By DAN TOMASELLO

LYNNFIELD — The School Committee on Oct. 16 discussed Superintendent Tom Geary’s initial response to a TikTok video that was posted online last month.

Geary said a parent sent him a text message that included the TikTok video showing what was later confirmed to be a BB gun just before 10 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 24. A Lynnfield Middle School student created the video.

“After watching the video, I attempted to contact School Resource Officer Alex Doto and Middle School Principal Stephen Ralston,” said Geary. “I did not connect with either of them, and I didn’t really expect to at that late hour to be fair.”

Geary informed the Villager that he texted and called Doto and Ralston on the night of Sept. 24. He said during the meeting that he notified them to make sure “they would not be caught off guard” in the morning.

“I did not escalate it further,” said Geary. “I will own it and I apologize if it is believed I should have called the police. I am here and I will take responsibility for that. I didn’t deem it necessary, but I can respect other people’s opinions that I potentially should have. We can agree to disagree, and I will take that feedback and own it. With that said, according to police, pictures online are not a crime and are not singularly seen as a threat. We can discuss and disagree on that, but that is the police’s feeling. However, they can be certainly concerning and something worth looking at, but there is nothing illegal about it.”

Geary said he spoke with Ralston before 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 25.

“He immediately spoke with Alex Doto right after and before 6:30 a.m., I had touched base with Alex,” said Geary. “He proceeded to investigate the situation. At no point were students or staff at risk or in danger, which is why we proceeded with school as scheduled. The police investigation continued because they wanted all of the details buttoned up and they completed their investigation at 8:40 a.m. By 9 a.m., we had an email statement sent out.”

Geary said an “after action review” occurred after the incident in order to examine “what we have done right and what could we have done better.” He said Ralston, Assistant Superintendent Adam Federico, Police Chief Nick Secatore, Town Administrator Rob Dolan and Fire Chief/Emergency Management Director Glenn Davis participated in the review. Geary was out of town when the debriefing occurred.

“My take away was we handled the lines of communication well,” said Geary. “The police completed their investigation and then we communicated with families as quickly as we could. One challenge that we have, which is no different than a lot of public entities, is it is difficult to balance getting out information quickly to families with getting it right and waiting for the police to complete their investigation, which is what we did.”

Geary said a parent recommended that he should have sent a second email to families later on Sept. 25 in order to provide additional information.

“I took that feedback to heart,” said Geary. “You may have noticed that when the high school teacher situation came out, a second email came out later in the day. That is what I learned from the first situation. There are always ways to improve, but the opinion of the group was that it was handled well.”

Geary stressed that local officials’ “utmost priority is the safety of our staff and students.”

“If we are not doing everything to provide that in a setting where our families feel secure sending their students each morning, then we really have nothing,” said Geary.

Ralston, who is a member of the Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC) Stars Team, said local officials use a variety of different protocols for school security.

“There isn’t any one step-by-step playbook on any of these situations as they arise,” said Ralston. “We rely very heavily on our memorandum of understanding agreement with the Lynnfield Police Department, which we abide by wholeheartedly. That essentially spells out mandated situations that might come up that the schools are obligated to report to the police. Mr. Geary did report that to the police.”

Ralston said it was “very difficult” for him to discuss the situation at the meeting because they were “talking about a student.”

“I am highly protective of privacy,” said Ralston. “It has been a challenge with some of the conversations I have had with individuals over the last few weeks. I know people want more and more information, and I am not providing anymore information.”

School Committee Chair Kristen Grieco Elworthy said she discussed the TikTok video incident with Secatore.

“There was not a point where students and teachers were in danger that day,” said Elworthy.

Ralston said Elworthy was correct.  He said he co-wrote the email that was sent to families with Doto and Geary after the Police Department concluded the investigation.

“I don’t want Tom taking all of the criticism,” said Ralston. “Tom, Alex Doto and I sat in my office and composed that letter. I have received criticism on the content of that and not having a more robust letter. As we were trying to draft a communication, I was continually interrupted in that process trying to respond to individuals who came to the school to specifically talk to me. We were trying to get that out as accurately and as quickly as we could. It didn’t have all of the components we would have liked.”

While School Committee member Jamie Hayman said he appreciates all of the work Ralston does with the NEMLEC Stars Team, he ripped Geary’s handling of the situation.

“Tom, it is not your call to decide whether this is or is not a threat,” said Hayman. “It’s 9:30 p.m. and you call Alex Doto, you call the chief, you call dispatch and you call the State Police. When there are guns involved, there is no such thing as a minor threat. We have to take it more seriously. Being right after the fact doesn’t mean you were right in the moment. It means you were lucky. That’s all it comes down to.”

The meeting’s attendees gave Hayman a round of applause.

Hayman said he was informed about the TikTok video after a parent texted him at 7 a.m. on Sept. 25. He said the parent asked him if it was safe to send their kids to school.

“We as a committee should never be left in the dark about something like that,” said Hayman. “I have not talked to Nick about this because Nick does not report to the School Committee. Maybe it was handled right after the fact and maybe it was deemed not a threat, but in the moment it wasn’t handled the right way. The other thing that has been frustrating about this is this could have been as easy as the next day saying, yeah I made a mistake, I didn’t do this, that’s on me, here’s what I learned from it and all of the things you are saying now. This wouldn’t even be an issue. Everyone loves a learning and redemption story and thank goodness nobody was harmed in all of this, but we need to do better. We need to do better for our families, we need to do better for our kids and we need to do better for this community.”

While Geary acknowledged that he should have reached out to the School Committee sooner, he said Hayman emailed him a week later to ask what happened.

“Tom, I asked you what happened because I didn’t want to get it from social media,” Hayman fired back in response. “You should be communicating with us when these things happen. Plain and simple.”

Elworthy said she discussed the communication breakdown with Geary on Sept. 25.

“You are correct,” Elworthy said to Hayman. “Lesson learned on that.”

Moving forward, Elworthy said Geary will be notifying her if a similar situation occurs and she will inform the rest of the School Committee about it.

School Committee member Jim Dillon asked Ralston what time he learned about the TikTok video. He also asked what time kids start arriving at LMS.

Ralston said he learned about the video at 4:30 a.m. or 5 a.m. on Sept. 25. He said students begin arriving at LMS at 7 a.m.

“I was on the phone probably at 6 a.m. with Officer Doto,” said Ralston. “Officer Doto knew about it when I spoke with him.”

In response, Dillon said: “It sounds like you were on it.”

“I believe I was,” said Ralston.

Several people in the audience defended Ralston.

“No one is questioning Mr. Ralston,” a father in attendance shouted.

School Committee Vice Chair Jenny Sheehan said Lynnfield Police were at the house of the student who made the TikTok video at 7 a.m.

“Jenny, do you think this should have been handled differently the night before?” Hayman asked Sheehan.

Sheehan said yes.

“We can learn from it like Stephen and Tom said,” said Sheehan. “I am in agreement that Tom should be notifying Kristen, and Kristen should be notifying us immediately.”

School Committee member Kate DePrizio said Geary and Ralston “handled things incredibly thoughtfully.” She also said she appreciated that both administrators were trying to protect the privacy of the student who made the TikTok video.

Elworthy noted that Geary lives in town, and said a number of parents have his cellphone number.

“They think of him as almost the final report,” said Elworthy. “A year ago, the parent wouldn’t have had a choice but to call dispatch themselves.”

Hayman said he didn’t understand why his four School Committee colleagues were “trying to explain this situation away.”

“We are trying to find all of the things that were right with this, and the fact of the matter is we just made a lot of mistakes,” said Hayman. “We just have to own the mistakes.”

Geary said he “did own” the mistakes.

“I think you are and I am acknowledging that, but I think the rest of the committee is trying to explain this away,” said Hayman in response.

Elworthy disagreed.

“I don’t think so,” said Elworthy. “What I would like to do is provide some level of confidence for parents because there was misinformation. No one is trying to explain anything away. We are trying to have a conversation that is not accusatory and is a way for us to talk about it and learn the next thing.”