses to his "firing" have been positive.

"It was sort of like visiting your own funeral," Rice said. "It's nice to see how people would react if I was fired."

Interestingly, if a candidate had requested use of the community center, the process would have played out as the Village14 story detailed.

Rice said the board would meet and discuss the proposal; he alone could not make the decision.

Village14 readers weren't the only ones to fall victim to April Fools' Day this year; on Thursday, news of Trader Joe’s closing all of its stores in 2017 sent the internet into a tailspin and on Friday, Google announced was suspending its "Mic Drop" email option after several users complained it cost them their jobs.