After a burst of school violence across the nation that included two hostage takings and three shooting incidents in less than a week, a series of interviews suggests that Rhode Island school officials have joined their colleagues elsewhere in focusing on school security.

Some are trying to respond directly to the violence.

"We are going to remind people of the importance of school security," Newport Schools Supt. John Ambrogi said. He said he spoke to acting Police Chief Michael McKenna, and that the police "are going to step up visits to the schools and around the school perimeters.

"Given the concern about copycat situations, we believe that's a prudent thing to do at this point in time."

Mostly, school officials say they are enhancing or focusing their staffs on a variety of current security measures, rather than adding new ones.

Those vary from district to district and school to school, but they address several common areas, from controlling access to school buildings to planning for a variety for emergencies and practicing the response.

Most of the measures attempt to deal, one way or another, with the nightmare of someone trying to get into the school building to harm students, teachers and staff.

Perhaps the most common strategy that officials mention is controlling access to school buildings continually, often by locking all doors but one, channeling outsiders through that single entrance and paying attention to who shows up there.

The tightness of security varies from school to school. South Kingstown Schools Supt. Robert Hicks said that all but one exterior door is locked in each school. Visitors are directed through the front office at Curtis Corner and Broad Rock middle schools, he said, and administrators are looking at the layout of the other schools seeking a way to funnel all visitors through the front office.

Some schools are backing up locked doors with surveillance equipment. The Bristol-Warren Regional School District spent $40,000 last year to install security systems in all its schools, Schools Supt. Ed Mara said.

Cameras watch each exterior door at Mount Hope High School, he said, giving the school photographs of students leaving without permission or strangers trying to get in.

Cranston Schools Supt. M. Richard Scherza said he would like to have security cameras and electronic locking systems for the doors at all schools, but money is a problem.

FEW SCHOOLS have metal detectors, but several have a second line of defense, and hope to move quickly enough to limit the access of intruders.

"We can put a school in a lockdown," said East Greenwich Schools Supt. Charles E. Meyers. "We have a code that we say over the loudspeaker" telling teachers to lock all classroom doors, hopefully stranding an intruder in the hall or at least keeping him out of most classrooms."

Some schools are also tackling the difficult task of sorting out who should be in school and who shouldn't.

Woonsocket students and staff have had district identification cards for years, but didn't always wear them. Now they're required to.

"I'm not playing games here," Schools Supt. Maureen B. Macera said. "I want people to know that if there are adults in the building, they belong there."

Many schools hold drills to practice responding to emergencies, including lockdowns. A full disaster drill is planned for Warwick's Pilgrim High School Friday morning.

Warwick Schools Supt. Robert J. Shapiro said the district has developed an emergency manual with procedures for such situations as shootings, fires and, with several schools within a mile of T.F. Green Airport, plane crashes.

SEVERAL OFFICIALS said they are getting help from their police chiefs.

There are officers in Cranston's three middle schools and two high schools, and additional attention from the police patrol division.

Warren Police Chief Thomas Gordon said his department began training in February on how to respond to shootings inside schools, in response to the Columbine shooting in Colorado.

"I think other departments across the country recognize no matter where you live that you need to prepare for something like this," Gordon said.

But the other question arising in some school officials' minds is, how far to go?

"Sometimes communities don't want the level of security. They don't want the school to resemble a penal institution," said Meyers, of the East Greenwich schools. However, he said, "We have to do all we can reasonably do to ensure the health and safety of our kids."

With staff reports by Richard Salit, Gina Macris, Cynthia Needham, Maria Armental, Kia Hall Hayes, Katie Mulvaney, Daniel Barbarisi, Barbara Polichetti, and Lisa Vernon-Sparks

blandis@projo.com / (401) 277-7487