Danvers High officials complained about camera system for months before teacher’s murder, e-mails show
Colleen Ritzer’s murder was one of the worst cases of school violence in state history.
LAWRENCE — Danvers school officials repeatedly complained about the performance of a security camera system installed at the town’s newly renovated high school in the months leading up to the 2013 murder of math teacher Colleen Ritzer by a 14-year-old student, according to e-mails discussed in court Tuesday.
The revelations came at a Superior Court hearing in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by Ritzer’s parents, Peggie and Thomas Ritzer of Andover, in 2016. DiNisco Design, the Boston-based firm that designed a nearly $80 million renovation to the high school, is the last defendant in the lawsuit. The town of Danvers and a cleaning company employed by the school department were previously dropped from the suit. Tuesday’s hearing was held on DiNisco Design’s motion for summary judgment to have a judge, and not a jury, decide the case.
The cameras were working on the afternoon of October 22, 2013, and could have been monitored live if Danvers school officials had assigned someone to watch them, but no one was watching at the time, DiNisco attorney Katherine L. Kenney argued. Video from the system was used extensively in the 2015 trial of Philip D. Chism, who was convicted of first-degree murder, Kenney said. Video shown at the trial captured Chism, then 14, following Ritzer, 24, into a girls’ bathroom after school. He exited minutes later, but returned with a recycling cart and then exited a final time.
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