Allegations of abuse at a public school in western Massachusetts have caused second thoughts about a job offered to the former superintendent of the school district.
The school board in Minneapolis has voted to end contract negotiations with Sergio Paez, former head of the Holyoke Public Schools.
Just two days after the board voted in December to hire Paez as superintendent, the Disability Law Center reported that emotionally disabled children had been abused at the Peck School in Holyoke. The center’s Stan Eichner said investigators found widespread excessive force used to restrain children.
" Restraints were not within the limits and protections of state regulations," Eichner said in an interview.
A whistleblower sent a letter to Paez last year, but he said he could not substantiate the allegations.
Paez lost his job in Holyoke after the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted in April to put the district into receivership after more than a decade of poor academic performance.
