LEWISTON, Maine — The principal of a Lewiston elementary school is on leave after two people, including a former student, alleged that he abused and threatened them with a gun in separate complaints earlier this year.
A judge in Wiscasset granted the former student’s request for a protective order after a Monday hearing, concluding that Donald K. Ferrara Jr. had engaged in sexual assault.
Ferrara’s attorney denied the claims, saying the person who attended a school at which the longtime educator once worked, has made false allegations against Ferrara for more than a decade.
Ferrara, 54, of Greene has not been charged with a crime. He is on paid administrative leave from Robert V. Connors Elementary School, Jake Langlais, the superintendent of Lewiston schools, said Friday. He declined to answer other questions, citing confidentiality requirements.
In a separate case, another woman in July filed for a protection-from-abuse order in a Lewiston court. The woman said Ferrara has a history of abusing her, including incidents over the past four years in which he pushed her to the ground, choked her and smashed a screen on her laptop computer.
“I have a gun and I have bullets,” Ferrara said, according to her complaint that said he keeps a handgun at his bedside.
She later dismissed the request.
“Don is adamant that those allegations … were untrue, and in fact the complaint was dismissed before there was ever even a hearing,” Walter McKee, a lawyer for Ferrara, said in a statement.
The former student, who is now 28, filed for a protective order in October, saying that Ferrara came to her Dresden home, shot her with a BB gun and told her he would use a real one next time. She alleged that he had threatened to kill her multiple times.
The former student alleged sexual misconduct against Ferrara in a 2021 complaint to Lewiston schools. An investigator concluded that the allegations were likely false, citing no evidence of encounters after 2012, according to court records that also said police and the Maine Department of Education had looked into past complaints and found nothing.
Amber Tucker, an attorney for the former student, did not respond to a request for comment, while McKee said Ferrara plans to appeal the decision.