New London — A resident whose property abuts the Nathan Hale Arts Magnet School is suing the school district, alleging officials began locking an access gate in retaliation for complaints he made over the condition of the school playground.

Mathew Greene said new locks were repeatedly added to the gate by the district over the objections of a city planning official.

In a civil summons document, Greene states that he installed a gate between his property at 99 Lower Blvd. and the Beech Drive elementary school in 1997, which gave his family and others quick access to the school’s fenced-in public playground.

Greene said the gate, which was replaced by the district in 2013, allows him and others to watch sporting events at the school, gives him access to a polling place inside the school building and facilitates his maintenance of the grounds.

“As the school is in my backyard, I have a tendency to oversee it make sure the grounds are kept appropriate,” he said Thursday, adding he’s picked up garbage on the playground, replaced worn basketball nets and generally treated the area as an extension of his own backyard. “When people come here, I want them to see a nice school.”

Greene said that for more than 25 years access to the playground was never an issue. But he said officials began locking the gate after he said he sent a series of emails to Superintendent Cynthia Ritchie in October and November that showed “garbage, kids play equipment and clothing left on school grounds for multiple days,” as well as other problems.

Greene removed the first lock on Nov. 10 and hand-delivered it to Ritchie, requesting she and district Director of Operations Miguel Gautier “focus on addressing the issue of maintaining the school grounds and not taking such unprofessional action as blocking (Greene’s) email or placing locks on the gate,” the suit states.

In a Nov. 10 email to Greene, Ritchie said that custodians conducted regular sweeps of the school grounds and that the property would “continue to be the pride of our community.”

She noted that the school building and fields are also used for city Parks and Recreation Department programming on weeknights and weekends and that the property at times is rented out to other groups. Ritchie on Thursday said there were “many inaccuracies” in Greene’s suit that the school district will defend.

New locks soon replaced the one Greene removed.

In a Nov. 28 email to Gautier, city planning and zoning official Michelle Johnson Scovish noted the gate in question is the “only gate that is locked on the property as there are other portions of the fence line with gates that are not locked,” including an area on Penny Lane.

“Please ensure that this lock is removed to provide access as illustrated in the Planning & Zoning Commission approved site plan,” Scovish wrote.

Gautier declined.

“All gates to the school are locked and this is a student safety concern,” Gautier wrote. “We will not unlock the gate.”

A potential safety issue

Greene, a local attorney who also serves as the city probate judge, argues that no lock had ever been placed on the gate before Dec. 2, 2024. He said the school borders Ocean Avenue, allowing unimpeded and unsecured student access to the school.

New London Board of Education President Elaine Maynard-Adams said Greene has long been an “unhappy neighbor” of Nathan Hale and has a history of complaining about the state of the playground. She said the unlocked gate — which she noted was a piece of city property — presented a potential safety issue.

“We have a number of high-needs students, some of whom have walked out of the school doors,” Maynard-Adams said. “Fortunately, we’ve always been able to bring those students back quickly. But what happens if one of those kids walks down the hill and into (Greene’s) backyard? The needs of these students has changed in the last 20 years.”

Greene said that district officials never reached out to him about any safety concerns related to the gate and that no alternatives to a lock were considered.

Earlier this month, he said, a pair of locks — a combination model with the unlock code smudged out and a key-lock version — were placed on the gate. On Thursday, a sheared-off lock hung on the fence.

“The true concern of Gautier and Ritchie is not for students’ safety, but to hide their inability to properly manage the school and its grounds, which could be detrimental to the security of their job,” Greene stated.

Greene is suing the city and the school district on an easement violation count, arguing he acquired the right to access the playground from the gate after years of being able to do so.

Ritchie and Gautier are named defendants in a second allegation of conspiracy.

Greene is asking a judge to declare he has a right to use the gate, as well as unspecified monetary and punitive damages.

“The bottom line is the director of operations, for certain, the superintendent and likely others are retaliating against me for trying to hold them accountable,” Greene said Thursday.

j.penney@theday.com