LYNNFIELD — For nearly six years, Lynnfield parents Carl Allien and Eva Benoit Allien say they have been warning school officials that their children are being targeted with racist abuse, and that the district has failed to respond with urgency or meaningful discipline.
After an outcry from the public, Superintendent Tom Geary informed families that middle school Principal Stephen Ralston, who has served in Lynnfield Public Schools since 2005, has taken leave effective immediately and will separate from the district on June 30.
With this shift, Assistant Superintendent Adam Federico will serve as acting principal, and Assistant Principal Dana Courtney will remain in her position.
Despite all of this, Allien noted that his son was recently chosen to take part in the Playbook Initiative, a program in which LMS partnered with the Boston Celtics, Project 351, and LMS alumnus Ereeny Georges. The program seeks to build more inclusive communities, and he was chosen by teachers as a student who cares about making LMS a more inclusive community.
Their son, now a sixth grader at Lynnfield Middle School, and their two daughters, in fifth grade at LMS and third grade at Huckleberry Hill, have faced racist comments, Allien said, beginning when their son was in second grade at Huckleberry.
“All three kids have been attacked with racially discriminatory words,” he said. “Telling them… ‘your skin’s the color of poop,’ or ‘My dog would never eat you because you’re the color of chocolate, and that’s poisonous to dogs.’”
Early on, the family raised concerns with a former Huckleberry principal after their son and daughter were harassed on the school bus.
“They did incident reports… but it never went district-wide,” Allien said. “We’ve been noticing that’s been a constant issue… They want to contain things a lot and not share what’s going on.”
The parents said the problem intensified last year, when their son was repeatedly subjected to racist remarks, documented by Ralston and Courtney.
“Last year… he was constantly barraged with racial discriminatory terms,” Allien said. “We got frustrated that they were not sending out communications to the school to let parents know what’s going on.”
In June 2025, they brought their concerns to a School Committee meeting, after which Geary met with them alongside Ralston, Courtney, and Assistant Superintendent Adam Federico. The family asked for a communication to go out to the whole district.
“We shared our safety concerns, and we asked to send a communication out to the parents,” he said. “They didn’t. They refused to do so. They didn’t tell us no, but they never did it in a timely manner.”
Allien said only after a separate, high-profile racist incident tied to the Class of 2025 commencement drew public attention did Lynnfield Public Schools include a brief note about racism in a newsletter, and even then, he said, it was “hidden” in a section.
“It was just so ignorant. We felt so unheard. We felt disrespected,” he said.
Three incidents then occurred in succession, starting at recess on March 19, when a group of students made racist insults at their son and other students.
“They basically attacked this soccer crew with a barrage of insults,” Allien said. “Calling them monkeys, telling them to go back to Africa, telling the Brazilian kids to go back to Brazil.”
The parents only learned about the incident hours later from another parent whose child was concerned about their son. Their son told them he had reported the incident.
“Right then and there, he even realized that he was in an unsafe environment because he didn’t get supported by the principal when he told the principal,” Allien said.
The family filed a formal complaint and asked for a district-wide communication. Allien said Geary instead limited it to LMS, telling them, “We keep school matters within each school.”
“We said, this is not a school matter… This has followed him from elementary school to middle school,” Allien said. “Now it’s a district-wide problem with the same student.”
On March 23, during lunch, another student mocked their son, telling him, “black people eat fried chicken and watermelon.”
As his son walked away, Allien said the student called him a “slave” and made a whipping gesture.
The following day, a different student who had witnessed the event from the day before made a similar reference to slavery, telling their son to ‘respect your master.’
“It just showed the pattern that no disciplinary action happened… therefore, the person who witnessed the wrongdoing then became the perpetrator the next day,” he said.
The family went on to file two more formal complaints. Only after the third did the district send out a broader notice, on the evening of a March 24 School Committee meeting, Allien said.
During the meeting, School Committee Chair Kristen Elworthy stated that the Committee will keep these incidents in mind as it thinks through the policy and goal-setting. Elworthy expressed her empathy with the family, as did the rest of the Committee and Geary.
At the meeting, both parents addressed the Committee, urging the district to treat racism as a true “no tolerance” offense tied to real consequences. Other members of the community also called for change and spoke in support of the Alliens, and an outpouring of support and calls for a meeting came from social media. Most asked for a special emergency School Committee meeting to be called ahead of the April Committee meeting, but one has yet to be scheduled.
“We requested the School Committee and the chair specifically to create a special meeting to request that they change the policy immediately,” Allien said. “If you call it a no tolerance for racism, the enforcement should be disciplinary actions, and one of them should be suspension. But they don’t want to evoke that. For some reason, they’re protecting these children.”
On March 25, their son returned home from a field trip and told them that two of the three students who had racially targeted him were allowed to go.
“He wondered if there was a reward for treating kids like that,” Allien said. “How do you send kids on a field trip, rewarding them for their behaviors of spewing racist hate toward children?”
The parents said the delays and lack of clear consequences make them question whether district leaders truly grasp the stakes.
“Every day that goes by is a risk for my child to get harassed again and for students to not face any disciplinary actions,” Allien said. “It’s so frustrating to us. It’s hurtful. It shows us that we don’t matter.
For the Alliens, these aren’t just isolated events.
“A lot of people are seeing this as three incidents. For us, it’s been almost six years,” he said. “This kid has been abused mentally in this school system.”
Allien said their fight isn’t about a personal vendetta, “it’s about policy; it’s about principle.”
A Healthy Lynnfield, LPS, and the Town of Lynnfield have announced a partnership to host a community conversation to bring together Lynnfield residents with a goal of strengthening belonging, respect, and inclusion in response to the recent incidents.
The event will take place on April 7 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at LMS. It will be designed to offer residents a space to listen and learn from each other and focus on experiences and solutions centered on belonging and community responsibility.
