Stoneham superintendent will keep his job after outrage over elementary school grounds arrest

The superintendent of Stoneham Public Schools will remain in his position following parents’ outrage over an incident involving the arrest of an armed convicted sex offender on school property.

The Stoneham School Committee met Friday evening to decide whether Stoneham Superintendent David Ljungberg would remain in his role despite public outcry over the March 21 incident.

According to Stoneham police, James McCarty, 39, a convicted level 1 sex offender, was arrested after wandering around South Elementary School with two knives on him and a third on the ground nearby. Police said McCarty has a known history of mental health issues, and the incident was considered a mental health crisis. 

McCarty attempted to flee police but was caught and taken to a local hospital. Police said he didn’t make contact with children, and there was no disruption to school that day. McCarty now faces charges including carrying a dangerous weapon while on school property and disorderly conduct.

But Stoneham parents became enraged when they learned that school officials didn’t notify them about the incident until five days later. NBC Boston reported that during Friday’s meeting, the school committee determined that Ljungberg didn’t violate district policies because communication with the public is left to the administration’s discretion.

“Superintendent [David] Ljungberg made the decision to not inform the community about this event based on the information available at the time, including that this appeared to be a mental health crisis, Stoneham police had responded quickly, and there was no disruption to the school day,” school committee members said in a joint statement.

The committee also apologized to families, calling Ljungberg’s handling of the incident “a failure in judgment.”

“While it is encouraging that our school safety procedures resulted in a safe outcome for students, staff, and the community, we understand that the communication following the incident was a failure in judgment. We apologize for the distress this has caused. We recognize that promptly sharing as much information as possible, and updating our community as needed, is the minimum expectation. As a school district, we will do better to ensure this lack of communication does not happen again,” the statement said.

A petition with over 500 resident signatures asked the school committee to remove Ljungberg. An email campaign urging the committee members to remove him was launched earlier this week, resulting in hundreds of emails from parents and residents.

The school committee went into executive session Tuesday to hear directly from Ljungberg, but details of that discussion were not made available to the public.

On March 28, Stoneham police shared details on Facebook about the March 21 incident, to which a person commented, “Don’t understand why parents were not notified until almost a week later… superintendent Ljungberg should be fired!!”