Once upon a time the Boiler Room was a good thing for teens and Port Townsend. We have all heard the stories of rewarding friendships, of lives changed and lives saved.
But when news of the Boiler Room’s closing made its way around town, we also heard more than a few parents saying, “It should have closed long ago. That’s where my kids learned to do drugs.”
We heard much the same from police: The Boiler Room had become a marketplace for things parents weren’t sending their kids there to get.
Somewhere along the way, the Boiler Room became as lost and confused as the teens it had set out to serve. 
Work on a story regarding conflicts between the Boiler Room and its neighbors was shelved when the Boiler Room announced its closing. Some of the people interviewed had volunteered there, but as they saw and learned more their attitudes changed. They wanted the Boiler Room out of their neighborhood. The didn’t see troubled teens getting help; they saw the problems besetting teens being enabled and ignored. They told us of screaming and fights on the street, of tires slashed, of being accosted at their doors by people drawn to the area by the Boiler Room’s wide-open door and free stuff.
The Boiler Room leadership has admitted that they lost control of their facility. They let their youth service program become a hangout for transients and people no parent would want within arm’s reach of their teenage daughter or son. The Boiler Room leadership could not decide whether it was better to be perceived as “welcoming” and “nondiscriminatory” or take action to preserve and protect its original, laudable mission.
Perhaps if the Boiler Room’s leadership had been able to make that choice it would still be open and doing what it had been created to do.
During the Prop 1 campaign in 2017, a man was arrested for slashing signs in broad daylight along roadways in Port Hadlock. As soon as his name was released, social media spread the word. He was known at the Boiler Room where he had been aggressive towards young women. He had a record of violence. He was described as a stalker, volatile and dangerous. He is man in his fifties.
David Faber, President of the Boiler Room, said in comments after this story was published that this man had been excluded from the Boiler Room since 2011. Faber related in comments on the 
Rural Rebels Facebook page at the time of this man’s arrest that he had threatened to kill at least one person and had severe mental health issues that made him very dangerous. Faber said he was so dangerous that the man had been prohibited from coming “anywhere near” Faber’s law office. Another commenter, who volunteered at the Boiler Room, said his picture had been posted to alert staff if he came inside despite orders to stay away. At the time of this man’s arrest, we had seen social media posts that he had been there more recently. Visits to the Boiler Room were reportedly one of the reasons he came into town from his home in Quilcene. Regardless of when the Boiler Room learned of this man’s dangerous nature, when they decided to keep him out and whether they succeeded without exception, a more consequential question remains unanswered by Mr. Faber and Boiler Room leaders: Why was he ever permitted to spend time inside? Why would the organization let the kids it was supposed to be protecting and helping ever be exposed to anybody like this? To repeat, this is a man in his fifties. He was not a teen looking for help and friendship. [This paragraph has been updated since publication to take into consideration comments and attempts to verify Mr. Faber’s statements. We were unable to verify all that Mr. Faber told us but are including his side, nonetheless].
Even scarier was the man banging on the Boiler Room’s door one morning this past summer. He wanted free coffee before he went looking for someone to kill.
Neighbors had seen and heard him: a frightening presence on their street, drawn to downtown because the Boiler Room was known to admit anyone inside its doors.
Later that day he hunted down a harmless homeless man and nearly stabbed him to death at a spot just two blocks away.
Shortly after, the Boiler Room announced it was closing. It had been losing volunteers. Its financial support had “fallen off a cliff,” in the words of its executive director. Parents did not want their kids there. It traded future teen success stories for a faltering existence as a “day shelter” for transients.
What does this have to do with a comment policy for Port Townsend Free Press? It persuades us to act.
We had allowed unrestricted comments when we were on the Blogger platform before our move to WordPress and our new website. Our Facebook page has always been open to comments. We have been watching and learning as we consider opening the website to comments. What we’ve learned is that we need a comment policy before we activate the comments at ptfreepress.com.
One particular official of the City of Port Townsend has been a prolific commenter on our Facebook page. We like a good debate and encourage contrary points of view. But his contributions rarely rise above insults and abuse. Invitations for civil and substantive discourse are met with more insults and taunts. Profanity in his comments is not uncommon.
In a recent give-and-take around an article on the state of Jefferson County finances, he revealed that his sole purpose all along has been to “f### around in your comments.” He showed himself to be nothing more than a vandal.
We put the decision to our readers as to whether we should block this Port Townsend official from commenting. It was a vigorous discussion. We got a fair share of profanity, abuse and insults from his friends, people he called into the discussion who had never before appeared in our comments. We also heard from others who had blocked this Port Townsend official from their Facebook pages because of his inappropriate behavior. They encouraged us to do the same. And we heard from people of the opinion that excluding anyone, regardless of what they say or how they say it, would make Port Townsend Free Press the antithesis of “free.”.
Several comments by Sky Hardesty of Port Townsend, who is a contributor to PTFP, steered us toward a decision. He observed that the city official was using his “insults, intimidation and relentlessness…to drown out free speech.”
We have readers who will not wade through profanity and threats to follow a thread of serious discussion of local issues. They drop out and do not express their thoughts. They know that if they dare speak up, they, too, might become targets for the profanity and abuse.
The sight of profanity and taunts in comments also can drive away new readers.
We will not by inaction and indecision let such conduct do to our young effort what happened to the Boiler Room.
So we announce our comment policy: “We welcome contrary viewpoints. Diversity of opinion is sorely lacking in Port Townsend, in part because dissenting views are often suppressed, self-censored and made very unwelcome. Port Townsend Free Press was launched to do something about that situation. Insults, taunts, bullying, intimidation and profanity do not qualify as serious discourse. They deter and drown it out. Comments of that nature will be removed and offenders will be blocked.”
Thanks everyone for your input.
Jim Scarantino was the editor and founder of Port Townsend Free Press. He is happy in his new role as just a contributor writing on topics of concern to him. He spent the first 25 years of his professional life as a trial attorney, then launched an online investigative news website that broke several national stories. He is also the author of three crime novels. He resides in Jefferson County. See our "About" page for more information.
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