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Whistleblower Reported Abuse Of Disabled Children At Holyoke School

State and local officials in Holyoke, Massachusetts say they have acted aggressively to make changes in a public school program where emotionally disabled children were allegedly abused. A disturbing report this week from an advocacy group said children were restrained, tackled, and slapped for misbehaving. 

The abuses inflicted on disabled fourth through eighth grade students by staff at the Peck School are among the worst ever investigated by the Disability Law Center, according to Stan Eichner, the organization’s litigation director.

" There was widespread excessive force used," he said in an interview. " The use of restraints were not within the limits and protections of state regulations."

The Boston-based organization, which is authorized by the federal government to investigate allegations of abuse against the disabled, received complaints about the Therapeutic Intervention Program in the spring from parents and a former staffer-turned-whistleblower, according to Eichner.  The center’s investigation looked back about a year and involved dozens of interviews with students, parents, and former staff members.

One child was restrained over 100 times, many times held prone on the floor, and complained of not being able to breathe. Some children reported being locked in an unlit closet. At least one child was punched, according to examples cited in the report.

Children in the program, which numbered about 50 at the time of the investigation, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and other emotional conditions as a result of being exposed to extreme violence, according to Eichner.

" Many of them were, in effect, re-traumatized as a result of the wrongful treatment by the staff at this school," said Eichner.

Eichner said “misguided notions” about isolating and segregating children with emotional disabilities appears to be one of several factors that led to the abuse.

"Holyoke has been an under-resourced and underserved district for many years, and there was even less attention and resources going to these very needy students, " he said.

Under state regulations, physical restraint can be used only when a student’s behavior poses a serious threat of harm to the student or someone else.  Restraint cannot be used to punish a child for misbehaving.

Stephen Zrike, the state-appointed receiver who is running the Holyoke schools, said the findings of the investigation constitute abuse and neglect under federal statutes.

Zrike said he heard concerns about the program shortly after he took charge of the district in July. He said he acted a few months later and replaced the principal of the Peck School, brought in an outside advisor, and implemented new procedures.

" I can assure our families and the public that moving forward, and currently, in the program those things are not happening," Zrike said.

Eichner said the Disability Law Center will continue to monitor the program.

The center’s report is also expected to be “addressed aggressively and transparently” by state education officials, according to Michael Moriarty, a member of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education from Holyoke.

Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse said he was “disturbed and angry” about the allegations in the investigative report.  He pledged to follow up with personal visits to the Peck School.

" We all have a responsibility to make sure our children are safe in our schools," said Morse.

Morse, who is chairman of the Holyoke School Committee, said he had not heard of the allegations prior to the release of the Disability Law Center’s report.

 Liza Hirsch, a former worker at the Peck School, told the Boston Globe she reported the abuse last March in a seven-page letter to then-Holyoke School Superintendent Sergio Paez.

Paez, who lost his job in Holyoke when the state board of education voted in April to place the district under state control, was appointed on Monday by the Minneapolis school board to be that city’s next school superintendent.

Paez told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he investigated the whistleblower’s allegations, and “no evidence of abuse was found.”

Two members of the Minneapolis school board plan a site visit to Holyoke before an employment contract is signed with Paez, according to the Star Tribune.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.
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