BY LAUREN SAUSSER
Hooksett school district and Police Department officials will meet in a closed-door session on Friday, Feb. 20, to air out any disagreements about alleged weapons and drug issues at Cawley Middle School. The meeting, originally scheduled for Feb. 4, has been delayed a couple of times.
School Board Chairman Maura Ouellette said after the Hooksett School District deliberative session that she had requested 51 safe school reports that were filed by the school resource officer during the 2007-08 and the 2008-09 school years in advance of the Feb. 4 meeting.
Ouellette submitted an official Right-to-Know request to obtain the files. Hooksett Police Chief Steve Agrafiotis said the reports could not be gathered in time for the scheduled meeting Feb. 4.
“She made a Right to Know request and we’re working on filling that for her,” Agrafiotis said.
Under state law, school resource officers are required to file safe school reports anytime they officially respond to safety issues on school grounds. Those incidents include weapons, drugs or alcohol possession, homicide, sexual assault, robbery, burglary, theft, arson, criminal mischief, vandalism, physical assault and threatening.
The 51 reports that Ouellette requested include every report filed at the Hooksett schools in the past two school years.
Last year, Ouellette cited incidents of drugs and weapons on campus in her argument for retaining a full-time school resource officer at Cawley Middle School. The Police Department has repeatedly countered her statements, saying her allegations must have stemmed from an unknown source of misinformation and that the specific incidents that Ouellette publicly referred to were either were exaggerated or incorrect.
The individual parties, which will include Ouellette, Agrafiotis, school Superintendent Charles “Phil” Littlefield and Police Commission Chairman David Gagnon, set the date at a Police Commission meeting on Feb. 17.
Ouellette said she hopes the meeting will help.
“I hope it will finally resolve these issues,” she said.