An attorney representing the Epstein family, whose 5-year-old child who wandered off campus from North Park Elementary School in November, is now signaling potential legal action — calling the incident part of a larger pattern of safety failures within the Saugus Union School District (SUSD).

Brett Greshko, an attorney for the Epstein family, addressed the district’s governing board during public comment at Tuesday evening’s SUSD meeting, describing in detail the fear and lasting impact of what happened when the kindergartner left campus through an unsecured gate and was missing for hours.

“Maybe you’ve seen it on the news,” Greshko said. “I imagine my son when I think of Oliver Epstein, and I know all the parents here imagine their child being five years old, leaving school through an unsecured gate, wandering down a busy McBean Parkway with all the traffic, alone for hours, walking for miles, lost, hiding behind trees, crossing busy intersections, dodging strangers who could have any bad intention imaginable.”

KHTS previously reported that the Epsteins’ 5-year-old son, Oliver, was able to push open an unsecured gate and leave North Park Elementary School’s after-school program unnoticed, eventually walking nearly a mile down McBean Parkway before being located in the parking lot of a McDonald’s near McBean Parkway and Decoro Drive.

5-Year-Old Oliver (pictured) walked off North Park Elementary School campus November 4, 2025

At the time, the Epsteins said no one from the after-school program contacted them to report their son missing, and that staff told them Oliver was still on campus when they called to check on him. The child was ultimately found by the family’s nanny, who happened to drive past him standing alone on the sidewalk.

Greshko said the school should have known the child was missing and taken steps to prevent the situation.

“That’s something that the school should have known was happening and took steps to prevent,” he said. “I know the parents in this room imagine the fear that their child would have, and the lasting trauma, and each parent imagines the fear that they have knowing their child is out there alone, and the loss of trust that they have in this school after that.”

 

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On Jan. 15, 2026, the Epstein family filed a formal claim with the district detailing their account of what happened on Nov. 4, 2025.

According to the claim sent to KHTS Radio, the family’s 5-year-old child was able to leave the after-school program and exit the North Park Elementary School campus without being noticed by staff, creating what they describe as an “extremely dangerous situation.” The claim states the child traveled more than a mile from the school before being found.

“The fact that my child traveled more than a mile from the school before being found demonstrates how serious the lapse in supervision was and how quickly a situation like this can escalate to a tragedy,” the claim reads. “It is only by luck and the quick actions of others that my child was found unharmed. The outcome could have been far worse.”

The claim outlines multiple risks faced by an unsupervised child, including traffic dangers, encounters with strangers, environmental hazards, becoming lost, and emotional trauma.

The family also wrote that they addressed the issue publicly at a school board meeting on Nov. 18, 2025, but say they have not been contacted by the district since.

The filing further disputes a statement attributed to board President Matthew Watson, who was reported in December as saying the board had been “working closely and are in constant communication with the Epsteins.”

“False statements were made to the media… that the school board had been ‘working closely and are in constant communication with the Epsteins,’” the claim states. “We do not believe or have seen any changes as to the way things are being run in the school.”

During Tuesday’s meeting, Greshko echoed similar concerns, saying his office has been contacted by other parents who describe comparable safety issues.

“It’s not an isolated event, it’s a pattern of conduct, and it’s not been adequately addressed,” Greshko said. “The board has ignored this problem and swept it under the rug. But I don’t think this is something that can be ignored any longer.”

Greshko told the board that his office has recently mailed what he described as a “meritorious claim” to the district, a step that typically precedes a lawsuit against a public agency.

“We hope that the school board, the district, takes this very seriously, and we hope that you come to the table and minimize the ongoing and additional grief to this family,” he said. “If not, we will soon be following up with litigation after that, and we will take it as far as we need to take it to get results.”

He said the issue goes beyond one family.

During a November board meeting, another parent also described a nearly identical incident involving her 5-year-old son in 2019, raising concerns about what families described as ongoing safety issues at North Park Elementary and within the district.

“This isn’t just about the severe and irreversible damage to the Epstein family,” Greshko said. “This is about the reputation of the entire community, the reputation of the school district, and most of all, it’s about the damage that’s been done to the faith in the people that these parents entrust to keep their children safe.”

KHTS reached out to the Saugus Union School District Tuesday night regarding the accusations raised by Greshko and the statements contained in the Epstein family’s claim, but has yet to receive a response from the school district.

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