San Diego County Schools Respond to CT Shooting Tragedy

Each local school has a safety plan and will be reviewing it officials say

Local schools respond to the massacre on a Connecticut elementary school campus.

A gunman opened fire inside Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Friday morning killing 26 people including 18 children.

As San Diego County Superintendent of Schools Randy Ward said in a statement Friday, it's a nightmare "we here in San Diego are all too familiar with."

In October 2010, Brendan O’Rourke hopped a fence at Carlsbad's Kelly Elementary and fired a .357 as children ran for cover.

In March 2001, Bryan Zuckor, 14, and Randy Gordon, 17, were killed and 13 were wounded when Charles Andrew Williams fired from a bathroom at Santana High School in Santee.

Several weeks later, Jason Hoffman, 18, shot and wounded three students and two teachers on the campus of Granite Hills High School.

The Carlsbad Unified School District said it increased security around its campuses after the incident in Connecticut Friday.

A spokesperson for San Diego Unified School District did not provide NBC 7 San Diego with any details on steps taken following the shooting, citing other priorities.

However, Ward released a statement sharing the feeling of parents around the nation who share an "unspoken agreement" that parents "send kids to school and we keep them safe, sound and send them back a little smarter," he said.

"There is no easy way to make sense of tragedies such as this, but as adults, we are charged with helping our children and keeping them safe," Ward said.

He said each school has a safety plan and will be reviewing it.

School administrators and counselors will meet to discuss the shooting in Connecticut and help faculty and administrators handle issues or questions that may come up.

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