Following Newtown Shooting, School, Town, Emergency Officials to Meet

As leaders in local schools react to last week's school shooting in Connecticut, officials representing several different fields that would rally in the case of an emergency are prepared to meet on Tuesday afternoon in Hampton Bays to discuss and review their own emergency plans.

The meeting comes in the wake of a mass school shooting while local families and leaders wonder what, if anything, can be done to prevent such a tragedy from ever re-occurring.

• Click here for the continued coverage of the shooting via Newtown Patch 

Hampton Bays School Distrcit Lars Clemensen organized the meeting, scheduled for Tuesday at 4:30 at Hampton Bays Middle School.

Clemensen wrote the following, via email: "Tomorrow's meeting is an opportunity for school officials, town and village leaders, and law enforcement personnel to meet to discuss supporting one another with resources in responding locally to the events in Connecticut. It's also a chance to share our safety plans to learn from one another with an eye toward continuously improving the integrity of our programs in light of what we can glean from Connecticut."

Clamensen said Monday that the beginning of the meeting would be open, however after a brief discussion, in order to allow school districts to speak candidly about specifics of their school safety plans, doors would later close.

Southampton Town and Village Police officials both said last week that their respective departments went through training regiments this year to handle active shooter threats.

In the event of an emergency, Town Police Sgt. Todd Spencer said, officers – who are encouraged to familiarize themselves with schools in their sectors – would immediately respond to the location of the active threat. While attempts to find the threat are made, additional units would be called for evacuation, and a K-9 unit could be called from a nearby department.