Lawyers Want Suit By Family Of Slain Danvers Teacher Dismissed

DANVERS, MA -- Attorneys for the town of Danvers, the school department and two businesses asked Lawrence Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Karp to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the family of a slain Danvers High School teacher on Thursday. Colleen Ritzer's parents filed the lawsuit two years ago hoping to get more answers about how their daughter was raped and killed on school property. Student Philip Chism was convicted of the October 2013 killing Ritzer, 24, of Andover.

The crime occurred just weeks after the school had installed a state-of-the-art security system that included 140 cameras. Part of the lawsuit, which names DiNisco Design Partnership and SJ Services in addition to the town as defendants, seeks to find out why no one was monitoring those cameras when Chism attacked Ritzer in a bathroom.

"Somebody monitoring the cameras would not have changed anything," Michael Stone, an attorney for DiNisco, argued during thursday's hearing according to the Salem News, which first reported this story. Karp suggested that the parties consider court-supervised mediation to bring closure to the case.

For more on this story, see the Salem News. Subscribe to Danvers Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.

Patch file photo of Colleen Ritzer.