Stoneham Superintendent Fails To Alert Parents After Level 1 Sex Offender Under FBI Surveillance For Terrorism And Threats To Harm Children Shows Up Armed At Elementary School

 

Parents in Stoneham were outraged this week when they found out on a Channel 7 News report that a man with more than one knife had been arrested on school grounds at South Elementary School last Thursday. The school district did not notify parents about the obvious safety concern. Public outcry prompted Superintendent David Ljungberg to send this email out to parents yesterday.

As you can see, Ljungberg did not mention anything about the fact that the man having a mental health crisis was armed and dangerous on school grounds. Obviously this was not a sufficient response, which led to more public outcry from parents. Ljungberg then sent another email apologizing for not alerting parents when this happened a week ago, while claiming that no member of the community was in danger.

Ljungberg didn’t mention the name of the armed man having a mental health crisis during school hours on school grounds, and also failed to mention that James McCarty is a Level 1 sex offender.

In 2011 he was charged with disseminating kiddie porn.

According to the police report the Principal who called police described McCarty as a “threat to his and the school’s safety,” after McCarty refused to leave school grounds and walked towards him while ranting about FBI intelligence and vampires.

He fled school property when police arrived, leading to a chase before he was apprehended. He had at least 4 knives on him, and when police asked him why he was on an elementary school grounds, he said “you will find out,” and “I wanted to get all the cops here.”

McCarty is well known to Stoneham Police and they are aware of this mental health issues. He is in fact under FBI surveillance due to “concerning emails to businesses.”

To say the emails are concerning is an understatement. The day after he was arrested he was charged with making bomb threats, and then four days later he was charged with stalking.

On March 20, the day before McCarty was arrested outside of South Elementary School, a FBI agent from the Joint Terrorism Task Force contacted Stoneham Police about threats that McCarty was making to people outside of Massachusetts.

McCarty believes a company in Michigan called Cyronics.org is responsible for him hearing voices. He frequently references the “Temple of the Vampire,” and his threats have recently escalated.

The FBI agent provided Stoneham Police with numerous emails McCarty sent to the COO of Cyronics, Andy Zawacki. The threats, which included voicemails and emails, began in 2022. .

To say the 17 voicemails are disturbing is an understatement. He threatened to kill Zawacki several times, masturbate to his dead daughter, rape his daughter, as well as rape the wives and children of all Cyronics employees.

He also threatened to kill anyone in the FBI or State Police who tried to stop him, and claimed that the Temple of Vampire did this to him because of child pornography. He said he was going to be the “biggest baddest pedophile,” claimed to have made “so much kiddie porn in the last 3 months it will make you cry,” said that he masturbates to “so much kiddie porn every day it will make your mind f***ing melt,” and said he would rape little kids. He also said that there would be “so much blood running in the f***ing streets,” and referenced a picture of a dead girl that he emailed Zawacki.

Other voicemails threatened to harass and send death threats to family members of Cyronics employees, and send pictures of a girl he raped and killed. He also vowed to kill as many Stoneham cops as he could.

His voicemails continued to get more threatening as he claimed to have explosives in his house that he will use to blow up anyone who tries to stop him.

His final voicemail threatened to rape Zawacki’s daughter “until she bleeds out her f***ing head you little bitch,” while bragging about the amount of kiddie porn he produces in Stoneham. He claimed to have raped several little girls.

Just to review:

• A mentally ill Level 1 sex offender who brags about killing cops and raping children showed up armed with at least 4 knives at an elementary school in Stoneham.
• The man refused to leave school grounds and threatened the principal.
• Police arrested the man, then found out that he was being monitored by the FBI for threatening to murder and rape everyone associated with a company in Michigan who he believes put voices in his head, and claims to have explosives that he will use to “blow up” police.
• The Superintendent became aware of this on March 21 and didn’t tell ANY parents about the issue.
• Parents found out about it after a 7 News report, and the Superintendent responded by sending a generic email about a mentally ill man on school grounds that didn’t mention the fact that he was a Level 1 sex offender armed to the teeth, who routinely bragged about raping children.
• The Superintendent claimed that the man simply “wandered into school grounds,” and was never a threat to anyone, despite the fact that the Principal reported to police that he was an immediate threat to him and everyone inside the school.

According to parents the school had to cancel recess for the kids as a result, so it’s hard to argue that McCarty wasn’t a threat to children.

This isn’t the first time Superintendent Ljungberg has come under fire for failing to alert parents about a potential child predator on school grounds. In 2022 we published a story about a middle school teacher in Stoneham named Richard Smyth, who had fled the state of Florida after losing his job there 30 years ago for making sexually inappropriate comments to students. Ljungberg responded to our reporting with an email to parents announcing that Smyth was placed on paid leave while under investigation.

The district ended up reaching an agreement to pay him through 2025. That’s quite the expensive oversight for the taxpayers.

Parents went to the School Committee meeting last night but were shut down Canton style.

I have no idea why Ljungberg wouldn’t alert parents about such a serious safety threat in their community, particularly due to McCarty’s mental health issues and obsession with kiddie porn. There’s no excuse for parents finding out about this on 7 News or Turtleboy, and the taxpayers of Stoneham deserve better leadership than this.