A public comment during the Saugus Union School District’s governing board organizational meeting on Tuesday called for an independent safety audit and a district-wide emergency protocol for missing students, after a child was found wandering alone unsupervised last month, which allegedly wasn’t the first time it happened.
District Superintendent Colleen Hawkins did not respond to a request for comment. Pam Dall, the superintendent’s executive secretary, provided an emailed statement on Hawkins’ behalf on Thursday afternoon.
“Unfortunately, there was a recent incident involving a student in our after-school program. When district staff was alerted to the situation, an investigation into the incident was immediately conducted after confirming that the child was safe and with their family,” the emailed statement read. “Based on what we learned from this incident, appropriate corrective action has been taken including, but not limited to, improvements in student supervision protocols and in securing facilities.”
The statement added, “We are thankful that the student was safely found as we understand the seriousness of the situation. Further, we regret the concern and frustration this incident caused for the family. As this incident involves both personnel and pupil matters, additional comment cannot be made at this time.”
Newly installed governing board president Matthew Watson on Friday said the incident was unacceptable and he aimed at “working very closely with the team to make sure this never happens again,” he said.
“I have been and will continue to work very closely with the superintendent to make sure that all of our schools are safe. It is kind of a delicate balance making sure that they are fire-safe, but also safe, secure to keep our children inside,” Watson added.
Approximately six years ago, Emily Veldkamp’s son, who was a 5-year-old at the time, left his school campus with a family member who was unauthorized to pick him up at school. He was unaccounted for about 45 minutes to an hour, she said in a brief phone call on Thursday afternoon.
Her son followed the family member and exited the campus around the time students were being dismissed for the day, she said. He lost sight of his family member and then reentered the school once he couldn’t locate her, Veldkamp said, adding that she only learned about it after her son told her.
Watson could not speak on Veldkamp’s incident as he was not on the governing board at the time and was unfamiliar with the details. He came on the board in the midst of the 2020 pandemic, while the Veldkamp family’s incident occurred sometime in 2019.
When Veldkamp heard about a similar incident that took place last month with Brett and Natalie Epstein’s 5-year-old son Oliver, it was enough to upset her again and demand change, not just for herself and the Epsteins, but for all parents and the safety of other children.
“My husband and I filed a detailed complaint outlining every failure that led to this horrific incident. We asked for immediate concrete changes to ensure that no other family would endure what we did,” Veldkamp said during public comment at Tuesday’s board meeting. “The district’s response? Nothing. No phone calls, no emails, not even an acknowledgement.”
After Veldkamp pushed for answers, she finally met with a few district officials, she said. To this day, nothing has changed, she said.
After last month’s meeting, in which the Epstein family came forward, “another family had to relive our nightmare,” she said, and no one on the board acknowledged them.
“This indifference spoke louder than any words … tonight I am calling for immediate action. One, an independent safety audit of all district campuses and after-school programs, with findings and concrete actions made public. Two, a district-wide emergency protocol for missing students, including mandatory reporting to law enforcement and state licensing agencies,” she said. “But reforms are not enough. When staff fail at its most fundamental duty — keeping children safe — there must be consequences.”
Natalie Epstein, Oliver’s mother, took the podium moments after Veldkamp to share a mother’s perspective. At the previous meeting, her husband was the only one to speak, as she wept beside him.
Their son Oliver was found by his nanny wandering alone unsupervised about a mile away from school hours after he walked off campus, and when Natalie called the after-school program to ask if he was present, the employee statedthat he was, she said. By then, Oliver was on his way home to the family.
She took a few seconds to collect herself before she was set to give her remarks calling out the district and Hawkins for lack of acknowledgement.
“Your lack of acknowledgement is deeply troubling. You should be ashamed for presenting yourself as someone who takes care of this district,” Natalie said. “I cry every day thinking of my son on the street.”
Natalie brought attention to a district-wide message sent on Parent Square four weeks later, which she described as “a blatant lie.”
The message was sent out to reassure parents that safety measures had been taken to reaffirm confidence in the Saugus district’s Child Development Program, which is the after-school care.
“We are very grateful that the child was located quickly and was unharmed,” the district message dated Dec. 1 read. “The CDP Program has been a hallmark of the Saugus Union School District for decades. It is a service that our families value and trust. When a serious incident like this occurs, however, we have an obligation to closely examine our practices and to make changes as needed to prevent it from happening again.”
Natalie Epstein told the board: “He was not found quickly, and he was not found by your staff. These are not minor inaccuracies. There are serious misrepresentations of a frightening and dangerous situation involving a kindergartner who should have never been able to leave campus unsupervised.”
Watson said district staff has been working closely with the Epsteins and are in constant communication.
The district message also noted some of the safety measures: adding interior backpack storage areas so that students do not need access exterior areas unattended; installing additional alarms on exit doors as appropriate; modifying outdoor supervisory rotation schedules to improve active supervision; and providing training to all CDP staff on attendance procedures, student monitoring, and the enhanced expectations for attendance checks and outdoor supervision.
The Saugus district went through a full safety review a couple of years ago, which included surveying the parents on their opinions they had of their schools, according to Watson.
Since the incident was brought to light, “we took some serious steps to make the perimeters of our school safe. Both from intruders from the outside and also safe for our students inside,” Watson said. “There were several different failings here in this incident with the Epstein family recently that we’ve got to take a long, hard look at. Not just a one-time look to see where the failings were, but to continually be vigilant, to watching out, and making sure that something like this doesn’t happen again.”
The Saugus district-wide message sent out on Dec. 1 concluded: “We recognize that fear and frustration this incident caused for the family of the child involved, and we are committed to doing everything we can to ensure that no family experiences a similar event in the future.”
