Portland Public Schools Installs Memorial Bench for Slain MSEA Member

The East End Community School and the Maine Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing have installed a beautiful memorial bench overlooking Portland’s Back Cove on Munjoy Hill for former MSEA-SEIU 1989 member Joshua Seal, who was killed in last year’s tragic shooting in Lewiston.

Seal, who was deaf, worked with the Maine Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing as an educational technician at the school from 2013 to 2020. He was killed nearly one year ago at the age of 36 in the Oct. 25 shooting in Lewiston during a cornhole tournament.

The American Sign Language sign for “I love you” is engraved into the bench seat in the outline of Maine with a red heart over Lewiston. The bench is next to an evergreen planted by students in Josh's memory.

“He was a parent of four children and also part of the PPS community, as well as a beloved husband, friend and colleague,” Portland Public Schools spokesperson Tess Nacelewicz said in the statement to the Press Herald. “His advocacy for the Deaf community knew no limits.”