Brockton educator whose own brother was murdered: 'Seeking help is OK'

BROCKTON ― Sean Paige is an educator with a message.

The 29-year-old had a "rough upbringing" in Bessemer, Alabama, where he was raised by his mother and grandmother, while spending his summers with his aunt Tammi Offley in Brockton to "escape the bad influences on every corner," he said.

In 2018, his younger brother, Tonone Lowe, was shot and killed in Atlanta, Georgia, which is what influenced Paige to become a mentor for young people with hard childhoods.

"My brother, Tonone, was only 19 years old when he was murdered," he said. "It was heartbreaking because he was an aspiring musician who was very hardworking and believed that his dreams would come true."

Paige said his younger brother influenced him to be "motivated to chase after his own passions."

So, the same year his brother was killed, Paige moved up to Brockton permanently.

"I had always dreamed of being a mentor or a teacher," he said.

Months after moving to Brockton to live with his aunt, Paige got accepted to work at the May Institute in Randolph.

"The May Institute serves people with autism or who are on the spectrum," he said. "A lot of my coworkers who specialized in applied behavior analysis (ABA) introduced me to new opportunities to help kickstart my career."

Then, Paige got a job at Angier Elementary School in Newton.

"I saw I had an immediate impact with the kids there," he said. "That's what influenced me to become a social emotional learning (SEL) interventionist."

Soon, he worked his way up to becoming the youngest African American SEL interventionist in the school district.

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Paige's role is to listen to METCO students who, like him, may have also "come from a troubled environment," he said.

METCO, a voluntary program which has been funded by the state since 1966, helps students in certain cities to attend public schools in other communities to "expand educational opportunities, increase diversity, and reduce racial isolation," the state's department of elementary and secondary education said.

In 2021, Paige received a degree in counseling from Bridgewater State University and is now on a mission to "reach as many people as he can" through his non-profit "Free Game Society" based in Brockton.

After hearing a need from the METCO students at his school to have a place to escape to — like he had with Brockton when he was younger — Paige asked himself, "How can I help?"

"I want to help motivate kids to get out of their environment," he said. The non-profit is mainly directed toward kids "with troubled backgrounds."

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Currently, Paige is funding all of the activities he provides for the kids.

"I always tell them, 'Everyone needs someone,'" he said. "I want the kids to know that it's okay to seek help."

The website for the non-profit will be live later this summer, he said.

When he is not mentoring kids at Angier Elementary or working on developing his nonprofit, Paige is also the head basketball coach at F.A. Day Middle School.

"This is my way of giving back," he said.

Staff writer Namu Sampath can be reached at nsampath@enterprisenews.com, or you can follow her on Twitter @namusampath. Thank you, subscribers. You make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Brockton Enterprise.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Brockton: Newton educator Sean Paige starts Free Game Society