CCS ’93 Grad Celebrated For
Teaching Kids To Fight Back
HERE’S AN EXCERPT FROM SEVEN DAYS PIECE
“I hate fighting,” Tom Murphy announces to several hundred students at Williston Middle School, using what’s become his signature line about differentiating between contact sports such as MMA and hate-fueled violence. “There’s nothing that I find more despicable on the planet.”
And with that hook, the 6-foot-2, 240-pound powerhouse owns the kids for the next 90 minutes. In a video recording of that March 2015 event, they watch him, rapt, as he paces the floor with the restless energy of a caged panther while delivering a simple but powerful message: Everyone has the inner power to protect others from bullies. Murphy’s task is to teach them how to “spring into action” — not by fighting, but by tapping a different form of courage.”
