The Minneapolis school board has suspended contract negotiations with Sergio Paez, the former Holyoke, Mass., superintendent the board picked as its new schools chief, after a Massachusetts district attorney said he was launching an investigation into allegations that special education students at a school in Holyoke had been subjected to abuse during the time that Paez served as superintendent.
The complaints, published by the Boston-based Disability Law Center, alleged that there were instances in which students had been slapped, slammed against the wall, threatened, and restrained for long periods.
Paez said that he took the complaints seriously, followed protocol, and cooperated with state agencies to conduct thorough investigations. Corrective actions were taken, he said.
