The security cameras at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School point outward. They were installed to protect the building.
But, officials say, they are unlikely to prevent attacks such as the one on Jan. 19 of last year, when freshman James Alenson was fatally stabbed in a school bathroom, allegedly by a fellow student.
"The most important safety and security devices we have in schools are the people - the classroom teacher, guidance counselor, principal, secretary, lunch lady," said Lincoln-Sudbury's principal and the regional district's superintendent, John Ritchie, in his office a week before the anniversary. "Cameras and metal detectors don't prevent violence."
Incidents of violence, from the mass shootings at Columbine High in Colorado in 1999 to Alenson's death at Lincoln-Sudbury, now inform the discussion of school security.
Local districts, including Needham, Newton, and Shrewsbury, are among the school systems across the state that are considering or have already installed tighter security measures. Surveillance cameras and electronic employee badges are among the tools aimed at protecting school and student assets, deterring crime and vandalism, and helping identify intruders. In addition to technology, the districts are using human safety measures, such as school resource officers and expanded training for staff members, to identify and help students who may be at risk - isolated from friends, family, and faculty.
The viewpoint expressed by Ritchie, that technology alone is insufficient to prevent violence, is echoed by other administrators. They say building a strong culture of trust between students and adults on a campus is the most effective safeguard.
"True safety is when all the adults in the building have great relationships with the kids," said Needham's superintendent, Daniel Gutekanst. "It's those people who can connect, listen, and understand students, and learn about problems before there is violence on campus."
Yet, the same officials say, it is not possible to guarantee no violence.
A murder on the school grounds was not something anyone thought could happen at Lincoln-Sudbury, parents, faculty, and students said. School officials, Ritchie said, thought constantly about safety.
"We devoted ourselves to sustaining and nourishing what is ultimately the most crucial safeguard, which is a school culture and climate where students feel respected, loved, and supported," Ritchie wrote in an e-mail. "Where relationships between students and staff are close and trusting. Where huge amounts of time are devoted to talking about kids, kids who have needs, kids who are in crisis, kids who need support. Where thoughtful programs are developed to help deal with stress, anxiety, loneliness."
In addition, the school had prepared extensive emergency protocol, even practicing a lockdown drill days before the stabbing, Ritchie said.
Although students and faculty were "more sad than scared" after the attack, said junior Shayna Chapel, 16, of Sudbury, a safety review committee, made up of parents, teachers, police, and others, was formed within weeks after the stabbing. The school held assemblies with students, formed focus groups, and used other means to communicate about the incident. A national expert on school safety addressed the committee and the public during an evening meeting.
There were a handful of parents, Ritchie and members of the safety review committee said, who advocated identifiable physical measures to address security, such as cameras and metal detectors. Police officials in Lincoln and Sudbury and the safety review committee offered specific recommendations, including the closure of some entrances after classes begin, requiring students to carry identification at all times, and assigning a police officer to the school.
The committee, which met 16 times between March and June of last year, reviewed the stabbing, as well as all other aspects of school security, and issued a 24-page report on its findings, members said. The report covered security issues that included drug and alcohol abuse, suicide prevention, the weapons policy, and emergency protocol. It recommended measures such as having a zero-tolerance weapons policy and installing security cameras outside the entrances.
But officials and members of the safety review committee said measures such as cameras wouldn't have stopped the stabbing last January, and could not guarantee preventing another one, according to Ritchie. Lincoln-Sudbury did not install cameras inside the building.
"Security cameras for surveillance purposes would make the school less safe, by communicating to students that they weren't to be trusted, and by communicating to the public the false sense that things were now safe," Ritchie said.
Cameras might not have been able to prevent an incident just last week that tested heightened sensitivities at Lincoln-Sudbury. A cafeteria worker was arrested after making what were termed by officials as "joking or playful" threats with a knife toward another employee, who is disabled. According to Ritchie, even though the mock attack was not serious, police decided to proceed with an arrest after they realized how much the matter had shaken the victim.
"An incident such as what happened Wednesday, which would never have been viewed lightly, now is seen through a radically different lens," Ritchie said on Tuesday. "Everything is in much higher profile - any incident of any kind - in a school that's experienced what we did."
Cameras do serve another important purpose - helping to protect the building from intrusion or vandalism. School officials say cameras outside a building can help identify intruders should there be a break-in after school hours.
Security technology has served just that purpose in Shrewsbury, which installed cameras outside its high school entrances in 2002, said Superintendent Anthony Bent. The cameras since have helped identify vandals in a few instances, Bent said.
Along with installing cameras outside the entrances of the high school, Lincoln-Sudbury created an anonymous alert system, offering a link on the district's website that allows students to forward messages to school officials in strict confidence. And it reinforced training for teachers to help them identify students at risk, as well as communicate and address their issues.
"There's just been a wider sense of trust throughout the school, that if you see anything or hear anything, you go and talk to a teacher right away," said junior Rebekah Glickman-Simon, 16, of Sudbury. "Everyone feels much more strongly about it now."
"Dr. Ritchie is doing an amazing job of making sure everyone feels safe without going as far as to put in metal detectors, which almost all students felt would be too much and would make everyone feel less safe," Glickman-Simon said.
Several suburban districts have instituted similar protocols - using technology for security purposes; emphasizing awareness and communication between adults and students for safety; and designing and practicing emergency plans.
In addition, officials in one community have, by their own admission, learned a lesson in the value of public discussion on school safety and security.
The recent disclosure that a handful of security cameras were installed in both of Newton's high schools without the knowledge of students, faculty, and the public sparked some controversy in the city.
The presence of cameras at Newton South was first revealed in a student newspaper. That cameras were installed at Newton North without public knowledge was disclosed this month in an open letter to the community from Superintendent Jeffrey Young. He also announced that the cameras in both schools have been turned off until a policy for their use can be decided upon by the School Committee.
Young is expected to brief committee members next month on numerous security measures that the district is investigating, including swipe cards for employees at elementary school entrances so doors aren't kept unlocked or propped open.
"There's never a way to make sure any public school is 100 percent safe," Young said. "But we are building a culture within the school where everyone, adults and students, takes ownership for what takes place inside the school. It also applies to theft and vandalism."
Bent in Shrewsbury and Gutekanst in Needham said they are taking similar measures.
Shrewsbury, a district of 6,000 students, recently formed a safety committee made up of school and police personnel, Bent said. The high school employs two resource officers, or security guards, and routinely practices lockdown drills.
It also has student support teams that identify students at risk and make sure they receive guidance. The teams were formed several years ago "because it can be easy for students to fall through the cracks," Bent said.
The safety review committee is now focused on matters of security and emergency procedure, including creating a flip chart that provides teachers with the emergency protocol for a number of situations, and a consistent labeling format for all of the buildings.
Needham, with about 5,000 students, is installing 11 external and 10 internal cameras (that are not operational yet) as part of its renovation of Needham High School, but Gutekanst said cameras "will never replace the need for human beings to support, guide, and provide a sense of safety for the students."
