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Selectmen eye SHS security

AMHERST – Selectmen have come out in support of police who want Souhegan High School to beef up its security, but they stopped short of endorsing internal cameras and locked doors.

At a recent meeting, board members said they were cautious about overstepping their authority, but agreed they support the school resource officers and their judgment.

Amherst Police Officers Michael Knox and John Smith told the Souhegan Cooperative School Board in June that the school isn’t safe. They recommended internal cameras be installed and exterior doors should be locked, calling it “a tremendous life-safety issue.”

Twice since 2004, they said, the U.S. Homeland Security Department evaluated the school’s security and deemed it non-compliant. The Department of Labor decided it was an unsafe work environment.

The Amherst-Mont Vernon school district has been reviewing the issue on and off for many years, with Souhegan’s Community Council consistently recommending against security cameras.

During the selectmen’s July meeting, Chairman Dwight Brew said he received a request from a Souhegan board member asking for the selectmen’s input about installing security cameras. The school board is asking the opinion of groups that use the building, and the town uses it for some meetings and elections.

Selectmen said it was not appropriate to weigh in on a school matter as a board, but they also said they support the judgment of the police department.

“I agree 100 percent” with the officers’ position, Tom Grella said.

In 2010, after a Mont Vernon home invasion and murder, the Souhegan Community Council – an advisory panel made up of students, educators and community members – looked at the issue of security cameras and decided they would have a negative impact on the school atmosphere. The panel also questioned the effectiveness of such cameras.

The council did recommend surveillance in the school parking lot, and cameras were subsequently installed there.

During the June school board meeting after the school officers gave their PowerPoint presentation, Jeanne Ludt, a longtime community member of the council, told the board it had looked at school security three times since 2006 and urged it “to respect precedent.”

The school officers, who also give programs in dealing with workplace violence, said a school’s atmosphere tends to become more positive after security is tightened. And students are accustomed to cameras and locked doors, they said, because they exist at the elementary and middle school.

The school board has a committee chaired by Principal Rob Scully meeting during the summer to look at the issue. The council’s deadline to make a recommendation is Oct. 16. It is expected to look at past reports, survey students and staff, and review other schools’ security measures.

“Essentially, we are in a perpetual state of reviewing safety and security,” Scully said in an email. “We have a SAU39 Emergency Management Committee reviewing, researching and considering implementation of best practices throughout the district,” and included in an overall plan is video surveillance.

Souhegan School Board Member David Chen has been asking building users for their opinions and said in an email he hasn’t seen any kind of pattern from the responses.

“It depends on who you are talking to and who the speaker thinks they are talking to,” he said, “so it is hard to calibrate.”

Kathy Cleveland can be reached at 673-3100 or kcleveland@cabinet.com.

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