Matawan-Aberdeen Superintendent: We Will Evaluate and Assess All Safety Procedures

The fatal shooting of 20 first grade students and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut has left school districts across the country reevaluating their own safety precautions and procedures.

Matawan Aberdeen Superintendent David Healy took a moment Monday at the regularly scheduled board of education meeting to reflect on the heart-wrenching incident.

"As a school community, our thoughts and prayers are with those who have been affected by this tragedy and as parents and educators we are deeply affected and saddened by such a horrific event. We take school safety very, very seriously and the safety, security and well being of our children takes priority above all else," he said to the audience of parents, students and teachers at Lloyd Road School. 

Healy explained that each of the district's six schools have multiple security measures in place and that safety drills are practiced on a routine basis.

"Each of our schools have safety and security plans in place and we rehearse them on a twice monthly basis with a number of drills that include lockdowns, evacuations, and active shooter drills. We involve our students, our faculty, our staff, our administration and we're fortunate enough to have a very supportive law enforcement community," he said. 

In preparation for school on Monday, the district held a meeting as well as communicated with local law enforcement, building principals, department of operations and facilities and the central office administration. 

"Despite all the trainings and the plans and the procedures and the precautions that we have in place, we will be evaluating and assessing every one of those things, going over our security plans and our procedures. If there's anything that we can learn from this tragedy and take additional measures, we will," Healy said.