With the help of a $60,000 federal grant, 20 to 30 of the security devices will be placed in the school.
WOONSOCKET - Anxious parents can breathe a sigh of relief when it comes to in-school safety: surveillance cameras will be placed in the high school's hallways.
Schools Supt. Maureen B. Macera estimates that the district will purchase between 20 and 30 cameras -- about $60,000 worth -- to be installed throughout the Cass Avenue school sometime this spring. The project has been in the works for several months as part of a federal Homeland Security initiative. But in the wake of last month's pre-Thanksgiving brawl that saw seven students expelled, parents have expressed growing concerns about safety at the 2,000-student school.
Macera said she believes the new cameras will help discourage bad behavior and thereby calm parents and students. "It's a wonderful tool to really have safety and security," she said.
"The plan is to put the cameras in key areas of congregation," areas such as the school's cafeteria, the front lobby and Times Square, a popular gathering spot, the superintendent said.
"Having been a principal of a high school, I can attest to the fact that cameras are a tremendous deterrent," said Macera, who served as principal of North Providence High School before coming to Woonsocket in the late 1990s. "We had a situation there where we had some graffiti in the hallways and we were able to use the cameras to ID the students who did it. As a punishment, they had to repaint the hallways."
Several years ago, Woonsocket High School installed cameras on the outside of the building, but district officials pushed to have more surveillance added inside as well. Early last month, Mayor Susan D. Menard agreed to help offset a growing School Department budget crisis by using part of the city's federal Homeland Security money to pay for the cameras and for fire-alarm upgrades at several elementary schools.
Because Woonsocket High School serves as the city's main shelter in the event of a terrorist attack or a natural disaster, city officials said at the time that they felt they were justified in using those funds to outfit the space.
But since the camera project now qualifies as a federal safety initiative, Steve Preston, the city's deputy emergency management director, refused to discuss much about it yesterday. Asked exactly how many cameras will be ordered and where they'll be located, Preston responded, "I really wouldn't want to publish that information. It sort of defeats the purpose."
Preston did say that in the event of an emergency, he hopes that having cameras in a designated shelter will help evacuees, or anyone forced to spend time there, to feel safer.
For Macera, the benefits of the new technology will be much more immediate. She said she hopes students will see the camera lenses and think twice about acting out.
Last month's brawl, which took place after a pep-rally meant to boost school spirit for the annual Thanksgiving football game, turned violent when students in two different areas of the school began arguing.
Four students were arrested as a result of the fights and last week, a total of seven students were expelled for their roles in the brawls. School Committee Chairman Marc A. Dubois refused to name any of the students, citing confidentiality requirements.
