Investigation Clears Middle School Principal

ORLEANS – An investigation into allegations of intimidation and bullying brought by a former Nauset Regional Middle School employee has found no evidence of wrongdoing by the school’s principal.

Tristan Yovino filed a complaint with the Nauset Public Schools’ human resources department shortly before his position as the middle school’s special education coordinator was eliminated in September. The complaint alleges Yovino was the subject of “intense intimidation” from the school’s principal, Peter Cohen, and that Cohen created a “hostile work environment” for him.

But based on the findings of an outside investigator hired by the district to look into the complaint, Nauset School Superintendent Brooke Clenchy in November said she found no evidence of wrongdoing by Cohen.

“In summary, I find based on the investigator’s report and speaking with the school administrators involved in supervising you that you struggled to adhere to your supervisor’s expectations,” she wrote in a letter to Yovino dated Nov. 13.

Yovino was hired at the middle school at the start of the 2023-2024 school year. He said that in June 2024, Cohen asked him to redact his performance review of another educator whom he oversaw in his coordinator role. When he refused to do so, he said he was subject to what he called “an uncomfortable inquisition” from Cohen about his decision to support the educator during a meeting scheduled as an end-of-year review. One of the school’s assistant principals, Brett Costello, also sat in on the meeting and took notes of the conversation, he said.

According to Yovino, Cohen had  “a vendetta” against the educator in question for her role in bringing to his attention alleged racial incidents that were happening in the school. That included incidents of racial bullying against a former student that led that student to attempt suicide (see related story).

Yovino also said Cohen disparaged the employee in front of other school staffers, saying that she was a “liability” and  “needs to go.”

“I was repeatedly made to feel like if I didn’t comply with Peter’s wish to adjust the evaluation, to reflect his wishes, I would not be part of his plan to remove her,” he wrote in the complaint.

Yovino said Cohen asked him why he didn’t reach out to him ahead of time regarding the educator’s performance review.

“How could I when I felt fear for my own position and place at the middle school?” he wrote. 

In an interview Cohen said that there is “no truth” to allegations that he asked for the educator’s review to be altered or redacted, or that he sought to have her reassigned outside of the school.

Yovino said that the June and September meetings with Cohen and the assistant principals left him “scared to the point of my hands shaking,” which he reported to Matthew Kravitz, the district’s director of special education.

“I was scared and made to feel like I was a problem when I had done nothing to deserve this treatment,” he wrote in his complaint. “I’m in the position to protect the youth we serve; who is in the position to protect me?”

‘I went ahead and filed something, and they let me go.’

Yovino’s complaint to human resources was filed on Sept. 23. On Sept. 27, he was called to a meeting with the Kravitz that afternoon.

“I was under the assumption that he was going to connect or start some sort of an investigation with me,” he said in an interview with The Chronicle.

Instead, he said, he lost access to his email and other school-related files and accounts shortly before the meeting, where he was told his position was being eliminated.

“I never thought I would be let go on the same day that I get called into a meeting,” he said.

In an email to parents, Cohen said that Yovino’s position was eliminated as part of a “reorganization of the special education department,” and thanked Yovino “for his service” to the middle school.

“I said to myself, ‘This isn’t a restructuring. You guys are firing me,’” Yovino said.

Clenchy in an interview said that Yovino’s position was eliminated to make room for a board-certified behavioral analyst, or BCBA. The need for the position arose after the start of the current school year as more students with special needs came into the school than initially expected, she said.

“I’m telling you that is something that happens with us all the time,” Clenchy said. “You get movements, you get kids that are newly identified, you get all kinds of things that happen through the summer months. You can try to plan for it, but you don’t really know until after the school year starts.”

While Yovino said he did not see the elimination of his position coming, both Clenchy and Cohen said that it should not have come as a surprise. The restructuring, Cohen said, was not a budgetary decision, but one based on the school’s special education needs.

“He was very much part of those conversations about the need for a BCBA,” Cohen said of Yovino. “I just don’t think he connected the dots that it potentially would be his position that the BCBA would replace.”

Cleared of wrongdoing

Yovino maintains that he was wrongfully terminated, but the investigation into Yovino’s complaint found no fault on Cohen’s part.

As part of her investigation, Regina Ryan of Discrimination and Harassment Solutions, LLC interviewed both Yovino and Cohen, as well as the educator and the school’s two assistant principals.

According to Clenchy’s letter, Ryan found no evidence that Cohen used “vulgar or discriminatory language” against Yovino, and that neither assistant principal raised any concerns with Cohen’s interactions with Yovino during meetings they sat in on in June and September.

Clenchy also said there was “insufficient evidence” demonstrating that Cohen retaliated against Yovino for his role in supporting the educator in question.

“The investigator found that the principal acted professionally in addressing his concerns about (the educator) with you, as you were her immediate supervisor and expressed concerns when you did not incorporate his feedback into your evaluation of (the educator),” she wrote.

Cohen was also cleared of wrongdoing in directing Yovino not to “get involved with issues concerning paraeducator pay,” which Yovino maintains he did not do.

Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com