While information about the tragedy in Newtown, Conn. – where 20 first graders and 6 adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School – started to trickle out on Friday afternoon, middle school students in Hampton Bays were being evacuated due to an unrelated incident.
According to Hampton Bays Superintendent Lars Clemensen, around 12:15 p.m. on Friday, an emergency alarm went off in the school, triggering an evacuation of all students and staff.
"This was not a planned drill, so the building was safely and quickly evacuated as the Hampton Bays Fire Department arrived to identify the source of the problem," Clemensen wrote in a statement released on the district's website.
While students were exiting the building and moved to gymnasiums in the elementary school, Clemensen said the district used its calling system to alert parents that evacuation was unrelated to what was happening in Newtown.
Students were permitted back in the school after the fire department determined that the alarm went off due to a mechanical issue related to a ventilator near the girl's locker room.
Students were sent back to classes after about 30 minutes, he said.
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