LEWISTON — Jason Lavoie, a local educator and one-time candidate for the School Committee died Thursday morning after an apparent fall from a window on Park Street.
The 38-year-old’s death is not considered suspicious, police said.
Friends and witnesses said it appeared that Lavoie had jumped from his apartment’s third-story window at 242 Park St. around 7:30 a.m.
Lavoie was liked and well-known across the downtown area. He had been an educational technician in a special education autism classroom at Walton School in Auburn. From 2017 until the spring of last year, he was an education technician in Lewiston public schools.
In 2021, Lavoie made a run for the School Committee, gaining an endorsement from the Lewiston Education Association.
“When I was growing up, I was told I would never accomplish anything, and I was put in special education classes and I lived the system,” Lavoie said in an interview during his campaign. “So not only have I lived as a special education student . . . but I also have worked in them.”
He ultimately lost the race to Megan Parks, the incumbent at-large representative on the School Committee. Parks was one of many mourning Lavoie’s death after hearing about the incident.
“Long before he was my opponent for School Committee, and after, Jason would reach out to me to talk through things when he was feeling badly,” Park said. “Hearing this news today is heartbreaking. I talked to him the night before last but the conversation was casual, there was no indication he was in a bad place. Jason was a huge advocate for the unhoused community, and his voice will definitely be lost as we continue this fight.”
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